We were so close to Bandelier we couldn’t resist a quick visit. Bandelier National Monument preserves the ruins of a cliff dwelling community. They were kind and built some replica buildings and set up ladders so that we could have some hands on experiences with the ruins. Julia was just hanging out for our hike and loving it. She was busy looking and waving her arms and legs.

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
And the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

One of our overarching themes of our trip was the song “Home on the Range”. One of the library books I had picked up for the trip was the song put to pictures of a little boy chasing his cowboy hat through a dream. Emily loved reading the book every night at bedtime and then we would sing the song to her. We also had a copy of the song that we listened to everyday. Emily started calling it her song. And in our travels, we even had one day that we saw a herd of bison and a few deer and antelope grazing.

The song was definitely sinking in because one day Emily was talking with a couple of women at the Grand Canyon about the rainbow we could see. After she had pointed it out, she continued with the proclamation that ‘the skies are not cloudy all day’. Maybe one day she will understand that rainbows require a few clouds, but the exchange was very funny!

Another of our trip highlights was hiking in Carlsbad Caverns. The cave is quite impressive from the huge open rooms, number of bat residents, and unusual rock formations. We were able to hike two trails in the cave. We hiked into the cave through the natural entrance which is a hike descending 800 feet and then the second hike was a loop around the ‘Big Room’. In total we went three miles carrying both girls.

We weren’t sure how the girls would respond to being in the cave. They were bundled up because the cool temp would feel really cold to a kid with very little body fat and who is not exerting any energy hiking. The adults were a little over dressed and kept peeling off layers as we walked. Despite the constant cool temperature, hiking and carrying the girls built up quite bit of body heat. Emily commented on how dark it was and the funny smell. She thought the sun had gone down. Like usual for the trip, Julia greeted the park rangers who crossed our path with waving arms and kicking feet.

While we were on the second hike each of the girls dozed off and took a great nap. Not hard to imagine them doing it – it was dark, they were warm and bundled next to their parents, and it was naptime. Overall they were happy to be out and about and didn’t mind the dark cool cave. Thankfully, the hike ended at an elevator. We admired the visitors that visited the cave before the elevator was installed and were glad that we had the modern convenience.

Not many things can make Robby look short, but the Saguaro cactus can. This one is around 14 feet tall and around 75 years old. It hasn’t sprouted its arms yet, but is old enough to start some. We didn’t see any wildlife while we were out in the afternoon for the hike and drive other than bugs eating from old cactus flowers. By dusk, we saw in increase in animal life and saw several bats and a Gila monster on the road. The Saguaros bloom all summer and had stopped by the time we visited, but we did catch a few blooms still out. It would be an amazing thing to see them all in their evening blooms.

We spent several days in the desert landscape visiting different places. One of our stops was Saguaro National Park to see the often depicted Saguaro cactus up close and personal. They are amazing plants which surprised me when we looked over the landscape. I’m not sure what I expected, but I liked how the plants covered the hills and valleys like a pine forest would in a mountain region. It was a forest of the prickly trees.

We talked a lot about the cactus with Emily. I was a little concerned that she would try to touch one. They look so cool – I wanted to touch them even though I knew better. We successfully kept Emily from touching just about everything while we were there. I think she even left the dirt alone. While it was quite warm there was a breeze that kept us a little cooler for our nature hike. Emily loved the play area in the visitor center and was quite interested in going back inside to play.

We had an ongoing conversation with Emily about the sun and whether it is going up or down. I don’t think she has quite grasped the concept yet, but she will proclaim whether she thinks the sun is currently going up or down at any time in the day. We traveled a lot after dark and Robby photographed many sunrises and sunsets which seemed to also encourage the discussion. I think that Emily is heavily influenced in the thought that sun is going down from her need for a nap or bed. She would proclaim that the sun was going down around 1pm when it was time for her afternoon nap. It makes for a really funny conversation to have with her.