On a whim, Sean picked up tickets from Costco to go to the Sherwood Forest Faire this spring. It runs for several weeks in March and April, so we managed to set aside the Sunday before Easter for our Renaissance faire needs.

Sherwood Forest Faire, 2019

2019 is Sherwood Forest Faire’s 10th year running, and they really seem to have their game down pat. We were able to print out a schedule ahead of time and pick through their 150 shows for things the kids might be into. We picked up a big map of the grounds on the way in and mapped out our path. As an added bonus, located in McDade, TX, the faire was only about a 45-minute drive away, so we didn’t have to worry quite as much about leaving early to get home in time for the kids to have a good night’s sleep.

After pouring buckets on Saturday, the Sunday morning we went was cool and sunny. Maya and Ian were immediately enthralled by the costumed figures we encountered. Dragons and forest creatures delighted them and the folks tolerated our kids’ exuberance well. They may have even encouraged it. We had barely walked into the place before they had touched a dragon egg, played with a crow, and petted a fox’s nose.

Lady Pan’s Puppet Show

We wandered slowly to Lady Pan’s puppet show, taking in the sights and sounds and smells. Maya and Ian played for a bit in the kids’ castle before we settled in for the puppet show. Toward the end of the show, the kids were invited to participate. Due to Maya’s repeated utterance of the word “octopus” as an answer to every question, they decided that what had formerly been the dragon’s tail was now going to be an octopus tentacle instead, and Maya got to wag it around. Ian decided to sit and pout about not wagging the tentacle instead of responding to the repeated calls for volunteers to work the other puppets.

Kookaburra

I worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to get between events, but we made it over to the Sky Kings Birds of Prey show with no problem. The kids were a bit fidgety, but they loved watching the birds zoom past as they flew from perch to perch. We saw a kookaburra and heard its crazy laughing call. I’m not sure I have my facts quite right at this point, but I think we also saw a Harris hawk, an owl, a vulture, and a falcon. It was a really neat show, and probably my favorite thing we did.

We made a quick lunch of chicken fingers for the kids and meat pies for the grown ups. I washed mine down with delicious cup of mead. The rest of them had genuine medieval sodas.

The kids getting knighted

Next, we scooted over to the Queens’ Bower for the Kids’ Knighting Ceremony. Luck was oddly with us: we accidentally got there right when the big parade from the Sherwood Castle was starting, so we were able to watch that for a bit too.

We confused the two queens a bit because Maya wanted to be a knight and defend the kingdom, preferably with sometime sharp and dangerous. Ian wanted to be a princess, preferably a faery princess, thank you very much. They were both awarded necklaces and sent out to protect the realm.

We brought our bloodthirsty children

Of course, to mount an adequate defense, Maya and Ian would need to be trained, so next it was off to the Children’s School of Sword. To cries of “Bring us your bloodthirsty children!” we arrived at a large, roped-in training ground. The Children’s School of Sword was an alarmingly popular activity, and it was with no small amount of apprehension that we watched our children lined up amongst the crowd and outfitted with wooden swords. They were warned to listen to their instructor, Herr Oskar Hasselhoff, or suffer his wrath, but that’s never motivated them before, so honestly we weren’t too sure what to expect. Maya gamely tried to practice her moves, but Ian mostly dug around in the dirt with the tip of his sword … that is, until it was time for the kids to thrust their swords and give a fearsome war cry. Then, his sweet little voice rang loud and clear as he thrust his wooden sword into some invisible foe.

Thus trained, we were ready to be armed. We had gotten Ian some faery wings earlier in the day, which he was very proud of, but we hadn’t gotten Maya her “one thing” yet. What Maya wanted most of all was a shield. She found a place that sold shields and swords and would cut us a price break if we bought the two together. She seemed so blissed out by the possibility that we went for it. Of course, then Ian was bent out of shape because Maya got *two* things and he only had *one* thing. We tried to explain to him that it was kind of a package deal. He scrunched up his face into a perfect pout and loudly declared, “I want a package deal!” We told him we’d think about it.

Faery Tea Party

We hadn’t really encountered a crowd all day long, but we found one waiting in line at the Faery Tea Party. The brilliantly painted and costumed faeries were beautiful and the kids were completely taken with them. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that between singing, dancing, and storytelling, the fae folk circled the crowd distributing snacks and a punch-like “tea” to all the kids. Earlier in our day when we were laying out where we would go and when, I had mentioned the Faery Tea Party, and Ian had asked if he was allowed to go to it to, worrying only girls could go. We quickly disabused him of this notion, explaining the tea party was for all the kids, not just girls. He smiled and followed his sister in to find a spot with all the others. I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before assurance from Mom and Dad isn’t enough to make him feel confident about his choices. Ian has told us that the tea party was his favorite part of the day. (Maya’s was sword school.)

Package deal

So that Ian could have his “package deal” as well, we took him back to the store where he had gotten his wings to see if he could find a “princess dress” to go with them. I was in charge of keeping Maya from hurting anyone with her newly acquired weaponry while Sean took Ian shopping. An older couple, dressed to the hilt (har har) in their ren faire best, caught her eye and she wandered up toward them. The gentleman was in his full knight regalia so Maya wanted to definitely check him out, considering out loud whether to engage him in battle. We chatted back and forth a bit and he addressed Maya as “him.” We don’t get too bothered about this. Maya has short hair, she likes blues and greens, and she was playing with things traditionally associated with boys. I chuckled and explained that she was a crazy girl, and I had to be careful she didn’t hurt anyone with her sword. The wife patted my arm and explained that she had caught that Maya was a girl. The older man went on and on about how when he was younger the men grew their hair so long, you just couldn’t tell which was which. And the lady told me kind of under her breath something about politically correct bullshit making things very confusing for kids. At that moment, I had to stop Maya from impaling a musician with her sword so I was a little distracted, but I was kind of caught off guard. I thought about addressing it head on and explaining that those things don’t bother us and we try to let the kids be who they are, whatever that means. But then it seemed like a wasted effort. Instead I said we had to go help Maya’s brother pick out a dress, thanked them for their indulgence of my daughter and her sword-play, and walked away. The kids will be paying more and more attention to how we handle those things though, so I should probably think through my approach. With our kids, I’m certain that won’t be the last time we hear about it.

I love the fellow in the background. So many people really get into character for the Faire.

The only thing left on our ren faire to-do list was to get our giant turkey leg fix. Sean waited in line for quite a while, this being critical to many other folks’ ren faire experience as well. He snapped his photos of the kids taking bites of the big drumstick. Then I peeled off some chunks so the kids could share more easily. They devoured it. Barring a few tastes from the grown-ups, those two laid waste to an entire turkey leg.

Trying not to get turkey fat on his new dress.

On the way home that evening, Maya described it as a one-day vacation. They sometimes dress up and play “kings and queens,” and Maya has even been gracious enough to let fairy princess Ian wield her sword from time to time. Maya has repeatedly asked to have more “knight clothes” to complete her ensemble, and both kids would like to go to the faire again next year.

We arrived in Austin from our New Mexico trip on a Friday afternoon, not long after Grammy and Grandpa had arrived in Austin after their drive from Missouri. The kids were so excited to have them visit. It’s all we heard about for most of our drive in from Lubbock.

Grandpa and Ian having a “sword” fight in the front yard

Normally, I try to have fixings for a decent meal and nice drinks on hand, but we were so worn out from the trip that we just ordered takeout for dinner. All of us spent the evening relaxing and playing around the house.

The next day, after Maya’s morning swim class, it was more of the same. As I recall, there were bubbles and pretend sword fights in the yard, art projects, and endless playing. I remember Maya wanting to show off her beginning reading skills and Grammy and Grandpa indulging her.

Playing at Jester King

That evening, we all drove out to Jester King to drink fancy beer, eat fancy wood-fired pizza, and let the kids play in the sand pit with the community toys to their hearts’ content. The weather was ever-so-slightly on the cold side, but otherwise that outing was just about perfect.

We had only Sunday morning before Grammy and Grandpa went back to Missouri. Maya and Ian sent them off with a whole grocery bag full of art they had made from them.

Soldiering on despite the sun and the bees.

After they left, we had sort of a whirlwind afternoon of hair-cutting and bluebonnet photos. Sean had discovered a couple weeks prior that our regular bluebonnet spot had been mowed down. I had asked around a bit about good places, but I get the impression Texans may guard their favorite locations for bluebonnet photos the way Missourians guard the best mushroom hunting spots. Luckily, they seemed to be flourishing on the opposite side of the road. This did mean, though, that the sun was not in our favor that afternoon. Despite squinty-eyed kids, unnecessary distress at our proximity to bees, and a couple of impromptu potty breaks, Sean managed to get some decent photos. And so did the kids! Our two little photographers each took turns arranging the other and capturing their images.

Central Texas puts on a gorgeous show in the spring. We spend most of the summer in oppressive heat with browned grass and leathery dark green tree leaves. These are tough, durable leaves. They’ve lived with limited water. They’ve withstood that punishing sun. These leaves have seen some shit. Not so in spring. Everything is tender, bright, almost glowing green. The wildflowers range from delicate whites and pinks to brilliant yellows and orangey reds, anchored by the cool purple-blue of those bluebonnets. I really do love it that we get those pretty spring photos with the kids every year.

Guh-lasses!

A few other small things… Back in December, we had taken the kids in for their annual medical exams. Ian had his 4-year-old eye test this year. We tried walking him through it several times. He would never admit that he couldn’t tell what the picture was, but curiously enough, he lost interest at the same point in the test every time. Once the dust settled from the holidays, we took him to see our eye doctor in January, and sure enough, the little dude needed glasses. We weren’t sure how he’d take to them, but he LOVES them. The prescription is small and they have sort of rubbery frames with a strap around the back of his head, so they’ve been pretty easy to deal with so far. He has completely embraced glasses as part of his identity, but he isn’t always good about remembering to put them on in the morning. Once, I had to drive them up to school, he was so distraught over not having them.

Maya has been a reading machine. We had tried to encourage her to read a few times before. She’s known her letter sounds for ages and would make words out of her plastic letter beads all the time. I think she could spell “octopus” before she could spell “Maya.” But she could never quite be bothered to read. And then her kindergarten teacher introduced the kids to book logs. Each log has space for 16 books, and when the kids complete one, they get to choose a prize from the treasure chest in their classroom. Maya is now well into her fourth book log. I guess it just took the right motivation.

We also used this as an excuse to get library cards. We now make regular visits to the local library to stock up on reading materials.

Spring 2019 school photos

Maya had her spring pictures at school taken already back in February. I had been holding out for Ian to have his spring photos as well, but we’ll just post those once they happen.

Maya also had a neat school project to do back in March/early April. It was meant to be sort of self-driven based on her interests. Surprising absolutely no one, she chose “octopuses” as her area of focus. During one of our library visits, she had picked up a longer book on octopuses for us to read to her. One day, we read to her about blue-ringed octopuses. But she kept interrupting. She kept shouting out facts about octopuses and explaining that the blue-ringed octopuses are “really poisonous” and that there’s another kind of octopus that glows in the dark and that they had nine brains and on and on and on. I talked to her about the research she was doing with this book and how she could use that research in developing her project. Sean told Maya about papier-mache and its application to a balloon and together they decided that would make a really good octopus mantle.

Maya was very proud of her project

Sean helped Ian papier-mache a balloon. I helped Maya. Otherwise though, this was mostly a Sean and Maya show. Sean gets to do very few projects with the kids, particularly Maya, and I think she really enjoyed it.

We still haven’t done anything with Ian’s papier mache balloon; I think he’s mostly forgotten about it at this point. I figure I’ll save it for a rainy day when he’s fussed about some project Maya is working on and doesn’t have one of his own to do. After all, far too often, he wants to do exactly whatever his big sister is doing.

For spring break this year, we decided to take a driving trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Since our mid-March spring break is so early in the year, we were worried we would be snowed out of some activities, but ultimately there was plenty to keep us busy regardless. With an 11 hour drive either direction, we decided to break our trip into two days and stay over at Lubbock. And since we would only have to drive about 5 1/2 hours the first day, we made plans to leave on Friday right after work.

Well, it was a Woods family vacation, so of course things didn’t go as planned. Our schedule started going off the rails on Thursday already. Sean was destined for Virginia on an early morning flight so he could attend a meeting and then fly home that night. Alas, his first flight was delayed by over four hours, so he’d have to stay overnight and wouldn’t be home till Friday afternoon.

The mood when driving through west Texas

We packed in a flurry once he got home with kids dancing around and Sean fielding a call from work. After a return home to pick up something we had forgotten, we finally started our 5 1/2 hour drive to Lubbock at about 7:30p.

After a largely uneventful drive, we rolled into our hotel around 1:00 in the morning. The kids had just started stirring as we were arriving, having enjoyed a nice 3-hour-long sleep in the car. We waited and waited for Sean to get us checked in. Ian started to grumble. At long last, Sean came out to let us know the bad news – our reservation had been canceled, and the hotel was fully booked. We tried two other hotels in close proximity, but they were full as well. Sean finally gave up and called the reservation line for our original booking and they were able to place us at another of their properties a few miles away.

All of that took us about an hour, and by then, the kids were AWAKE! For my part, I was so tired, I think I fell asleep while they were still bickering and shrieking in their bed. (By the way, they talk about how much fun they have sharing a bed when we stay in a hotel, but they fight the whole time. I swear they even fight in their sleep. This is not my favorite arrangement.)

I want to have it, but I don’t want to eat it

After a serviceable hotel breakfast where both kids insisted on having freshly made, Texas-shaped waffles, though neither kid actually ate them, we started on the rest of our journey to Albuquerque.

Poor Sean was shot. He had had five hours of sleep or less for three or four nights running, and I could see his eyes hanging at half-mast as he tried to slog along the flat west-Texas highways. I wound up driving more than is typical for us.

We arrived at Albuquerque a bit later than we intended, so our first stop was at our AirBNB to drop off our stuff and get a look at the place. The kids had a shared room, but they each had their own twin bed, so it was the perfect set-up for them. They could help each other feel safe, but wouldn’t have to fight over mattress real estate.

After that, we took them over to the nearby Tiguex park, so that they could burn off some energy after having been trapped in the car for so long. The playgrounds there were pretty neat, and Maya and Ian both seemed to be especially fond of this one slide where they glided over rollers that jostled and wiggled them as they slid down.

Blah blah blah deadly rattlesnake

When they seemed to be winding down, we tried to squeeze in a visit to the American International Rattlesnake Museum. The variety of snakes on display was amazing, and they seemed to be healthy and well-cared-for, as far as I could tell. I found it completely fascinating, but I may have been alone. Maya was quite taken with a big tortoise she had found hiding in a corner. She patted his shell and gently touched his feet. After that though, it was a nearly non-stop onslaught of “when will we leave” and “can we buy X piece of fakey junk.” The latter in particular drove me nuts. Is it all small kids that fall into raw acquisition mode when visiting a tourist attraction? There was even a point where one of the snakes was actually agitated enough to be rattling his tail at us, and we tried to show the kids while also encouraging them to back away and let the poor creature calm down. I’m not sure it made a dent. Maya would actually *pretend* to be interested in a snake, presumably to mollify me, look me right in the eye, and then ask if *now* she could go buy something from the gift shop. I feel so manipulated! We left with only their certificates of bravery and temporary tattoos the museum folks gave them as a reward for this alleged bravery. (Bravery, ha! Try stunning indifference.)

We had been seeing lots of art in the medians and in front of various buildings as we were driving around Albuquerque. Many of the overpasses were even painted. Maya was eating it up. She proclaimed once as we were driving to dinner, “New Mexico is too beautiful for Texas!” The couple of Albuquerque folks we floated this past seemed surprised to hear it.

Maya had started reading in earnest maybe a month or so before this trip, so she was into reading everything as we were wandering around. She was teaching Ian how to say Albuquerque properly. “No Ian, look, it’s Q-U. You say AlbuQWERky.” She thought she was hilarious, and of course it was called Albu-quirky for the rest of the trip.

Can’t contain this much crazy

Dinner that night was at a place called 66 Diner. Ian could have chicken fingers. Maya could have a cheese burger. Mom and Dad could try out some of the famous green chile cheese burgers. They pull no punches with their chiles around there, and we loved it! The burgers were simple, but delicious. Maya said she loved the food so much, she wanted to come back to New Mexico again just to eat here. (It’s too bad this trend didn’t continue through our whole trip.)

After a stop by a local Wal-Mart for a few supplies and a stop by Jubilation Liquor for some local beers, we all went home and found ourselves quickly to sleep.

The next day, we had a quick cereal breakfast at the apartment, let the kids play for a while (the AirBNB had a box of toys! I love that!), and then headed to our first stop of the day – the Bristol Doughnut Company. Seeking out interesting doughnuts has become sort of a loose Woods family vacation tradition, and we had a really good run this trip.

Doughnuts! In a bus! On the top floor!

Bristol Doughnut Company is housed in a double-decker bus, and after we bought our doughnuts and some milk, we headed up to the upper deck. My prickly pear doughnut featured a technicolor purple icing atop a rich yeast doughnut, but Sean had chosen the best: a brown butter masterpiece that was so rich, I’m not sure I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting.

We had planned to hit Explora, the local children’s museum, that morning but it didn’t open till noon, so we headed out to Petroglyph National Monument instead.

We stopped in at the visitors’ center to pick up a map and let the kids use the bathroom. After having to forcibly extract our two little consumers from the gift shop, we drove out to Boca Negra Canyon, the most accessible hiking spot. There were three short hikes and without any planning, we took the hardest one first: Mesa Point. The hike up wasn’t overly strenuous, but the weather was bonkers. It was 50 degrees outside, which to use central Texans sounds kinda cold. We were in our long sleeve sweaters with jackets besides. Even ditching the jackets, it wasn’t long before we were sweating. Sean said it was the best 50 degrees he’s ever felt.

Hi!

The hike was neat. Soft volcanic stone had blackened over time, and then prehistoric people carved away the black to make pictures of people, scenes, and other items that can only be guessed at. Once the kids got into finding the petroglyphs, Maya especially had a lot of fun. Ian, being Ian, was happiest if he was moving.

At the top of Mesa Point though, Ian had his moment. He was looking out over Albuquerque, and he pulled me down so that he could whisper in my ear. He told me he had seen in one of his videos that if you were on the highest point, you could yell out, and there would be an echo. I asked him if he wanted to try it out. He seemed hesitant, so I let him know that it was okay if he did it. He called out with that clear, sweet voice of his and … we heard his echo! It worked! We had to move Maya around a bit, but we eventually got her echo to work as well. Eventually, thinking it might be nice to let our fellow hikers enjoy some peace and quiet, we stopped the kids from hollering from the mountain top, and at that point, the kids lost interest and we began our descent.

After agreeing to let Maya buy some random pink binoculars as long as she agreed that it was worth spending her own allowance money, we made our purchases at the gift shop, stopped to pet a few random dogs outside, and then headed into town for lunch.

The most serious chili dog I have ever tasted

We ate at a place called The Dog House, where you order at the window, and then they cart the food out to your car. One poor lady was handling a very full parking lot. The kids were hungry and jonesing hard for food. Maya inexplicably ordered a burger, but Ian was all in on the hot dog. I had a mustard dog and some tots, but again, Sean won. He ordered a chili cheese dog. That thing was fierce! This wasn’t some shitty canned chili dumped on a hot dog and lathered in enough cheese that you maybe wouldn’t notice. No sirree. This chili had spice and oh my was it delicious. I think Sean may have suffered for it though.

After that, we took the kids over to Explora for big fun at the children’s museum. It started off well enough. The kids made airplanes and Maya especially seemed to enjoy trying to use different shaped parachutes to see which was most functional. We built outdoor structures with blue foam blocks. We played with bubbles and had lots of fun.

And then we wandered past the gift shop. We had been explaining to Maya that souvenirs are meant to remind you of the place you had visited. Then it was on; justification mode, engaged! She launched into a long and obliquely reasoned lecture about how her pink binoculars from earlier were relevant. This time, she found a little blue and white toy jet in the gift shop that had not a single thing to do with our trip. For Pete’s sake, we hadn’t even flown to get to New Mexico! Sean tried to help her understand that this was just a random toy and that she should hold out for something more of the area. She wouldn’t budge. And so she learned a lesson about delayed gratification. There were tears. There was a 6-year-old tantrum in the gift shop.

We questioned the wisdom of doing so, but we carried on and headed out to the Sandia Skyway Tram. We figured we were in trouble when Maya asked if she could have her ipad to pass the time on the 15-minute ride up the mountain (we said no). Once we got on the tram though, the kids were transfixed.

Going up, up, up!

Ian was wary at first, but if anything, in this his older sister is a positive influence on her brother. She was so excited, we had to keep her from pressing her face against the glass. Once Ian saw how Maya was brave and safe, he joined her right down by the window, face inches from the glass, watching the rocks and conifers and occasional patches of snow pass beneath.

Once at the top, we wandered outside and our two little Texans got to play in the snow! They made a game out of finding the unspoiled patches of snow so they could stomp fresh footprints. While I was watching the kids stomp, Sean wandered a bit further out to see what photo-worthy scenes he could find. This couple who we had been in our tram as we rode up the mountain had gone out beyond the safety fence. As Sean moseyed up to assess the view, the lady handed Sean her phone and asked him to snap of photo of the two of them … while behind her, the man had pulled out a tiny box and was getting down on one knee. Sean had unwittingly become an engagement photographer! We found out later that the woman had no idea; she had just wanted a nice photo.

They had to search hard for fresh snow to stomp in

We spent more than a few cycles keeping Maya from skidding hundreds of feet down a defunct ski slope, but otherwise the views were beautiful, the kids enjoyed their time in the snow, and we even accidented into timing our descent with sunset.

We gamely went on to Sadie’s for a rather late dinner (at least for a family with two small children.) Sean and I had the most lovely green and red sauced carne adovada and enchiladas. Ian had a ground beef taco. And Maya, poor Maya, who used to be our adventurous eater, had the first of several ill-advised cheeseburgers.

As I recall, she plowed through this one, but it was through sheer force of will. Evidently, we kept taking her to places that used cheddar instead of American cheese on their burgers. Maya was not impressed and the issue would rear it’s unfortunate head again later in the trip.

We also learned that our kids do not like sopaipillas. They are fluffy pillows of deep-fried goodness. Sean and I enjoyed ours dabbed with some honey. Our kids had leftover Pringles in the car on our way back to the rental apartment. Sigh. And at long last, to bed, to bed, where everyone had some much needed rest.

We had been running the kids pretty hard, so we hung out at the apartment and let them play for a while after breakfast. Then it was off to our next doughnut destination: Rebel Donut. Sean and I were now convinced that New Mexico could do no wrong in the application of chili flavors to things, so Sean had a red chile chocolate bacon donut, and I had an apple green chile fritter. Both, to my tastes, were mild on the chile, but they were delicious.

Rebel Donut

Once we were nicely loaded with sugary dough, we headed over to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. While there, a friendly staff paleontologist did his level best to check in with the kids periodically and attempt to keep them engaged. The dinosaur displays here were pretty neat and wide-ranging. The kids also really enjoyed the outer space part of the museum. The solar system model was fun, but the big draw was the Mars Rover whose camera they could control so that it focused on them.

Raahr

We attempted to drive to this giant rattlesnake sculpture I had found as a kind of weird roadside attraction, but alas, it was blocked off and we weren’t able to get more than a glimpse of it.

After a late lunch at Frontier, one of those institutions with long hours and affordable food, we launched out on the Turquoise Trail route up to Santa Fe. The drive took 90 minutes instead of the hour the interstate route would have taken, but the scenery was gorgeous. As we headed north, snowy, blue-gray peaks became visible behind the warm-tone stone landscape we’d become used to over the past couple days. If Ian hadn’t been asleep, I believe we might have stopped in Madrid. It’s a small city along the route that appeared to have a kitschy charm that was possibly not contrived.

We got to our AirBNB house in late afternoon. Ian was completely in love with the place. There was neat decorative tile work in the bathroom. The kitchen table and chairs were painted in a flower motif. There was artwork on the walls and a harp and drum hanging around the living room for the kids to play with a bit. I was annoyed because I had messed up and booked a place with no washer and dryer. Plus, it was a historic home, which meant it had lots of character. In this case, it wound up having just a little too much, but more on that in a bit.

We had dinner at a restaurant called La Choza. To start with, even though Santa Fe apparently has a ton of restaurants for a city its size, it also had a ton of visitors. Everywhere we checked was packed. We wound up waiting I think close to an hour to eat, which is always good with the kids. By then, we weren’t far off from closing time, so the woman waiting on us was … terse. The food was good enough, except Maya’s cheeseburger again had cheddar cheese on it. She refused to eat it. Sean refused to let her order food and not eat it. It’s like when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force … it was a long night. We left with Maya having filled up on milk and french fries and having given up on having doughnuts at the next morning’s stop.

That night, after we got everyone to sleep after all the dinner drama, and Sean and I finally got to relax a bit, we noticed that the shower was dripping. But it was more than a little drip-drip-drip. It was more like a trickle. And *some* of us are borderline insomniacs who have a hard time sleeping during the best of times. I was ready to murder that shower.

The next morning, we bathed under that infernal ever-dripping shower. We had a brief first breakfast, making sure Maya had a good helping, and once we were all cleaned up and ready to go, we headed to Whoo’s Donuts. These were probably the most interesting doughnuts of our trip. I had a blue-corn and lavender one which wound up having a fritter-like texture. Sean had a couple, but the one I’m remembering right now was a white chocolate and pistachio number that was incredible.

The kids took turns photographing each other with the robot at Meow Wolf

Then we were off to visit Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf is a giant experimental art installation housed in a converted bowling alley. We were pleased to find that the kids were allowed to touch things with gentle hands and that the experience would be appropriate for them. We were meant to follow this interesting story line to enhance our experience, but after a few rooms of the kids having to wait on us to read things and cipher through clues, we realized we weren’t going to be able to see it through to the end. After a certain point, it became a game of “wooo, look at that cool art! Shit, where did our kids go?! Oh good, there they are” times a thousand.

Maya found a piano

The place was incredible. The kids were hooked before we even went into the building because there were giant sculptures in the parking lot. Once they found out they were allowed to touch, it was on. We climbed through a refrigerator to an alternate dimension, we played mastodon bones as if they were a giant xylophone, we wandered through a glow-in-the-dark aquarium lorded over by a giant octopus hanging from the ceiling. There was a roving cast of characters that would talk to us occasionally, to the kids’ delight. We never got to find out what happened to Lex and his immortal pet hamster Nimsesku, but we had an amazing experience.

Ian wonders what we’ve gotten him into

We spent a really, really long time at Meow Wolf, so much so that it was probably unforgivably late when we finally fed our children. It was so late, that at least Sean and I weren’t planning on having another meal. We had heard from multiple sources that Horsemen’s Haven was the place to go. Sean and I enjoyed our food, but Maya and Ian barely ate.

We went to the Railyard development to let the kids play in the park for a while afterward. It was a little cold and rainy, and poor Maya started her park visit off by trying to jump over a large stone bench and doing an epic face-plant that would have been funny had we not been so worried. After that though, the kids played for a while. We are going to have to get Ian into some sort of rock climbing gym. That little dude was scrambling up piles of boulders faster than I could actually notice him doing so. I shouldn’t have worried though; he’s as cautious as he is sure-footed.

After playing at the park for a while, against our better judgement, we gave in and let the kids have McDonald’s for dinner. And then we decided to relax and stay in for the evening. Well, the rest of them relaxed. Because I had screwed up and rented a place with no washer and dryer, and because I didn’t want to sit around a coin laundry for hours waiting, I used the bathtub to hand-wash the few items we’d need to make it to the end of our trip.

It’s a good thing we all got some rest that night because the next day, we went hiking. We made sure the kids were fed before we left the house, but then we messed around long enough that Sean and I didn’t want to take the time to fix ourselves breakfast and eat it. Instead, we made another trip to Whoo’s. The grown-ups ate pastries en route, and we tucked the kids’ doughnuts away to have as a treat after lunch.

I had plans to go hiking in the slot canyon trail at the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Too bad for us, there was epic snowfall this year and the trail was not yet open. We had kind of already given up when a week before our trip something called a bomb cyclone had dumped even more snow on the area, so we switched to our fallback plan, which turned out to be pretty great.

Climbing up into a cavate at Bandelier

We went instead to Bandelier National Monument. The main loop trail is 1.2 miles long. Along this hike, we would get to climb ladders up into human-made caves in the stone called cavates. The hike was beautiful, and as much as I could pay attention, informative. The kids really did like climbing ladders to get into the cavates, but they also really loved taking photos with their little Instax cameras. We stopped SO OFTEN to take photos that it was becoming a bit of a punchline.

The view from inside Alcove House

Partway through the hike, we had to make the decision whether we would like to take the spur trail to visit Alcove House. This added a half mile each direction to our hike, but we weren’t too worried about that; the kids had covered that distance before. The element of danger for this hike was the 140 vertical feet we would need to ascend, largely in the form of very long ladders. I helped Maya, who is quite capable of climbing those ladders, so long as someone’s there reminding her to focus. Sean helped Ian. Ian also did a very good job, but he’s a little shorter and would have a bit of trouble exiting the ladder on ascent and getting started on the ladder on the way back down. Sean effectively wound up climbing every ladder twice, because on the descent, which is a lot more harrowing with small children, Sean would climb down and set his camera bag and whatnot at the bottom of the ladder, then climb back up to help Ian down. Also, Sean is not entirely comfortable with heights. But we did it! We conquered the big, scary ladders and were rewarded with a neat view of the valley from the top and of course, the interior of the alcove house itself.

Bandelier

By the time we got to the end of our hike, all of us were ravenous. We tried to just eat at the restaurant there at the park, but they were out of chicken fingers and they didn’t serve American cheese on their cheeseburgers. I don’t even recognize us anymore.

Sean and I had noticed a place on the way out to the park called Fig and Pig. The name sounded promising, so we tried that instead. I don’t remember the particulars at this point, but everyone found something on the menu that they enjoyed eating, and we left satiated and content.

We largely spent the evening cleaning up and packing our things for the return trip the next day and also planning a brief jaunt into Santa Fe itself.

This next day, the kids were kind of pouty that we were leaving New Mexico so soon. They had their last meal at the fancy AirBNB house while we loaded up the car.

After finding parking at the plaza area in Santa Fe, we walked a whole block before we realized it was really COLD and was going to be a long walk to our first destination. Instead, we loaded back up in the car for the drive to the Kakawa Chocolate House. As we were walking into the shop, we noticed a few intermittent flakes of snow landing on the kids’ coats.

Enjoying their chocolate at Kakawa

Kakawa’s focus is on producing historic drinking chocolates. They offered Mayan and Aztec type unsweetened chocolate as well as more traditional European mixtures. And the fine folks behind the counter offer you sample after sample until you find something you truly enjoy. Sean and Ian landed on the Tzul, a warm-spiced, very creamy chocolate. Maya went for the Americano. I’m trying not to judge; she was happy with it. I had the rose-almond, which is unsweetened. The rose and almond were there, but so was a heavy dose of chili – such an interesting flavor combination in my little cup of hot chocolate.

We returned to a now nearly-full parking lot. And then we hadn’t walked very far at all before it started to rain, so we made an emergency stop at a candy store because who doesn’t need MORE SUGAR.

Scavenger hunting at the Georgie O’Keeffe museum

Once the rain had more or less cleared up, we took the kids to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids to fill out as they went through the museum. Maya filled out her sheet in its entirety, even choosing her favorite painting when she was done. Ian sort of filled his out too, though he was understandably less interested.

By the end, they were both pretty antsy so we went walking. We walked quickly past the Palace of the Governors and the vendors who had set up shop outside the building to sell their hand-crafted goods. I would have been interested in examining some of the wares, but the kids were toooooooo busy to stop.

We had a nice lunch at The Shed, where Ian became convinced that Sean said he could have a dog and Maya spilled part of her soda. At least the food was good! Then we had a quick stop by the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi to admire the architecture and the complete sense of peace (even the kids managed to stay calm and quiet and generally respectful). And then we had an even quicker stop by the Loretto Chapel to see the amazing spiral staircase. This staircase completes two full 360-degree turns, but has no center pole for support. Sean and the kids worked in stops for a few quick photos on the way back to the car, where we managed to make it mere minutes before our time there was to expire. We’d have gotten a ticket too – those vultures were circling.

Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

We then drove the 5-ish hours to our hotel in Lubbock. Maya and Ian both said goodbye to New Mexico as we crossed the border into Texas. Our hotel stay this time was thankfully unremarkable. We slept well. We ate a good-enough breakfast. The kids had a swim in the pool. We loaded up the car and drove back to Austin.

This trip was what we had wished our West Texas trip had been. Yeah, there was a lot of driving. And yes, there were some tantrums here and there, usually by the kids. But, once we got into the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area, nothing we wanted to see was really all that far away. The places we stayed were generally comfortable. The people we met were friendly. We had a good variety of experiences without overdoing it. I’m calling this one a success.

Maybe this is how it goes every year since, for us at least, the last couple months are so full of events and celebration, but for me, Christmas had kind of a tacked on at the end feeling this year. I blame The Virus. Sean and I were so weary by the time the Christmas travel came around, that I think we were just kind of getting through it.

Santa visited us a bit early in Texas

Maya’s final vomit of The Virus was on Friday, and our flight was on Sunday, so we got lucky there. This year, to save cash, we flew into Atlanta instead of Birmingham. Other than that airport being gigantic and occasionally confusing, our travel went fairly smoothly. We arrived at Lolli and Pop’s at a fairly reasonable time and the kids played for a while then went to bed without issue.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and Darci, Will, AP, and Steele were set to arrive. On their way down though, poor Steele started vomiting. They booked a hotel and asked if they should stay away, but of course, we wanted everyone to be together for Christmas, so Sean told them to come. Poor Steele was shot. And barfy.

Maya at Lolli and Pop’s house

Luckily the next day, everyone seemed to be feeling better and stockings were dug into with vigor and glee. We played Christmas games. We peeled, cooked, and ate shrimp. The kids played with their gifts and with each other. Maya watched Home Alone for the third or fourth time since we had introduced it to her just before we left town.

Ian made it through a good amount of the candy in his stocking before anyone really noticed

The next day was about playing and trying to relax a bit. The neighbors had a see-saw that the kids loved. Down the road a ways, another set of neighbors had a neat swing that the kids tried out. They walked and scootered and rode down the sidewalks.

Then on the 27th, we needed to travel from Alabama to Missouri. This was actually our worst travel day. The two and a half hour drive to Atlanta was fine, but on our way, we found out our flight was delayed. Then when we got there, we found out it was even more delayed. The bad announcements just kept coming, and by the time we finally took off it was three hours later than intended. Yet again, it was late at night when we rolled into Grammy and Grandpa’s house. We can’t seem to avoid it.

And then the next day, Maya vomited. Because that’s our life. Vomit. She spent the day feeling awful. Then the day after that, we all kind of waited around to see if this was the little one-day virus that Steele had had or if it was a recurrence of the monster that she and Ian had in Texas. She spent the whole next day feeling better and slowly getting back on a normal eating schedule.

There are a lot of us these days

Our Missouri visit was kind of compressed after that. We had spent two of our three days either sick or verifying the sickness had passed, so there wasn’t a ton of time left for anything else. Sean and I were battle weary.

She was SO EXCITED to see baby Paul

We celebrated Christmas with the whole family the next day. Carol prepared an insane amount of food. Maya and Ian got a turn holding “Baby Paul.” Leading up to the holidays, Maya in particular was obsessed with Baby Paul. She was thrilled to give him a toy octopus for one of his Christmas presents. She made periodic stops to talk to him throughout the day.

The next day, new year’s eve, was our travel day home. We had booked a very late flight because it was direct and relatively inexpensive and we didn’t have anywhere to be the next day. That morning, we visited Great Grandma Schmidt. The kids again enjoyed their visit. At this point, they know where the toys are stored and they look forward to Great Grandma’s treats and to watching her cuckoo clock. That evening, we met friends of ours in St Louis for pizza before heading to the airport.

They love Great Grandma

The flight was uneventful, as I recall. The best part was that as we were approaching Austin, it was coming up on midnight and from our airplane vantage point, we could see miniature bursts of fireworks here and there. We fetched our luggage and were just boarding the shuttle bus back to our parked car when the clock struck midnight. We even managed to notice in time to do a proper countdown. The bus driver armed the kids with little pretend Champagne poppers and party whistles, and we all counted down to the new year together. The kids enjoyed watching the fireworks occurring around us as we drove to the house.

Over the next few days, the packages we had shipped home from Missouri and Alabama arrived, and the kids were excited to get into their toys and other gifts. Sean and I have been happy to put our house back in order. The tree went down almost right away (it was DONE by the time we got back home.) The various boxes and packaging we had accumulated around the house were broken down and recycled. We fell back into our normal routines. “New year, new you” isn’t really a thing in our house, but after our rocky holiday season, it did not hurt my feelings to say goodbye to 2018.

Given Ian’s love of Frozen and of Elsa and Anna, I had the bright idea to hire an Elsa to come visit his house during his birthday party this past December. I was worried this would be a popular activity around the holidays, so I booked her really early. As little kids are wont to do, he drifted away from Frozen a bit after halloween. His new interests have revolved around Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom instead.

Ian and Maya were very worried she might lose control and accidentally freeze someone at the party.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really back out on our plans without losing money, so we went forward with it, and I’m so glad we did. Ian and a bunch of his friends and of course Maya donned their princess costumes and got ready to celebrate. Ian was already feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many people at his house who were mostly paying attention to him. When Else arrived, he was very shy. She was wonderful with him though, and helped coax Ian into interacting with her by offering him a light-up snowball. Elsa was nice, Elsa was pretty, Ian was hooked.

Ian’s birthday always comes complete with Christmas decorations.

The kids had a GREAT time. Elsa read a story to them, played games with them, sang with them. She posed for photos and even lead the group in singing happy birthday to Ian when it was time to cut the cake.

Icing transfers are a bad cake decorator’s dream.

About that cake … With Ian and Maya having taken turns being sick the couple weeks prior to the birthday celebration, I was woefully behind in my party prep. I baked the cake, cookies, and cupcakes all the night before the party. And it was a night that would never end. I don’t remember specifically, but I think it was around 3 in the morning when I finally crashed. It hurt to wake up the next day, but the party went well. People were fed, entertainment was provided, and best of all, Ian seemed to have a really great time.

This kid!

Had you told me when I first got pregnant that we would be having a princess party at our house, I’d have scoffed at the idea. If there’s anything this parenting gig has made clear though, it’s that I want to stay out of the way as much as possible and let our kids be who they are. At his birthday party at least, Ian was a princess.

The very next day after we returned from our driving trip to west Texas was Thanksgiving. We invited the McKee-Starling clan over for a laid back dinner. Sean had bought as much as we thought we could of the dinner items before we left for our trip, and he made a quick trip to get the last few items Wednesday night after driving all day from Fort Davis.

Ian made sure he got to sit by Ruby

The kids played and Sean kept an eye on them while I basically cooked all day on Thursday. It was kind of relaxing. The Woodses and the McKee-Starlings have been friends for a very long time, and we all have younger kids, and neither of us, intentionally or otherwise, place any pressure on the other. Holly had even told me earlier – if the choice is potatoes or a nap, take the nap.

The menu worked out pretty well. Holly brought chocolate-pecan pie, purple sweet potato casserole, and a really delicious tray full of pickled items. We had turkey pastrami, turkey leg confit, Sean’s mom’s cornbread dressing, gravy, creamed Brussels sprouts, green bean and fennel salad, melting potatoes, and a holiday cocktail called Lindsey’s Lament (which was great).

We have a slight improvement on Lindsey’s Lament to report. Here are the new directions, according to Sean and Chris: 1. mix cocktail, 2. give a crisp high five to Ruby (because she’s awesome, obviously), 3. accidentally knock entire cocktail into the decimated contents of the pickle tray, 4. insist that the now salty, pickle juicy liquid be dumped back in the cocktail glass, 5. pass around for tasting because holy crap, it was incredible.

I love it because Maui and Elsa look like they’re ready to do battle in the Christmas tree.

The next day, we went out and procured our Christmas tree. Ian had fun running around the tree lot, hiding. We tried letting Maya choose the tree, but I think she would have gone home with one of the 12-footers, so we had to reel her in.

Saturday was kind of our big deal event. We took the kids up to Cedar Park to ride a train, which is something Maya had been asking to do. But this wasn’t just any train – it was the North Pole Flyer. We were on the train for two hours, but it hardly felt like it. We were given hot cocoa. Mrs Claus came by and offered cookies. Elves visited for caroling and balloon twisting. Even Santa came by to hear the kids’ wishes, offer them a small gift (their very own train whistle), and sit for photos.

Maya and her dimple (and her dad)

Partway through the train ride, we were told that there was an open window between two compartments if the kids wanted to poke their heads out and feel the breeze. Now, I feel like I was warned against this sort of thing over and over again during my childhood, but I let it go, and both the kids had a great deal of fun, looking out the window and grabbing a big face full of breeze.

Ian LOVES to cook

The next event in our action packed November/December was Sean’s birthday. Since his birthday fell on a Monday, the kids and I baked his cake the Saturday before. Sunday after lunch, we sang happy birthday and cut into it. It was a day early, but why not?? It’s a good thing we did, too because shortly thereafter, things took a turn.

We were scheduled for haircuts Sunday afternoon. The kids had fun romping around and playing on some chairs shaped like giant hands beforehand. They were chatty and affable when we went in to see the lady who cuts our hair. And then suddenly, Ian was upset. He didn’t feel good, his clothes bothered him, he just wanted to be held. It was so sudden and so intense, we decided to forego the visit to Santa we had planned for after our haircuts.

Little dude was sick and wanted nothing more than to snuggle

Ian was sad all the way home, and Sean had barely gotten him to our front door, when the poor kid vomited. We were one wrong choice away from barfing on Santa Claus. Sean stayed home with Ian on Monday, and thus spent his actual birthday napping on the couch with his sick son. While we hoped it was just a 24-hour thing, Ian wound up not going back to school till Friday. For him, the vomiting stopped pretty quickly, but he had some horrible gut pain that kept him from eating much or even doing much. Five days he was down with his intestinal virus.

So many, many things to discuss with Santa.

Thursday night, we worked in our visit to Santa. The kids were elated, of course. Ian told him he wanted a jack-in-the-box shaped like an octopus. Maya gathered intel on Santa’s cookie preferences and let him know that her Oddipuddy was falling apart and that she’d really like to have a new stripy octopus.

Ian’s winter recital was on Friday, his first day back to school after The Virus. You could tell he didn’t have much energy though. He sang all the songs and more or less did all the hand motions, but he spent most of the program sitting on the floor with the younger kids.

Ian and I dancing during his preschool program.

He and Maya had their solo instrument recitals on Saturday afternoon. Ian seemed like he was feeling quite a bit better by then, but Maya’s behavior was … difficult. Still, both she and Ian played their pieces beautifully. Maya played London Bridge with two hands and Ian played one of his introductory Twinkle rhythms.

Everybody went back to school on Monday and Tuesday, but when I picked Maya up from school, she was sitting on a bench complaining of stomach upset. She vomited in the car on the way to Ian’s swim class. I went ahead and took Ian to his class, but Maya spent that 30 minutes laying on my lap and avoiding contact with other people.

Maya’s intestinal virus was horrible. Unlike Ian, she vomited nearly every day. She’d feel good for a while, we’d think she was better, then the tummy pain would return and blammo! more barf. She was vomit free for a full day before Ian’s birthday party, so we let her celebrate with him. That afternoon, she felt worse than ever. It went on and on like that. When the dust settled, she had been sick for I think eleven days. She missed seven days of school. She lost about 10% of her body weight.

She just looks worn out decorating those cookies.

The worst part though was that Maya had a hard time enjoying the things we did. We painted and decorated ornaments to give to grandparents and Anna. We baked and decorated cookies for Santa. We hunted every morning for Trinket, our damned Elf on the Shelf. She told me one day that her face hadn’t been happy in a really long time, and she was right. Maya is a joyful child, and she absolutely loves Christmas. But the constant tummy pain and difficulty holding food down for such a long time had kind of defeated her.

Luckily, nostalgia works for kids even better than for grown-ups it seems. When you talk to her about it now, she seems to be filled with fond memories of the fun things we did and the neat gifts she has received. I feel like we had been kind of keeping up and holding our own through most of our holiday and birthday crazy, but The Virus just about defeated me too, even though I never managed to really get sick. It’s hard to watch your kids suffer, while you stand there powerless, offering sips of water and a bucket to barf in. Arranging childcare for sick kids right around the holidays was a bit of a dance too, and the kids always wanted me to help them instead of their babysitter. It was a very long few weeks.

Lucky Santa

Here are some of the things that I’m thankful for through all of that. We managed to get the kids to all their recitals and Christmas programs. Ian and to some extent Maya were able to enjoy Ian’s birthday party. I was on call for jury duty through November and December and was never selected to appear in court. Everyone was well by the time we boarded our flight for the holiday family visit. Things were bad, sure, but they could have been worse.

This year, with Maya starting kindergarten, we have had to adapt to her school calendar. One thing that had shocked me was that they get the entire week off for Thanksgiving. Back in my day, I think we only got Thanksgiving and the day after, but whatever. Not one to let an opportunity pass by, I figured this was a good chance for us to try our kids out on a small road trip to the wilds of west Texas.

Family photo at the end of the Grapevine Hills Trail at Big Bend National Park

It wouldn’t be a Woods vacation without someone vomiting, or at least being terribly sick. Maya had been steadily brewing one of her grade-A snot and horrible coughing viruses, and it seemed to have come to a head the night before we were to leave. Our plan had been to take her to her early morning swim lesson on Saturday and then head out on our adventure.

Alas, after listening to the poor kid coughing all night, we let Maya sleep as late as she could and took our sweet time getting out the door. It didn’t help that I had failed to bake Maya a birthday cake the night before, so I did it Saturday morning while we were packing.

In an effort to finally get our asses out the door, we tested out letting the kids eat fast food in the car while we drove. In the past, this has not worked out, but not this day. It worked out great! Both the kids are now in very upright seats (Maya, a booster and Ian, a car seat) with cup holders. I had given them each a quarter sheet pan to use as a makeshift table top. They ate their food and drank their drinks and played with their shitty plastic fast-food toys and all was good.

Until Maya had a coughing fit, that is. It was epic. I don’t know how long that poor kid was hacking in the back seat, but it end with her yarking up a bunch of phlegm and some portion of her lunch. And she got her seat a bit too, so Sean had to do a quick clean up. If you’ve kept up with this blog, then you know that Sean is now a “cleaning barf from a car seat” expert, given his extensive experience.

Our intention had been to stop over at Enchanted Rock and let the kids go for a hike to help break up the trip. Unfortunately, that park has become wildly popular, and they stopped allowing cars in already at mid-morning. It was probably for the best that we couldn’t take sick girl on a hike, but I at least was disappointed.

The remainder of our drive went pretty smoothly. The kids enjoyed seeing the fluffy white cotton fields, the graceful turbines of the wind farms, and fields of pumpjacks working away, metal mantis-like creatures endlessly dipping their heads for another drink of crude. The sunset was beautiful as we headed into Odessa. Weird flames dotted the horizon here and there from the various refining and processing plants, reminding us yet again we were in oil country. Without our hike, we managed to get into town just in time for dinner. (A dinner which sadly was NOT Waffle House. Reference quote from Tin Cup in the title.)

We usually let the kids share a queen bed, but with Maya’s awful cough, we folded out the couch into a bed and split them up. You can tell that they’re young and everything is fascinating to them, because they were actually fighting over who would get to sleep in the fold-out bed. You wouldn’t hear a grown-up gunning for that particular privilege. The kids love hotels, but this one was especially awesome because once the couch bed was folded out, they were left with a pile of couch cushions that they figured out how to arrange into a makeshift building against one of the beds. They took turns building and hiding in their couch cushion forts until finally we all had to get to bed.

Maya sledding down a sand dune

The next day, Maya’s actual birthday, we loaded up the car and drove the maybe 35 minutes or so to Monahans Sandhills State Park. After paying our park admission and renting our disc sleds, the park ranger handed us a nub of wax and we drove out to the dunes. We started out on a small hill, mostly because the kids’ excitement couldn’t be contained and it was close. We waxed the bottom of Maya’s sled and down the little hill she went. She LOVED it. After seeing that Maya had survived, Ian gave it a shot too. More smiles and laughs!

Ian sledding down the sand dune

They only slid down the hill a couple times before they were both clamoring for a big hill. I couldn’t tell you how often we trudged up that soft-sanded dune, but we rode down again and again in various individual and stacked permutations. Ian seemed to prefer riding down on an adult’s lap, while Maya was more content to go it alone. She even accidentally rolled head over heels at least once and popped up laughing. We spent an easy hour and a half sledding away. Then at the end, we all sat at a picnic table and enjoyed Maya’s on-the-road chocolate cookie shaped cake.

Our next stop for vacation was Terlingua so that Maya could have her dinner at the Starlight Theatre and we’d be in a good place to explore Big Bend National Park the next day. After an unremarkable lunch in the city of Monahans, we headed out for the roughly three hour drive. This part of Texas is not densely populated so services are few and far between. Both kids will now at least tolerate a pit stop behind a bush along a 75 mile-per-hour highway.

There was still a bit of daylight left when we rolled into Terlingua. We checked into our hotel and drove to the restaurant fairly early, but it was no use; there was a 90 minute wait. We tried to talk Maya out of it, but apparently we had done such a good job of getting her excited about the place that she wouldn’t hear of changing venues. I’m sure the musicians on the porch and friendly dogs running around didn’t hurt.

The kids thought these stools were a crack-up

It was her birthday, so we decided to wait it out if that’s what she really wanted to do. We killed some time wandering around and checked out a few of the old ghost town ruins for a bit. Unfortunately, that didn’t take as long as we had hoped. As a parent, you sometimes get this hazy, sweet image in your head of you child happily enjoying her special birthday dinner and topping it off with a two-scoop special birthday sundae with pecans on top, everybody feeling celebratory and content.

That’s not what happened here. I don’t believe in omens, but if I did, I’d have clued in when the sweet doggie we had been petting earlier ran up to us coated in what can only be described as liquefied cow shit. Nobody pooped their pants – the omen wasn’t quite that literal – but dinner did not go smoothly. Worse still, the birthday girl seemed to have a miserable time. I guess between the long drive and the long wait, it was just too much, even for a newly turned six-year-old.

To top it off, poor Maya had a rough night full of coughing fits and gasping breaths. For her, this was the worst night of the trip. None of us got much sleep and so we didn’t get going nearly as early as we had intended. After a trying breakfast with two antsy kids, we headed into Big Bend National Park.

Maya’s photos from the Window View area

The thing about this park is that it’s huge. Sean and I have been a couple times before, and we are all too aware that it cannot be adequately experienced in a single day. However, we figured the kids wouldn’t be into it for multiple days so we narrowed our plan to a few specific sites. With our late start and the way the ol’ Prius was vibrating over the washboarded dirt road that was the “short” route to Santa Elena canyon, we decided to cut out that part of our visit. This was a real downer because it’s our favorite part of the park. The kids were fixated on the mountains though, so that’s what we homed in on. We took them up to the Chisos Mountain Lodge area where they got their feet wet with the very short Window View Trail. It’s a 0.4 mile loop that’s paved. I’m not even sure you can honestly call it a hike. The kids loved it though. Maya had fun taking photos, and I think Ian had fun being her subject. And we saw two of the fabled black bears at the edge of the parking lot!

At this point, Maya and Ian desperately wanted to climb up the mountains, so we kind of lucked into letting them. After a snack lunch at a picnic table near the lodge, we tried the Grapevine Hills trail. It’s an out and back trail, about a mile in each direction. The first 3/4 of a mile is more or less flat with the last 1/4 mile being pretty steep. They did it! Well, Maya did it. Ian enjoyed a piggyback ride for maybe a quarter of a mile or so on the flat part on the way there, and later on Sean picked him up for a few minutes on the way back out. But little dude climbed all the hard parts (I suspect that was his favorite part). The hike was beautiful. Red-orange boulders with aquamarine cactus paddles lined our path and of course, there’s the neat balanced rock at the end. Both the kids wanted us to get out from under it for fear it would fall.

All the loveys came along for the Grapevine Hills hike.

After all that hiking and climbing, the kids were shot, so we decided to drive out so we could show them the back side of the window view they had seen earlier that day. On our way there, we saw people randomly stopped in the road. Pausing to investigate, we discovered they had found a tarantula! Some of our friends find them in their houses. We have never seen one outside of captivity. It was HUGE. I wish I had thought to put down something next to it for scale. It was easily larger than my hand. Unfortunately, we were holding up traffic and couldn’t stay long enough to really compose the photo.

We did see the back of our window view, and then we headed out for the long drive to Marfa, seeing a strange and beautiful sunset as we drove. We were all too tired by the time we got to our AirBNB to do too much beyond getting settled in, so we didn’t go seek out the legendary Marfa lights. The AirBNB was an artist’s property, and care had been taken in decorating it. I wish I had thought to snap a few photos of the place. There were paintings and interesting furnishings. Little accents paid homage to the west Texas vibe – cow horns, tumble weeds, cowboy hats. The kids loved it, of course. They each had little twin beds in a room together and were excited to sleep there.

We took it really easy the next morning. The place was comfortable and there was room to let the kids play a bit. The only sour note was that apparently the propane tank was empty, so I had a very cold shower. The owner of the place tried hard to make it right. She got the tank filled in pretty short order and told us to stay later if we wanted. We did take advantage of the later departure time, leisurely packing the car and letting the kids romp around and play hide and seek for a while. They even got to visit the goat and horse that lived in the lot behind the house.

Maya and Ian, relaxing on the porch of our Marfa AirBNB

It turns out that Tuesday is NOT the day to be in Marfa. Most everything is closed. I had loose ideas of experiencing some of the arty culture in the area, but instead we had a late lunch and drove out to the Marfa Prada installation. It is singularly weird seeing a Prada store sitting out there alone in the wide open plain with the desert scrub around it, 75 mile an hour traffic tearing past, the occasional tumble weed rolling through. There’s a kind of open mesh fencing around the place, onto which people have attached all manner of items: locks, toys, photos, even a pair of children’s shoes. Maya the photographer had a ton of fun snapping photos of some of the items and of her brother posing in front of the Prada. Ian had fun NOT sitting in the car for a change.

After that, we drove on into Fort Davis, taking the scenic route through the Davis Mountains. Once in Fort Davis, we checked into our hotel and had just a few minutes to settle in before heading out for an early dinner before our big event of the day. This was one of the better meals of our trip. The Fort Davis Drug Store and Hotel, among many other things, sports an old fashioned soda fountain where we had chocolate malts and cherry cokes and delicious burgers. Ian the burger hater, had delicious chicken strips instead.

Hobby-Eberly Telescope

After dinner, we drove to the McDonald Observatory to attend one of their star parties. We weren’t sure how our just-turned-six and not-quite-four year old kids would manage. We arrived maybe twenty minutes before show time and really didn’t doodle around too long before we all paraded out to the amphitheater for a lecture. The night was clear and cold and the lecture was concise. They chatted about the things we would see later through the telescopes – binary stars, a nebula, and a distant star cluster … the moon. They talked about how the International Space Station would be passing by on its orbit in a few minutes. They used a big laser-pointer to give us a constellation tour. Ian fidgeted, pronounced the talk boring, and played with rocks. Maya danced around alternately chanting “telescope” and “constellation.”

At the right moment, our lecturer’s phone cued him that it was ISS time. There were several hundred of us out in that amphitheater and all of us were watching for a few brief minutes as it moved through the sky. It looked like a fast-moving star, reflected sunlight making it appear bright white in the sky. Then it fell back into Earth’s shadow and to our eyes disappeared. Maya took a while to find it, but once she did, her excitement was obvious. Even Ian managed to see it.

We went all around looking through various telescopes. You could always tell when Maya finally spotted whatever she was meant to be seeing because she’d shriek, “I see it!!!” It was tougher to tell if Ian saw what he was meant to see. One of the telescopes was trained on the moon though, and he definitely got a good look at that. Ian has a nightlight that can be changed to show a number of different scenes, and ever since our visit to the observatory, it’s been dialed in to look like the moon. Partway through, we went inside to visit the gift shop and warm up a bit. After going back out and looking through a few more telescopes, we loaded up in the car for the dark drive back to our hotel.

McDonald Observatory

We were originally planning to get up, have breakfast, and drive home, but we had had such a great experience at the observatory, that we decided to drive back up there in the daylight to wander around and take some photos. It was a beautiful day. The kids had fun tromping around outside and looking at the various BIIIG telescopes. We were even able to go inside and look around at the huge Hobby-Eberly telescope, which I believe we were told is the fifth largest telescope in the world.

While the view from way up high was amazing, we eventually had to give up and drive home. Sean was a man on a mission. I offered to drive more than once, but we all know he makes better time than I do. As I recall, the drive was completely uneventful. We said goodbye to the mountains, goodbye to the desert, and goodbye to the big wind turbines as we barreled along the highway.

Maya’s activity for today: painting the solar system string of lights she picked up from the McDonald Observatory gift shop

Was this trip a good idea? I’m still debating that. Maya and Ian really enjoyed all the things we did, but there was a lot of driving time. And because they had so much sitting and waiting time in the car, if there was sitting and waiting time for anything else, it was torture. They were hell on wheels in a restaurant. Ultimately, I think we all appreciate the experiences we collected, but would shoot for a better experience to drive time ratio in the future.

On November 18th, Maya turned 6. We celebrated by riding down sand dunes on sleds and eating cake in a park in 40-degree weather. We all had a great time, but more on that later.

They’re strategizing about how to blow out the candles without Maya smelling fire. I’m not kidding.

Because Thanksgiving was so early this year, we decided to actually celebrate Maya’s birthday a week early to avoid a bunch of kids being out of town for Thanksgiving travel. Unfortunately, about the time I managed to get the “room parent” to send email to the class list inviting everyone in her kindergarten class to the party, Maya came home with a physical invitation to one of her best friend’s birthday party for the SAME DATE.

F-bombs were dropped. Luckily, I was able to call the place we had booked and could move her party to Sunday instead of Saturday. I scurried to send Maya to school with physical invitations with the change in date and pestered her class’s room parent to send out an updated email.

Playing with her friend, Teagan.

Despite everything, quite a few of her friends showed up. The date change messed with a few and illnesses with a few more, but it was still big enough to be a celebration. I honestly think Maya was a little worn out from going to a party on Saturday and then another on Sunday, but all in all, I think she had a good time.

You know who really loved Maya’s party? Ian, that’s who. That little guy was like a pink streak tearing around the Catch Air “jumpy place” where Maya had her party. He climbed up all kinds of things he probably has no business climbing and doing it like a boss.

Ian LOVED Maya’s party.

The gifts from Maya’s classmates were really cute. Most of them made cards for the packages, nearly all of which featured octopuses. What has turned out to be one of the most interesting gifts is a very soft, light green dinosaur-type thing. Maya has decided that he is Oddipuddy’s friend, and she had dubbed him Mr Squishyhead. Mr Squishyhead sleeps with Oddipuddy and keeps him company while Maya is at school. He checks some of Oddipuddy’s more destructive impulses. He even went on vacation with Oddipuddy.

From left to right: Mr Squishyhead, Maya, Oddipuddy

Six year old Maya is going to be a force. She’s lately been writing letters to her classmates, teacher, and grandparents on neat stationery she received for her birthday. She’s been trying to read books to her brother. She builds legos like a champ and has been making interesting art for ages. As always, it will be interesting to see what this year brings.

Back in October, Maya and Ian had their school photos. We only recently received Maya’s. Man, did preschool spoil us. The company that did the photos got the kids to smile fun, natural smiles (even Maya, which is a trick) and had them do multiple poses. Not so with elementary school. It was the standard single shot, and Maya was clearly left to her own devices to figure out how to smile. Either way, the photos are cute.

Maya – Kindergarten (age 5)

Maya continues to do well in kindergarten. Her report card (how funny is that??) was great. Her teacher is convinced she behaves very well. She has friends that she refers to by name and actively looks forward to seeing and playing with. She will often tell me that she has a hard time sitting still, but that she tries to be like her friend Ruthie who behaves very well. She’s come home with stories of computer lab and PE and doing art in “center time” and caterpillars turning into chrysalises and on and on.

Ian – 3 years old

Ian is coming into his own. He often still plays the way Maya wants to play, but more and more he is asserting himself. And he has definitely found his legs physically. That kid can GO. He runs, he climbs, he throws, he rides. It is so much fun watching his confidence and enthusiasm explode. And slowly, we are figuring out his interests outside of “anything Maya loves, Ian loves too.” We can often find him giggling out loud over Peppa Pig’s antics. He’s watched a gingerbread man cartoon lately too which led him to ask me if we could bake gingerbread cookies together. He is worried they’ll run away though, so he has asked that we keep the door locked.

All in all, I think we’re doing pretty well. And I think we are even keeping up through all the crazy birthday and holiday stuff!! Okay, no we aren’t, but we’re having fun anyway.

Our kids joined the Frozen bandwagon a little late. We had tried to show them the movie maybe a year or two ago, but it never really caught on. I can’t even remember why at this point, but Sean started playing the soundtrack for them and wow, were they hooked. Maya still regularly requests the music, and Ian sings along to most of it.

Getting ready to go to the preschool carnival

Ian decided pretty early on that he wanted to be Anna from Frozen. Maya, being the great big sister that she is, figured she’d be Elsa to go with his Anna. It was with much glee that I ordered costumes from Amazon and called it a day. Big checkmark beside the Halloween costume box on my to do list.

The kids made decorations and then insisted the ALL be hung in their rooms

As usual, nanny Anna (not the be confused with Frozen Anna) drew the designs on the kids’ jack-o-lanterns, I gutted and carved, and Sean lit the candles. They were easy on me this year. Ian decided to go traditional and Maya wanted a ghost. And Anna chose designs that weren’t too fiddly. Ian painted a pumpkin at preschool. So that Maya wouldn’t feel left out, we let her paint a pumpkin at home.

Jack-o-lanterns!

These kids have had an action-packed holiday. This past Friday, we went to Ian’s school carnival. The folks at his preschool rent all sorts of inflatable bounce houses and climbing structures. They get local businesses to sponsor booths at the event. They raise money for a good cause (this year it was Austin Pets Alive). Maya and Ian had a ball running over and over again through bouncy obstacle courses, bouncy ball pits, bouncy slides, you name it. They both learned pretty early on that it’s no fun trying to climb and run and jump in a long dress, so neither of them stayed in costume for very long.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Dolphin Fest at Maya’s school, which is basically their fall fundraiser event. Sean and I had planned to devote an hour. I think we were there for somewhere between two and three. It was an emotional roller coaster. The kids laughed, they cried, the won some things, they tried to cope with not always winning everything. Maya scored a photo booth photo with her beloved kindergarten teacher.

Ian bouncing at his carnival

Also, by Saturday, it was downright hot. We were out in the full sun for a couple hours, feeling certain we were getting burnt (amazingly, we didn’t). By the time we got home, we were all beat. We threw on a fun halloween movie for the kids, ordered pizza, and vegged out on the couch. Around bedtime, we noticed Ian had a weird wiggle in one of his legs as he was going up the stairs. Both of us dismissed it as him being silly, but a bit later, Sean saw that he was really favoring his left leg. It seemed to rapidly get worse, to the point that if he put weight on it, he just crumpled. It took a while before he admitted that he had fallen down and maybe hurt his leg.

Maya this afternoon after school, demonstrating how her pink teeth worked

He was acting so strangely that we loaded up the car and took him to the children’s ER. The nurse and doctors quizzed him about exactly what had happened and where it hurt and how much it was hurting now, and they all seemed bemused by how well 3-year-old Ian speaks and explains things. An x-ray machine was wheeled in to get some images of his leg. There were no fractures, and the kids were both pretty excited that they got to see what Ian’s bones looked like. Ian was a little miffed that the machine didn’t make his leg stop hurting though. Alas he was sent home with most everyone shrugging their shoulders. We were given instructions to rest his leg and provide ibuprofen for the pain. For those playing along at home, that means Ian has now had TWO visits to the ER while Maya has had zero. Who would’ve thought.

Sunday he still wasn’t putting weight on it without some serious wobble. But Monday, he woke up excited to show us how he could straighten his leg out and walk. And sure enough, by today, there was no evidence that anything had happened. Kids are amazing. Sean had taken him to our pediatrician on Monday who suggested that he may have strained a joint.

Trick or treat!

He was good to go for trick or treating today. Rain was in the forecast. The clouds were thickening and the wind was picking up, so after some down time after school, the kids got dressed up in their costumes and we headed out to get some trick or treating in a bit earlier in the evening. We joined up with a few of our neighbors and their kids and managed to visit a handful of houses before fat raindrops were plopping on our heads. I had our raincoats in my backpack, so we all put ’em on and kept right on trick or treating. I can remember as a kid being annoyed when I had to wear a coat over my costume because it was a cold Halloween. Maya and Ian didn’t seem to care so long as the neighbors were giving them candy. We ended our evening by popping into our neighborhood block party for a little while.

Guess who we will be adding to our front yard decorations at Christmas

Ian and Maya both seemed like they had a really great Halloween. And now we get to add Elsa and Anna costumes do our dress-up drawer. Do you want to build a snowman? Because Maya and Ian sure as heck do.