Day 3 continued…
Remember where I left off last post? Where we were going to just relax and snuggle on the couch and go to bed early? Yeah… that didn’t QUITE happen according to plan. We made dinner that night in Santa Fe: leftover pulled pork carnitas, chips and salsa and guacamole, and salads. As we were winding down Sollie started to get upset, saying he wasn’t feeling good.
-I’ve debated whether to disclose the following information on the internets because it’s kind of embarrassing, but the older I get, I realize that we just shouldn’t be embarrassed and ashamed of as many things as we do… so here it goes-
Pinworms. He had pinworms. I didn’t see “evidence” of them visually, but all of the signs were there. Booty itching, crying, jumping around uncomfortably. He’s had them before, so fortunately we knew if we didn’t handle it right away, it was going to be a LONG night. And that particular medicine we did not anticipate bringing! So Philip ran out to grab some at Walgreens (thank you, Lord, for being in a city!) right around the corner. We gave him meds and we held him as he finally drifted off to sleep- and slept all night he did! Whew! Felt like we dodged a bullet. We all took a dose (they recommend you do) and we haven’t had a problem since.
Day 4
Santa Fe was still chilly the next morning, and I was chomping on the bit to get out and explore some more. We had a light breakfast in the condo (we’re trying to only eat out once per day not only to save money, but hello stretchypants!) and left for the Santa Fe Children’s Museum… only to find out it’s closed until the end of the month. Dang. Time to be flexible!
We found ourselves in the downtown Plaza which is bustling with activity and oh so cultural! The first store we stopped in had a man inside who looked Native American, so I started up a conversation. Turns out, he is Hopi and grew up on a reservation northwest of the Grand Canyon. He told us all about the kachina dolls lining the walls of the shop and how every person is given many throughout their life and they mean different things. They are hand carved with a knife and he pulled out a piece of wood and his piece that he’s working on. Traditionally, and the ones in his shop aren’t painted with acrylic paint, but with pigments from rocks, dirt and plants. It was such a joy to talk to him! We got a picture with him so we’d remember our Hopi friend.
Then we walked around the plaza, petting dogs, admiring the turquoise (the word for the day!) jewelry, rattles, paintings and more. We heard a street violinist and the basilica bells ringing into the plaza. It was a gorgeous day, though chilly!
We drove back (only about 5 miles away) to the condo, ate some lunch and I took the boys back out to a place called Kakawa Chocolate House. YUM! They sell chocolate elixirs and have ice creams, truffles, coffee, and everything else decadent you could imagine. I then took them on a drive up into the mountains a bit to see if we could get a good view of the city. I think this sufficed. Jude said this was the best part of his day!
Then we came home to relax a bit. I mainly worked on laundry (yay for a washer and dryer), re-packing bags, sorting through our items we needed to toss or reorganize, and I finished a book- Teaching From Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace. We had on our plan to visit a local brewery for dinner because it had great yelp reviews, thought Philip would enjoy some craft beer, and I thought I had read that it was good for kids and they had chicken tenders and such. Well, even though we got a great drive out of it and saw some more of the outskirts of Santa Fe, it definitely was not kid-friendly. So we quickly found another authentic Mexican place with El Salvadorian influences. It was a step out the ordinary especially for the boys, but if we can find shrimp and beef fajitas, we are usually safe. 🙂
When we got home, Jude started complaining that his left ear was aching. Ughh… So I broke out my tylenol, and essential oil blend that always helps with ears. The boys went to bed and Philip and I got to watch Arrow from his laptop in our room, even though I was pretty tired.
Day 5
Jude has been our early riser each day which is a surprise because at home, he’s always the last to wake up. I woke up with the Father’s voice in my head saying, “Be flexible”. I had on my schedule that we would be leaving the condo at 9am, so that meant getting a shower, everyone dressed, condo cleaned up, and van re-packed. That’s a lot of work, by the way. Jude really wanted to play a game first thing, so I decided to be flexible and not worry so much about the specific time we needed to leave. We’re not on anyone’s schedule but ours anyway! So poker we played. Yes, that’s his game of choice for the moment. 😉
The morning went as planned, and we departed our little cow skull, Hopi basket, woven rug decorated condo. The boys said they had a really fun time at our “home”. We drove an hour outside of town to Kashe-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument next. I had stumbled across this hike in my planning and I’m oh-so glad we decided to come. There are 2 hikes, one is only about a mile, the other is about 3.5 miles and goes to the summit. Our boys are not the outdoorsy, hiking type (as much as I wish they were), so I knew the 1 mile was all we were up for. Plus, we had a lot of mileage to go that day. I will share with you many incredible pictures from our hike. Absolutely gorgeous!! This is a must if you are in Santa Fe or Albuquerque. I would love to summit the top someday, but our jaunt was worth it.
During our picnic lunch, Jude was complaining that he didn’t feel well and his other ear really hurt. UGH! He promptly fell asleep and I thought he might sleep it off. We stopped for gas and coffee (Epiphany Espresso) in Albuquerque and Jude woke up, started crying, so Philip did a quick pullover into a hotel parking lot, and Jude hopped out and puked in the rocks outside of someone’s window. Sorry people. Hope you didn’t see that. He said he felt much better, but his ear still hurt, so I gave him tylenol and my essential oil blend again in that ear this time. He immediately fell asleep and proceeded to sleep for about 3 hours in the car. When he woke up, we were in Arizona and he felt 100 times better. Whew!
Our next stop was the Petrified Forest, which is also a part of the Painted Desert National Park (I did not know this, but had wanted to drive through the painted desert, so hooray!). The boys decided not to go through with the Junior Ranger Program, to which I was a little bummed, but oh well. Look it up if you don’t know about it. You get free badges at national parks! We had driven through some heavy rain before we arrived (what’s with the cold temps and rain, southwest, land of SUN?), but it stayed to the east of us while we went through the park. Yay!! You can see in the pictures how dark the sky was behind us at the Painted Desert. I didn’t know this either, but you pretty much drive through these parks, stopping every once in awhile to look at a view, an artifact, or the like. There are short hikes, which I’m sure are wonderful, but not in windy 40 degree weather! We hopped out, looked, and hopped back in to our warm van!
The rainy weather gave us some amazing sunset skies on the remainder of our drive into Williams, AZ. (Our original plan was to stay in Flagstaff, but we hadn’t made any hotel reservations until dinner. We’re keeping hotel booking last minute in case we need to adjust our schedule at all.)
Today I am thankful for the neck rests we bought, our thermo-electric cooler, nice new wiper blades, and our iPhone mount for the car. All useful purchases for sure.
Day 6
Grand Canyon day!! All slept well for the night, and we felt pretty rested. We had breakfast, got ready to go and started our hour drive to the Grand Canyon. The last time I had been was in 1984 (on the way to the summer Olympics in LA with my family- I was 2), and then again a few years later. I don’t remember too much, but I remember it made an impact on me. I didn’t remember the forest everywhere or all of the commercialism. But the canyon. Oh, I remembered that. It almost took my breath away and sent tears to my eyes.
Sometimes when I see something in nature: mountain ranges, canyons, forests, oceans, space; I want to drink it all in, touch it, feel it, hug it almost. But it’s just so vast. The sheer size of it is almost incomprehensible to take in. You can’t really touch it, and it can feel anticlimactic. I guess that’s why people want to be silent and just look.
But this is not what 3 young boys are inclined to do. They’re still walking in immaturity (understandably), so we were constantly shushing them and training them to “look” and admire and stop Irish dancing, or hopping on top of rock walls, or talking- incessantly. I know this made an impact on them, and I know someday they will appreciate it. Boys will be boys.
I’m so thankful the rain – again – held off! It loomed in the forecast and was chilly – again – this morning, but fortunately we had partly cloudy skies that allowed for some beautiful viewing. We hiked around a bit, took the shuttle to several viewing points, took a ton of pictures, had a picnic lunch, and headed back. I could have stayed all day, just sitting and staring, but that will have to be for another time. Even Philip said on the way back to our hotel that he might be interested in hiking it someday. Then I picked my jaw up off my lap.
The rain finally blew in and Philip wanted to get some work done this afternoon, and I wanted to work on the blog, so he encouraged me to go to the little local coffeehouse cafe I found (shout out to Cafe 326 in Williams!) where I am ALL BY MYSELF right now! What an amazing treat! He knew I needed some quiet alone time, and I think my patience level is back to full now. 🙂
Enjoy our Grand Canyon pictures!
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