Nana went on an airplane

Nana and Lucy have known each other since Lucy was 18 months old. When we said good-bye to Nana and she flew away on her airplane in Moab, Utah, I cried for days. I cried because I felt like it was the first time Lucy was losing someone special in her life. I cried because we made it through my first year in the program at UC Berkeley. I cried because I couldn’t have done it without Joanna. Lucy is now fluent in Spanish and speaking more and more words in Spanish every day. I cried because I thought she was going to lose that. I cried because I hadn’t cried in over a year. Moms need to cry. We need to burst from the seams and let it all come seeping out. This is terrifying, though. What if the bottom falls out? If we cry will everything fall apart? It turns out it won’t.

It is actually cathartic. It felt good. I hated how good it felt. They were mostly tears of gratitude to the young woman who has loved, cared for and adored our darling girl all year. Childcare was not a good fit for our family. I had so much anxiety and fear. Jim and I actually spent all of last Saturday climbing at Lovers Leap, just the two of us. I know now that she will be well taken care of when we are not there. Nana has taught her so many things that I now can’t imagine who Lucy would be if I would have kept her all to myself.

While Nana is no longer with Lucy 30 hours a week, she still comes over to play or to babysit occasionally. Lucy has rebuilt her trust in Nana, which was a bit shaken after the epic flight from Utah. I When I first started in my program I was convinced most days that I was ruining our daughter’s life by not being with her 24/7. I realize now that it has been a real advantage for Lucy to have the undivided attention of another grown-up in her life. She has learned that there other people in the world who can and will care for her besides her parents. I also got a dear friend out of the whole gig. It has been a wonderful journey of learning for all of us. Now if we can convince to stick around forever J. 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Lucy was born was short, fluffy hair. It had a bit of a strawberry blonde tint and it was as soft as could be. As it grew out it stayed straight and seemed to get darker. It seemed like all of sudden she woke up one morning with a tuft of curls on the top of her head. When she was my belly I talked to her a lot. I always asked her go healthy and strong and stay in her warm, dark, water home until she was completely ready to meet us. As my pregnancy went on and everything continued to go smoothly, I decided I would mention how much I would love it if she was snuggly. And toward the end I told her that curly hair wouldn’t hurt anyone J.

LueyBaby has been healthy and strong from the beginning. We are grateful for this every day. It turns out that in addition to being a snuggly baby she is also a snuggly toddler. She loves to be held tight when she is cold and when we read. She loves to share her love. She wallows all over me before her naps, before bed, and when she wakes up in the morning. My favorite part of the day is spending her first moments awake willowby wallowbying all over the bed. And her curls. They really are lovely.

But there are two problems with a head full of tight curls. The first one is that no one can seem to help themselves when they see her. As soon as she hears the word beautiful now she rubs her hair. It doesn’t matter what the person is commenting on. I wish I could make strangers comment on something other her looks, but we can’t stop them. We will help her realize who she is on the inside and teach her the important characteristics of caring for herself, for others, and for the environment. The second problem is that they are a knotty mess any time the back of her head makes contact with anything. The stroller, car seat, bike cart, bed. And she started to hate to get her hair combed. I made an appointment at a darling little hair shop for kids in Oakland and we took her to get her curly locks cut short.

She sat patiently and waited and watch the hairdresser’s every move. She didn’t flinch or cry or whine for one second. I couldn’t believe it. And now her hair is even cuter, which adds to problem number one. I see little kids with long hair all the time. Not interested. We are going to just keep it short until she has another opinion. It has made brushing her hair so much easier. 

Just relaxing. 

We are about three weeks off on Lucy’s well baby visits. Nonetheless, she had a spectacular 18 month well-baby appointment this past week. I finally got smart and started bringing in our basket of car books. I was willing to give her nursies after her immunization (hep a), but I really didn’t want to. Instead, I brought a pack of Annie’s bunnies gummies, the treat of all treats. She weighed in at 21 pounds and 14.3 ounces and is now 31 inches tall. She sat on the scale calmly (first time) and we watched the numbers turn read and move until the scale figured out her weight. She blew the nurse a kiss without prompting and asked for more when Dr. Brinkley left the room. Nana had shared her EMT equipment with her and that definitely helped Lucy’s comfort level. She didn’t cry one tear when she got the shot and she watched the nurse stick it right into her leg. I gave her one gummy before the shot, acknowledged the shot and the pain, and then offered another gummy. Orange bandaid and boom, done. Nothing. I was stunned.

For the rest of the evening she retold of the story about going to see the doctor.

Lucy: Doc

Me: Yep, we went to see Dr. Brinkely today.

Lucy: Eyes (close her eye and smashes her finger into it)

Me: Right. She used her light to look in your eyes. What else did she look at with her light?

Lucy: Ears (smashes finger into ears). Blah (sticks out tongue).

Me: You go it. And are you healthy and strong?

Lucy: Nods head/whole body. Rubs arm.

Me: Did you get a shot today? In your leg?

Lucy: Nods and rubs the wrong leg.

Me: In the other leg? Did it hurt a little?

Lucy: Ow (nods head/whole body).

Me: But then you ate gummies and got two stickers!

Lucy: Shows happy face.

When she is too quiet...she is probably reading.

It is amazing what a difference we are having in the same experiences at an older age. She now has some memory of some of things we do and it has greatly increased her comfort level and confidence. Rationalization may be my favorite aspect of brain development. We can talk about going to the doctor and the doctor can talk her through what is going to happen. Although this will continue to change and development, she gets it. At least enough to be able to reason with her (as long as all of her basic needs are met at the time).

“No!” “No, no!” It finally happened. Miss Independent learned every toddler’s favorite word. No. She can say it is clear as day. It has even transformed into a double word. She loves it. She says at no every chance she gets. She says no for yes. The first day she started saying no, (last Sunday, to be precise) was a bit of a long day. Lucy was working diligently to express her new found level of autonomy and opinions. We were working hard to be loving and patient. The week got better and better as we learned together to navigate this new world with her. We quickly realized that if we ask her a question and she answers it, we better be willing to respect her answer (which is probably going to be “no”). If we aren’t interested in being turned down, we need to present her with a statement rather than a question. And if she says no to us and it is a reasonable request, we are doing what we can to respect that. I am proud of her voice and her confidence to express her opinion. She is going to be one hell of a woman. Now, to get through toddlerhood in one piece J.

Summer Lovin'

Since we moved west of the Mississippi we are on a mission to see as much of the great outdoors as we can. This summer we have done long trips, day trips, and weekend trips. We have slept at friends, in a tent and in an RV. Lucy has grown and gain so much confidence hiking on uneven terrain and experiencing a vast array of scenery. We kicked off the start of summer with a weekend tent camping trip to Yosemite. Water was cascading over the top of the cliff at every waterfall like it hasn’t done it years. It was like watching a painting come to life. This is where Lucy developed her love for dropping/throwing pinecones, stones and sand into water. “Plunk!”

This is also the trip that we realized there is way too much packing-up, setting-up and breaking down to make this sort of adventuring sustainable. This was before Utah and our discovery of our strong desire to have a camper van. We are looking forward to tricking out the new mini-van to make outdoor exploring less stressful. The amount of time it takes us to get everything just to come home 24-48 hours later and schlep it all back inside is outrageous. Every time we leave I try to consider what we could possibly leave at home, but I always regret not bringing something. Below I have constructed lists of what feels like the “must haves” for our family when we take off for the woods. Packing food has become important to stick to our monthly food budget. Having meals out and buying day time snacks for the rock has far more expensive than preparing in advance, no matter how much more time consuming it may seem. I pack EVERYTHING in zip lock bags in case of bad weather. It also keeps everything organized and easy to find quickly. I have been bringing my little breast milk cooler with a small ice pack, but that only lasts for one day. Hopefully I can figure out a solution for this soon.

Activities for adventure days

• ·        Indestructible books (very light)
• ·        Small shovel
• ·        Jar of plastic insects
• ·        Two Dollar Tree trucks
• ·        Bubbles
• ·        Small, inflatable beach ball

Food for Lucy for a full day away from civilization

• ·        Cliff Z granola bar (gagakaba, as she would say)
• ·        Avocado
• ·        Banana
• ·        Clementines
• ·        Bowl of berries
• ·        Bowl of Annie’s bunnies
• ·        Yogurt (cooler)
• ·        Cheese stick (cooler)
• ·        Boiled Eggs
• ·        Two pouches (only way I can figure out how to bring veggies)
• ·        Muffins (homemade)
• ·        Pack of gummies
• ·        Spill proof water cup/bottle
• ·        Short, square Tupperware
• ·        Knife, Spoon and Fork
• ·        Bib

Blue Backpack Items

• ·        6-8 diapers
• ·        Mostly full individual package of wipes
• ·        Warm coat
• ·        Winter Hat
• ·        Long wool socks or fleece pants
• ·        Extra onesie
• ·        Extra cotton pants
• ·        Extra cotton socks
• ·        Sunny Funny Hat
• ·        Sun Shirt
• ·        Sunblock
• ·        Bug spray
• ·        Hand Sanitizer
• ·        Two burp clothes (good for a placement, face wipe, towel..etc…)
• ·        Parachute Blanket
• ·        Hammock
• ·        Sunglasses

In addition to all of our destinations in Utah and Yosemite, we wanted to get up to the Sierras, namely the Lake Tahoe area. We ended up spending two back to back weekends in the Donner Pass/Donner Lake area. The scenery is breathtaking and the climbing is easily accessible. Shade was a bit of problem for Lucy and there was lots of water to play in, but it was all freezing cold snow melt. We were close enough to the car that I drove her around for a car nap one day and we built a for with the parachute blanket for a hammock nap another day. Lucy as no end to her enjoyment of discovering rocks, moss, pinecones, stones and dirt. I hate when she pours dirt on my hands, on my legs, on her own legs. It makes my toes curl. But I smile, delighted with her innocence and willingness to try so many new things. She easily spends the whole day at the crag with us, reading books, “paying,” digging in the dirt or sand, and, her favorite, scaling VB boulder problems. When she asks where someone is and the response is that they are climbing, she raises her hands above her head and says, “up.” If she is tired, she isn’t thrilled to see me walk away, but if Nana is out with her she curls up in the hammock for snuggles and a rest.

Even though we are so close the San Francisco Bay, the water is quite cold and a bit dirty. We took her to Alameda beach, but the breeze was just too cool and the water had “swimmer’s itch” bacteria (which they don’t tell you until after you pay and walk down to the beach with alllllll your stuff for a fun day with a toddler in the water and sand). We found an absolutely wonderful spot at Point Reyes in Richmond. We can easily bike there on the Bay Trail, which Lucy loves, and there is a great playground (which Lucy loves) right next to a small beach area with water that is cool, but bearable (which Lucy loves J). I was shocked the last time we were there. She walked right into the water, shoes, socks, pants, everything still on. She has been nervous about trying this out, but she had such a great time doing this in the shallow water of the third emerald pool in Zion that she was completely at home with her feet in the pacific salt water. She played until the breeze cooled her down to far, then I snuggled up my baby, who only sits still in my arms when she is cold and when she doesn’t want me to leave, and we had a picnic lunch in the warm sun on a grassy hill.

I have worked hard to take her to see and experience so many different adventures this summer. We have been to a million playgrounds, multiple libraries, waterparks and a small, local amusement park, called Happy Hollow. Mahalia went with us on this trip for her fourth birthday and Lucy followed her around like a little duck following her mama. We got to see and pet farm animals, play in a fort and plop on her first amusement park ride. I thought she might be terrified and cry, but Mahalia was sweet enough to ride the little round and round cars with her. She started sobbing at the end of the ride and signing “more, more.” So, we got back in line about 6 times and she went round and round in circles until she was so exhausted she passed out in the stroller.

I was hesitant to be a SAHM this summer with my LucyBug. I thought time would drag on and we would be bored. I made an extensive list of activities we could do in case we were ready to go stir crazy. I had it all wrong. Time has flown by faster than any other part of parenthood so far. We have less than two weeks until we leave for Wyoming and South Dakota and Lucy starts at Nia House the day we get back. Lately Lucy has been bringing me puppets (puppiyas) and asking to do play outside. It seems like I may have over done it on the action items for the summer. She is thrilled and delighted to see her cow puppiya eat pretend apples after she pretend cuts them up. She can read books on a lap for hours at a time. She loves simple finger paint art on the project mat in the kitchen. Her vocabulary is exploding, in Spanish and English. She has started telling stories with a mix of signs, gestures, Spanish, and English.

We took her to Marina for the Fourth of July festival and we bumped into a pony ride. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, so we paid the $7 for her to have her first pony ride. When it was over I told them her the horses were tired and needed to eat dinner. This is how her story goes:

Lucy: Neigh, neigh.

Me: The horses? Did you ride on Strawberry the horse?

Lucy: Aahhhh. (Signs all done)

Me: They were all day giving rides? Why were they finished?

Lucy: Chhhoooommmpppp (while signing eat)

Me: Oh, they had to eat dinner. That is right. It was fun to ride the horse, wasn’t it?

Lucy: Nods head.

She has stories about everything now. About the “coco” (crocodile, or cocodrilo in Spanish) puppet we played with at the library. About Dah leaving for a work trip in his airplane. About the baby we heard crying who wanted her Mami to give her milk. She has started reading books along with us at the parts she can sign or verbalize. She can do the entire book Moo, Baa, Lalala by Sandra Boynton. She was practicing vowel sounds in Spanish with Nana yesterday. Every day I think she adds four or five new verbalizations to her expressive vocabulary. When we were playing with buttons yesterday, she picked up a star and I asked her what it was. She held it above her head and did the sign for star. She knows the primary colors plus a few more in Spanish and English.

Lucy is going to do half days her first week of school. I am hoping that we can keep having special time together until my classes and the mayhem start back up. When she is at school I need to get my butt moving on my first position paper (that I haven’t touched all summer). I also want to get a couple months’ worth of meals planned so that I can use reuse them and maybe make it through the whole semester without having to worry about a meal plan. This made a big difference over the past year and it was worth the effort. Other than reading, writing and organizing, I want to play puppets, read books, do projects and explore the great outdoors as much as we can for the rest of summer. Luckily the weather is fairly consistent all year, so we can always get outside, but I want to savor every moment of this extraordinary time in my darling girl’s development.

Cruisin' America: Utah Chapter

Utah has been on my list of places to visit in the US for years. During all of those years of dreaming, J). I packed a stupid amount of food and a crazy amount of entertainment for the plane. We decided to continue screen entertainment for this trip. So then I added a few more packs of stickers and a couple containers of play-doh. I packed up a bag of goodies for travel in the RV and another bag of goodies for digging in dirt and ramping trucks over rocks. I drank four bottles of wine and we loaded the plane for what turned out to be my favorite adventure trip we have ever taken.

I never imagined taking our 17 month old on a 12 day rockclimbing, hiking and outdoor adventuring trip. We booked out plane tickets and a Cruise America 25 foot RV and started planning out the trip. As always, we needed to pick destination that would be suitable for everyone. This means no burly approaches, flat cliff bases and shade. We asked Joanna to join us on the first half of the trip to thank her for all of her time, love and teaching with Lucy (really, all of us). This also meant we had a third person to rock climb with us (or to nap in the RV with our adventure girl

Airplane Travel

We ended up getting an empty row of seating on both flights, which were direct and only 1.5 hours in each direction. Some of activities that worked well on the plane were:

• ·        Never before seen snacks out of crinkly bags in a four week medicine holder
• ·        Play-doh for the Dollar Tree
• ·        A notebook with stickers, markers and stamps
• ·        Books!!!!
• ·        Plastic, Dollar Tree Bracelets
• ·        Beaded necklaces
• ·        Hand held fan
• ·        Flip top container of insect erasers
• ·        Walking up and down the aisles
• ·        Mini Magnadoodle

We also bought a magnetic farm book, which was really cute and a great idea in theory. The dumb magnets didn’t stick, so that got lugged around Utah and sent back to Amazon. I also bought Lucy a foam peg board with stacking pegs, but when you buy the cheapest option you get the cheapest product. The holes didn’t fit the pegs…so it got lugged around Utah and sent back to Amazon.

We are taking another plane trip to Rapid City, South Dakota at the end of July. This is my list of plane activities to take along after two flights and 12 days traveling 1,200 miles by RV.

• ·        Window gel clings
• ·        Animal themed stacking doll
• ·        Never before seen snacks out of crinkly bags in a four week medicine holder
• ·        Play-doh for the Dollar Tree
• ·        A notebook with stickers, markers, triangular crayons and stamps
• ·        Books!!!!
• ·        Magnadoodle
• ·        Plastic peg board with shaped stacking pegs
• ·        Books with buttons that make noise
• ·        Never before seen snacks out of crinkly bags in a four week medicine holder

I am still going to pack snacks, but far fewer, including snacks for the grown-ups. Hangry parents=grumpy toddler=unpleasant trip. The only thing I can’t figure out is how to bring books, books and more books. I have been wanting an e-reader for my school work, so we bought the kids edition of the Kindle Fire. I haven’t played with it yet, but I am going to download every possible children’s book I can find. Then we can save the books we bring for bedtime and use the Kindle for reading on the plane and in the car. I will probably put some simple, fun games on it and hope to load it up with all things Spanish I can find that are age appropriate.

Cruise America

Renting an RV was a moderately expensive option for a vacation. And it was awesome. I am talking about one of the best decisions we have made since Lulabee was born. We bought all of our food and linens for the entire trip at Wal-Mart in Salt Lake. I made a list for both categories before we left and Joanna and I flew through that still like bats out of hell. Shopping for that many days and meals and adventures all at once in a store that was new to us was a bit overwhelming, but it ended up being worth it. We also bought 10 board books. We may or may not have returned the linens and board books when we arrived back in Salt Lake. The best part about the RV was that we could stop whenever we wanted, make a meal, stretch out legs and relax. This was absolutely perfect with a young toddler. Lucy moved in to the RV like it was our new home. We paid for campsites for two nights, but we quickly realized we could just dump and fill for less than $15 and sleep just about anywhere. Zion, as the most popular park in Utah, is not a good place to just pull over. We got asked to move the RV by a (very kind) officer at about 10:30 at night. It was our last night and we figured we were bound to get busted at some point. Luckily, as platinum IHG members, Holiday Inn was happy to let us park in their lot for the night. Needless to say, it was a bit tenuous for about half an hour until we got resettled.

We got rained out of a 5 mile hike to a waterfall in between Capitol Reef National Park and Bryce, so we decided to relax in Escalante for a little while. It was completely unplanned, but we dumped, filled, picked up a few grocery items, did some laundry, saw llamas, and played at a playground for a while. Then we realized Escalante is known for, in addition to other outdoor landmarks, a number of fairly easy to navigate slot canyons. Since we had the roaming, temporary home, we decided to change gears and check out Peek-a-boo and Spooky Gulch Canyons. We drove 20 long, bumpy, loud, long, slow, frustrating, long miles down a washboard dirt road meant for four wheel drive vehicles for THREE HOURS. We made it to a dirt lot with our brains jiggled loose and at our wits end to see the most amazing big sky exploding with so many stars it was impossible to see them all. We took a deep breath, hoped the next day’s adventure was worth the headache, and fell asleep listening to free range cattle shuffle around outside of our lonely RV in the middle of nowhere.

We slept with the heat on and in the morning got up, made a nice, hot breakfast, and packed up for an unknown adventure. A number of people made sure to tell us we wouldn’t make it through the canyons with the babe, but they underestimated our darling girl. Thanks to the flexibility the RV provided us for this trip, we made it through both canyons and had a blast while doing it. Lucy was actually the perfect size and had an easier time navigating the canyons than we did. It was a bit precarious to get into Peek-a-boo, but we ended up meeting two other families. There were 8 children under the age of 10 between all of us and we made a line of grown-ups to pass the babes through where they couldn’t hike. Our resident expert climber, Jim, gave everyone tips on the best way to use your body to climb up and down. One of the other dads stood knee deep in muddy water to be a mid-point to get the littles through. Weirdly, Lucy liked them immediately and let them hold her to get her around obstacles.

This ended up being our favorite event on the trip. It was obvious that Jim and I had more experience exploring than outdoors than most people in the canyon and the people who told us we couldn’t, can eat my shorts. We would never put our baby in danger. We can read rock and hiking routes better than most of the morons in Zion on Memorial Day. The most helpful people were the people who stated fact. “There is a large boulder that we had trouble climbing coming up.” “The canyon is less than shoulder wide up ahead.” This helped us make good decisions on what to do next. At some points in the trip it deterred us and we turned around. No one, NO ONE, should discourage a mom from trying. They have no idea how much it can shake a mom’s confidence. I don’t know one mama who is suffering from a lack of anxiety and worry about their small human(s). Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t need help finding things to worry about it.

Now that I have that out of my belly…back to the RV with a completely exhausted and sleeping in the front carrier baby, we get back on the road to hell. When Lucy woke up with could make a nice lunch play outside a bit. I can’t say enough good things about this system. We loved it so much we came home and recently bought a mini-van, which we are in the process of turning into a small, but simple camper-van/adventure mobile. Setting up and tearing down for outdoor play takes a lot of time and energy. It takes more than twice as long with a little one. It is always fun and worth the work, but we when we are going our every weekend, we decided it was worth the investment to make things a little more permanent. Now my goal is to work my butt off and graduate with a sweet job so we can get a real camper-van.

Activities that made the driving go smoothly

·        Lucy’s favorite music, mostly her cd from music class.
·        Having Joanna along with us
·        Finger puppets I picked up from Ikea for $0.50-$1.50 each
·        Markers and a notebook
·        Stickers and a notebook
·        Books!!!
·        Playing ball

The Grand Tour

Our itinerary was ambitious and the weather was unpredictable, but this trip was outstanding. We have so many memories with LucyLou and she loves looking at the pictures. We started in Salt Lake and met up with a long lost friend from Virginia to climb in Maple Canyon. The rock was weird and two snow storms blew through in an hour time span. It snowed dip n’ dots size snowballs before passing through. None of us hiked in with enough clothing to keep us warm for snow. When we had gotten enough of a taste for the type of climbing there, we hiked the short distance back to the mobile home and had hot chili for lunch. Nana and Lucy took a nap in the warmth and the three of us ventured back out. I ended up leading my first 10.a sport climb, we were cold and grumpy, and decided to push on for Moab that night.

Moab was great. We stayed at a campsite two nights here and took long, hot showers. The RV shower was sufficient for a quick rinse after a sweaty day in the desert, but we all decided it took up a lot of room and wasn’t necessary. We visited Arches National Park (and so did every other tourist in Utah). Jim and Lucy napped in the RV. I am telling you. The RV made this a different trip. Every had different needs and they could all be met at the same time. Joanna and I went out to explore double arch and take in the vastness of this incredible state. Then we climbing Owl Tower, the most popular route in Utah. It is a 5.8, one pitch tower, making it incredibly desirable for lots of climbers. We were lucky to only have to wait for one person to finish climbing and then the three of us each took a turn to climb to the top of the tower. It was the first tower any of us had every climbed. Lucy played in the sand, did VB boulder
problems and hiked through the trails seeking lizards to chase and rocks to womanhandle.

You can spend days in that huge park, but we decided to move on to some excellent roadside climbing at Wall Street. We literally parked the RV at the bottom of the base of climbs, which made shade for Lucy to dig in the dirt. Joanna did her first slab climbing on scary sandstone and Jim and I got to crush some harder sport routes. Lucy took a three hour nap while we ran the generator for air conditioning. We rotated in and out of the napping mobile so everyone could climb. Once we had rubbed the prints completely off of our fingers, we headed back to camp for dinner on the fire and Lucy’s first roasted marshmallow. Yes, I let my baby eat corn syrup. She has Nana to thank for this. To be honest, roasted marshmallows are a top five favorite food for me. Not only am I am expert roaster, but I can eat at least ten of them in one sitting.

The next day was Nana’s last day with us. We did two short, but magnificent hikes in Canyonlands National Park. We marveled at the power of water and Jim meticulously described the ways in which you could see water flow billions of years ago. In another life, he is a waterworks engineer. Lucy slept in blue backpack for most of our time in Canyonlands. This would be a theme for much of the hiking on the remainder of the trip. Then we gave our daughter PTSD. After spending five beautiful, amazing days together, we suddenly put Nana on an airplane and sent her back to Berkeley. Lucy was undoubtedly scarred by this experience. It was the first time in her life she had someone close and special to her literally fly out of sight. For the rest of the trip she told us the story about 20 times a day, no exaggeration. It goes something like this:

Lucy: Nrooooowwww (hand motion of flying airplane). Nana.

Me/Jim: Yes, Nana went in her airplane.

Lucy: (Blows a kiss)

Me/Jim: That’s right. We blew Nana a kiss!

Lucy: Up. Bye.

Me/Jim: Nan’s plane went up, up, up in the sky. Muy altas! And then we waved and said, Bye Nana! And what did Nana say to you?

Lucy: Signs “I love you”

Me/Jim: Nana says, Te quiero, Lucy! And will we see Nana again?

Lucy: Nods head.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

After traumatizing our daughter and sending Nana into the sky, we traveled further south to Capitol Reef National Park. This was brief visit to a park that is long and skinny and a bit difficult to explore. We went on a lovely hike and played in the sand along the way. Knowingly, we made a stupid tourist decision to continue to the summit, even though the sky was black and threatening. We ended up doing just fine and decided to get out of the canyon rather quickly. Lucy fell asleep in blue backpack and we had a delicious, warm lunch courtesy of our trusty Cruise America tank.

When we saw a sign for Goblin State Park, Jim remembered visiting there as a kid and we decided to take another quick detour. This ended up being the weirdest place we stopped and some of the most fun we had playing together. These weird sand structures jut up from all over the place and create the ideal place to play hide and seek. Lucy finds endless joy and satisfaction in this simple and thrilling game. One of us would hide with her and the other would do the seeking. Every time we popped out from a goblin, she would fall over laughing. This is also where we saw a major change in her balance and confidence. She navigating the bumpy and unpredictable terrain for about an hour, gallivanting about, scooting down dirt hills and summiting (very small) peaks of sand. It was so fun to watch all of this happen in front of our eyes. She brings us so much happiness. Watching the world through her eyes has a privilege and I am grateful she picked us to be her Mami (yes, she changed my name recently) and Dah.

The next part of the tour brought blazing heat, sun, clouds, white out snow at the peak of the scenic byway at about 9,000 in elevation, back down to mild, cool Berkeley type weather. We stopped for a night in Escalante to do the slot canyons and then headed the short distance we had left to Bryce National Park. This was a magnificent place. Again, it was packed with everyone else who was visiting Utah and must have been doing our same route, but if you could ignore them long enough, it was easy to enjoy. This was the only point in the trip where Jim and I were feeling a bit tired out (and so was Lucy, as she slept through another hike the back pack) and got a little testy with each other. We decided not to talk for a little, then kissed and made up. We are so fortunate to be willing to take each wherever we are in the moment. I have to admit that usually I am the one that gets grumpy and he is endlessly patient and loving with me. In this case, he was pretty grumpy and I realized I am not always as loving with him. It is in travel that we learn the most about each other and ourselves. And it is hard to remain grumpy when the scenery looks like this.

Inadvertently, we ended in Zion National Park, the last part of our journey, on Memorial Day weekend. What a cluster. We opted for some less popular hiking and had the chance to meet up with Jim’s cousin, Kyler, and his fiancée, Laura, along with their friend (from San Fran!), Becca. I carried Louise P. Clark up, up and more up a short, but stiff hike to the mouth of wide, sand covered slot canyon. At the entrance to the canyon we came across a small pond abounding with mating frogs. It was nature at its finest. They were loud and tiny and full of life. Literally. It was really fun to share this Lucy, on the way back down, because, of course, she slept the whole way to the top J. When she finally work up we stopped in a lovely sandy spot covered by the shade of a sheer, tall cliff up against a bring green, moss covered wall. Another dad who had just gotten to the top with his family say Lucy playing in the sand, looked at blue backpack and then commented on how amazed he was the JIM had carried her the whole way up. Except it was me that had carried her. The entire way. By myself. Jim took one look at the guy and said, “thank you! Pretty tough hike!” I was sure I had passed out for at least ten minutes and dreamt that up in my head. When I realized it was reality I lost my mind and cleared up the facts for everyone around. I could have knocked him out. His punishment is having to hear that story every time we talk to someone about our trip….for the rest of his life. What a punk.

Lucy loved hiking around in all of these parks. She walked on logs, threw rocks into water, and fell in love with being on a trail. If there was a paved path, she walked in the dirt beside it. If there was water, she was going to drop sand and stones in it. If there were bugs, she was going to pick them up. I never got tired of watching her explore and experience the outdoors. She is amazing flexible and content. We watched her confidence and vocabulary grow and expand every day on the trip. We had such an incredible time that we are headed to Devil’s Tower, the Black Hills and the Badlands in Wyoming and South Dakota in a couple of weeks. Every time we go on an adventure we get a little better at it. I have decreased the amount of stuff we hike in with us when we go climb, now, too. Lucicita is happy with books, snacks and some company.