A rainy rainy weekend in Southern Colorado

On Wednesday we took a 5 hour drive South to visit my DH's mom, Sally at her cabin.  It's a great place to visit, right on the Conejos River, with beautiful trees and trails.  We packed everything we'd need for adventures in the great outdoors.  My husband packed his fly fishing gear, and we brought the baby backpack for hikes.  (Can you find Natalie in this picture?  I'll give you a hint - she's preparing for the car-ride in her usual way.)  

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, and we spent much of the trip indoors.  It was still a great trip to the cabin, full of the usually good food and good conversation.  Luckily my husband brought his fly tying gear, and I brought my sewing stuff, so we had plenty to do indoors when Natalie wasn't keeping us busy.  

The drive there is pretty long, and our little one is full of energy these days, so we stopped in Fairplay about halfway through and had our lunch.  We found a quiet little gazebo with a picnic table in it and parked ourselves there.  Minutes later, we were swarmed by third graders and their teachers and parents on a walking field trip through town.  Can you spot the baby in this one? 

This ended up being really a good thing.  Natalie played with these little girls, and was very entertained.  She crawled after them in the grass and they talked to her, picked her up and gave her toys to play with.  
Here she is demonstrating her newest trick!  

She's getting more and more confident by the day.  It's very exciting to watch her.  She's so proud of  her new walking skills!  

Once we got to the cabin we quickly settled into a routine.  Natalie slept great in her pack-n-play at the foot of our bed.  In the morning we all had smoothies.  

Here she is waiting with the dogs for her share of the banana-nana-nana in the morning.  

The first day we were there we took a drive to Taos.   Our first stop was this huge toy store.  They had a terrific play yard out back that I helped Natalie climb through.  She liked the slide at the end, and probably would have done it again, if I hadn't lost confidence in the structure carrying my weight.  Next time we go she'll be able to do it on her own!  

 She's really starting to like these trikes too... we'll have to get hers down from the garage where it's been hanging soon. 

   

We had some tasty Mexican food at Michael's Kitchen while we were there.  We will soon take the hint that Natalie is getting to an awkward restaurant age... this picture does not show the demon child that she was impersonating while we were trying to eat.  

The next day we got some chores done at the Conejos Ranch down the road from Sally's cabin.  They were very nice and let us use the printer there to print out some huge refinance documents.  We were working on a mail-in refinance and had to get the paperwork signed and notarized by Friday at the latest.  Tomorrow I take them in and we'll see if it all worked!!  

Natalie enjoyed all the Western paraphernalia at the ranch as well as the mules and baby goats!  

It was a good trip, even though we don't have pictures of panoramic mountain vista to show for it.  We got to spend some quality family time with Mama Sally which is what it's all about.  

Here's Natalie saying goodbye to Sam, her new best friend, before we left.  I think she will mostly miss Sam for helping her clean her plate when she is done, (or maybe just bored) with eating.  

And one last picture.  Three generations!