Ten Years of Wedded, Fiber-Glass Bliss

Some days just feel longer than others, and Friday was one of those days.  You probably thought that the visit to the Grand Canyon was the only event that happened that day, but oh no, there was so much more.  And one little thing I forgot about our canyon visit was my little encounter with a chipmunk.  One of the first things we saw upon arriving at the viewpoint were little signs that said not the feed the squirrels and chipmunks.  These signs explained that they know how to get their own food and blah blah blah about their ecosystem and what not.  However, I do not think that the chipmunks have been briefed on this plan and cannot read the signs because they seem to have other ideas.  While walking along, Mattie spotted a little chipmunk and I bent down with her to get a closer look as it scampered off in the opposite direction.  As I knelt down, that little booger skidded to a halt and did a 180, and scampered just as quickly right up to me.  I haven’t had a whole lot of close encounters with rodents so I just sat there waiting to see what it was going to do.  The little guy came right up to my knee and put its little hands on me and appeared to lick me.  I am guessing that it thought I was going to offer it some sort of treat.  And it was either a lick or that chipmunk has some dental problems, but there was definitely a little wet spot on my knee.  It was all very odd, but Mattie looked at me as though I was some sort of super hero for about an hour after that, having charmed the chipmunk and all.  I wish I had a picture of it, but I’m sure your imaginations can create a pretty accurate scene.

As we were heading back to Flagstaff, we drove by an authentic Indian village.  Not in the least, but someone had gone to great lengths to try to recreate one and make several dollars from tourists.  We of course stopped.  Not only did they have several teepees that the kids wanted to walk around in and spin (I have no idea why teepees produce spinning in my children but they do), but they had a bone barn.  Who doesn’t see the words bone barn and immediately want to check it out?  The bone barn was actually a little shed filled with lots and lots of antlers, cow skulls, horns and jaw bones from very large bovine looking animals.  My kids really liked it.  If they were to write yo a travel brochure, I am sure they would include the bone barn, plus its free.  But between you and me, I would just drive on by.  Mattie was concerned that they had killed all these animals and wanted to go in the shop and preach to them about the evils of poaching but I assured her that they had all probably been very old animals and died of natural causes and lived very happy lives.  That’s my assumption at least.

 

Almost ten years ago (June 23rd to be exact) Brandon and I got married.  Shortly after our honeymoon, we road tripped out to California to his parents house for a reception to celebrate us and our happy little marriage for all the friends and family that hadn’t been able to join us for the actual wedding.  I would recommend a 3-4 day long road trip to every newly married couple, it seems to really seal the deal.  Anyway, on our way out there while driving through the very boring landscape of Arizona, we spotted a sign for a place called Stewart’s that boasted a free piece of petrified wood for every visitor.  We had to stop.  It was the craziest place and I wish that I had pictures to show you, but the ones that I took were on regular film.  Just imagine though fiberglass dinosaurs with mannequins dressed in neon clothing hanging from their mouths, a shack packed with petrified wood and fools gold and a very large,smelly man in overalls – that would be Stewart’s.  And I did get my free petrified wood, though in my ten years of happily married, I seem to have misplaced it.  Anyway, Brandon and I were hoping that since we didn’t get the chance to renew our wedding vows in Vegas, maybe we could at least take our children to Stewart’s and they too could see the magnificent and frightening dinosaurs and smelly man……and get their free old hard wood.  Much to our dismay, Stewart’s was closed when we arrived.  No free petrified wood, but you can’t close and put away giant dinosaurs, so we pulled right up to the fence and the kids got to get out and check out the wacky wonders.  There have been several things that we have exposed to the kids to on this trip that I am sure years from now they will wonder if that was some weird dream they had.  Did their parents drug them which caused hallucinations?   I think being back at that special place, with the decaying fiberglass saber-toothed tiger as our backdrop, and our 3 little miracles gathered around us whining that they were hungry and the iPad was dead, right here just days away from our 10 year diamond anniversary – it was like our own little vow renewal.  So thank you Stewart’s for the memories, then and now and may we return to you 10 years from now with what I am sure will be a very go with the flow 17-year-old Mattie who won’t be the least bit dramatic, and calm mild-mannered 13-year-old Reese, and a bookish, soft-spoken 10-year-old Lila to renew our vows again on our 20th.

 

I would like to note before closing that we made it to our destination of Tucumcari, NM at about 2:00 in the morning driving through a spooky New Mexico lightning display and experiencing a man trying to cross the road in the middle of absolutely no where in total darkness.  We almost hit him.  And we almost wet our pants in fright.  But we made it and hopefully that man did to, wherever he was headed.

The Day We Were Officially Grown Up

Yesterday was a long day.  A great day, but a day that felt like it was about 3 days rolled into one.  Our morning began in Flagstaff, AZ.  Which I would like to say is a lovely town.  We would have liked to have spent a few days there, but since we couldn’t, we just decided to live it up while we were there.  After the kids went for their morning swim ( which I would like to brag on my daughter for a little bit, Mattie swam from one end of the pool to the other…by herself), we went out for a lovely little breakfast.  Brandon was very excited because in his research for our trip, he had made the discovery of a little place that had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  It’s called Brandy’s, and it was tasty! I’m no foodie by any means, but I can see how this place was selected to appear on a tv show about delicious food.  They also sold Big Train chai tea, which takes me back in time to my college days when another bestie Kristie first introduced me to it.  We bought some tea and a bag of cinnamon rolls to take on the road with us as we journeyed to …..The Grand Canyon.  I hope you read that using a big, booming sort of voice because that’s how I said it in my head.

When we arrived at the first lookout for the Grand Canyon, I think Brandon and I were more excited than the kids were.  They really had no idea what they were about to see and how do you explain a 200+ mile long hole in the ground to a 3 and 7 year old?  To try to create the scene and increase the wow factor, I told them to pretend they were on horses, just riding along.  I’m sure my galloping along beside them while wearing Lila really helped to set the scene. So we are galloping, we’re almost there and you almost want to tell them to close their eyes and not look just yet because this is about the grandest (ha) thing as a parent that I will ever present to them. We were so pumped! I told them, “Now pretend you are on your horse, just riding along and then all of a sudden you come to this!” And then their eyes saw it.  I think they were impressed, but not because of anything they said.  No, it was more how they just stood there, almost like they were trying to wrap their little minds around what they were seeing.  The moment of silence and awe didn’t last long, however, and pretty soon Mattie was trying to scale rocks and shrubs and terrifying her mother.  She would go up to those protective guardrails and just lean her little body out over them as though somehow that would help her to see this magnificent landscape that much better.  Thankfully, she is very affectionate with me right now and didn’t see my request of her to hold my hand as anything more than mommy wanting a little Mattie love.  Reese had a hearty dose of fear and respect for the canyon and had problems with staying nearby.  Fact is, he preferred to take his tour atop his daddy’s shoulders.  We went into the visitors center to get a bit more educated, and it was while watching the movie of the Grand Canyon that I was struck by something.  Brandon and I are now fully grown.  We had driven in our SUV, with our 3 children, to one of our nation’s most famous landmarks.  We had officially taken them on one of those “remember when” road trips.  I don’t really know how to put it in words, but it was a pretty fabulous feeling.  It was also during that same movie that I came to another conclusion. Part of the movie was showcasing the hundreds of different animals that call the canyon home and the researchers that study them.  I immediately thought of my animal loving, rock climbing girl.  We have always joked about Mattie running off to Africa to study the lions.  But after seeing how excited she was by all the animals and the look of absolute awe that she had while staring at the lady park ranger, it looks like Africa may have been replaced by Arizona and Mountain Lions.

Look out world!

The girls at the Grand Canyon

The whole fam

Baughman Babies

The Baughman boys

Tuckered out and taken a rest

Who knew there were lions in Arizona? Mattie is now aiming to be a Park Ranger when she grows up

Meet Bat Bat. Reese’s new favorite thing. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find stuffed bats

We had a great time on our little detour from I 40. And it’s a memory of my little family that I hope to keep forever.

We Are Special People Who Drive a Special Car That Takes Special Gas

*This post was actually written on Friday, but due to technical difficulties, isn’t being posted until today.

 

Yesterday began our long journey home, the beginning of the end. So often, the trip home isn’t nearly as much fun as the getting there.  To try and not let that happen to us, we have a few more adventures yet ahead of.  Things like the Grand Canyon, the weird dinosaur park in Holbrook, and a stop at Mumsey’s.  But none of that was on the agenda for yesterday.  No, yesterday was mainly going to be driving and lots of it.  And another adventure through the Mojave desert.  But before we got there, we drove through the wind farms of Tehachapi.  This has been Reese’s favorite part to drive through and he was thrilled to get to visit again.  He says all the wind mills look alive, like Transformers.  I think he thinks that if he watches close enough, he’ll see them actually uproot and start walking around or something.

Lots of driving leads to boredom.  Boredom leads to things like this.

Boredom also tends to lead to grumpiness and grumpiness leads to losing your cool when your sister dares to look at you.  This then leads to the daddy having to pull the car over and you having to take a desert time -out.  During his desert time-out, Reese did a little bit of screaming and some crying until snot was running down his face.  After all this, the daddy gets down on his level, looks him right in the eye and says “Reese I love you”, and with that, Reese goes over and gathers the batman that had been hurled into the sea of sand, takes Brandon’s hand and together they walk back to the car.  Desert time-out is over.

More driving and we pass this.

I can’t recall a time when I ever needed this particular combination of items, or even one of these items individually, but it sure is nice to know where to go should the need arise.

And all this driving took up a lot of gas, which meant we needed to stop and get more.  We stopped at a place and I just had to chuckle when I saw this sign taped to the gas pump.

I have never been to a gas station that had special gas! What exactly makes it special? Do you have to be special to buy the special gas? Is it reserved for birthdays and other special occasions? So many questions, but more than anything it was a little sad to know I would probably never see special gas again and we hadn’t been able to get any.  So for those of you driving around in your special cars with special gas, I hope you feel very, very special.