Trip Part III ~ The Finale

Daryl & I woke up last Sunday morning in my old room, in my old house...it was a little surreal, but very nice. We took our time snuggling and getting ready for the day before heading downstairs. It was Uelita's watch and we knew all was well with the Snapper.

When we did finally make it downstairs, they were GONE! What was there was a little post-it indicating they had gone to El Patos's in search of breakfast tacos. Never heard of El Pato? It's a local owned restaurant chain that has the BEST fast food Mexican in the world. Taco Cabana actually 'tried' to make it down here, they were all packed up and gone within one year. I could pay homage to El Pato all day...maybe I'll make a list of Must Hits When You're in The Valley type thing...I'll do just that as soon as I have some free time... :)

Daryl and I lounged in the garden room waiting for our Snapper. Then we saw her as she came through the garden gate. It took her a while to see us, but then she quietly mouthed 'Mama' and hurried towards me as fast as her short chubby legs could take her. We all snuggled and ate. Mia spent some time on her uelita's lap playing Yankee Doodle (their favorite game...it's only theirs..I don't do it at home) Then I showed Mom how to work the digital camera, upload and share pics. We gave her our old one, 'cuz we got our fabulous new one. Her 'new' camera is about 4 years old, but it's easy to use, and takes some pretty decent pics.

On our way out, we gave Mia a chance to explore her uelita's stairs. She flew up them, but wasn't sure how to get down. She very capable of coming down 'feet first'. That's on her tummy and, well, feet first. But, no, Mia wanted to be brave and prove to everyone that she wasn't a baby any more and she wanted to WALK down! Let me tell ya a little something about these stairs. They aren't regular normal stairs. The steps are tall and steep, tops are narrow..you pretty much have to go up on the ball of your foot, bc the steps aren't wide enough for your whole foot, much less wide enough for a Snapper butt. I taught her how to come down by bouncing on her butt, but then realized there wasn't enough room for her feet and then her butt when it hit that step, so to much of Mia's dismay, I had to unteach the butt bouncing and retrain in the feet first form. Wow she can be stubborn. Oh, one more thing, the banister rails aren't on every step...try every OTHER step. There was easily enough room for Mia to side back and fall through. So, feet first, towards the left side was my goal. After a couple of maneuvers that made my mom make strange noises and throw her hands up in the air while scurrying to the kitchen while saying something like 'not on MY watch is that little girl going to hurt herself', Mia got it and we were able to finish with the stairs on a good note.

Then we packed up, gave hugs and kisses, and pointed our car to the North. Mia was in actually very good spirits all the way home and was very happy to see her room, stuff, crib...when we got here.

Just wanting to WALK down the stairs!

Mia with Raquel

Yankee Doodle