Oh, boy. My birthday trip to visit the grandparents was so much fun that I was too exhausted to write yesterday. I seriously napped for almost six hours.
We got in to Albuquerque on Saturday
and went to see my grandpa and grandma Moya right away (they were leaving on a trip of their own the next morning), and that was pretty nice. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Harrison's house where we were staying. Uncle Mike was there too, and I got to meet Erin as my auntie for the first time. (Last time I met her, it was only for about an hour and I was busy eating, so we didn't really get to play. But this time we had a lot of fun.) I also got to play with Grandma's dogs, which I love to do. They're even more tolerant of me than Kucha!
Sunday was my birthday party in Albuquerque.
I knew we had a big family, but I didn't realize I had so many friends in the area until they all showed up. It was a big group, and a lot of people close to my age even. Some people even drove from Tularosa or Scottsdale, and Auntie Coop actually flew in from Ohio to be there. Grandma made me a butterfly cake, and my Auntie Shauna hooked everyone else up with cupcakes that looked awesome. (I think Dad ate six over the next three days.) We had fun playing with balls and bubbles and cars, and the bigger kids played
monkeyballs, which looks fun but I can't throw far or well enough to play it right yet.
We stayed in Albuquerque until Thursday morning. Well, Mom had a job interview in Socorro on Wednesday and Dad went with her,
so I stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and met some of the people they work with. On Monday we all went to the Isotopes game. That's the
biggest stadium I've been in so far, and the game was fun too, especially since the Isotopes won. (Mom has never seen them lose! She should get free season tickets.) Tuesday we went to the zoo, and I loved all the animals, but especially the ducks. I fell asleep before we left, though, so I didn't get to see the eagles or parrots or apes. Then Thursday Mom had a second stage of her interview down by UNM, so Dad took me on a little tour and we went to the
Duck Pond to feed the ducks.
As soon as Mom was done,
we drove up to Santa Fe to spend some time with Nona and Pa-Pa. GG and Great-Grandpa were there too -- they flew down from Canada just for my birthday party. I was a little shy around him at first, but Nona says that Mom didn't like Great-Grandpa until she was two years old, and I sure did better than that. We had a lot of fun watching the birds (there are tons of them where Nona lives!) and playing with some of Uncle Clayton's old toys, including his beloved Thomas the Tank Engine set. I even saw a coyote a couple of times. Plus, I busted the cat trying to hunt birds no fewer than three times by pointing at him when he got up where they keep the bird houses.
Saturday I had my Santa Fe party, and Fiona and Chloe showed up for that with their parents. I'd played with Fiona before, but Chloe is just a baby (three or four months old) so she couldn't play with us. Nona made a trifle, but Mom said it had sherry in it and I couldn't have any. Which is weird, because she didn't have a problem with Auntie Shari holding me on Sunday. Oh well. I got an awesome cupcake with chocolate frosting, and I
demolished it because by now I was an old pro at eating cake.
Even though I requested no gifts for my parties, I got a lot of really nice ones. Thank you to everybody who got me such great gifts! I'll be sending actual thank-you notes later this week.
And even though it's nice to be home, I sort of miss New Mexico already. Mom and Dad say we'll be back there for good in a year, though. I'll sure be happy to be closer to all these people who love me.
Oh yeah -- there are tons of new pictures on
Dad's Flickr site. You'll have to go back three pages to see them all.
thanks to some of my birthday money. I broke it in by going skinny-dipping. Hey, it's my pool, it's my yard, and I'm not old enough for the neighbors to be scandalized yet. Over the last couple days, I've been playing in and out of the pool, getting more used to it and starting to have more fun. Mom actually got in with me today, but she wouldn't let Dad take pictures because she didn't want him putting her in a bikini on the Internet. (She is old enough to draw catty comments -- which is dumb, because my mom looks better in a bikini than a lot of people.) I'm also getting a sand and water table in a few weeks, whenever it gets delivered. That ought to be fun, and might even distract me from playing in Kucha's water dish.