We missed church today, since the Banana was down with a diarrheal illness yesterday & we didn't want to infect anybody (she seems much better today).
Papaya Daddy was going a little stir crazy by lunch time today so, as I put the two girls down for naps, he & the Papaya headed off in our car to find a nice place to do some hiking.
It's fun to see them go off together to pursue adventure, even with the inevitable (but slight)worry I can't help bearing (two adventure-loving males together). I'm sure they'll come home having had a wonderful and exciting time.
Last Saturday, we headed off with our church friends to the edge of Third Mesa for a cookout. About half the group headed over the edge of the mesa for a hike/rock scramble. They had a wonderful time, & Papaya Daddy was blown away by how agile and reasonable the Papaya was in his climbing. He had confidence and skill, but stayed away from ledges & dangerous situations. We were both proud of him, and I'm sure it was the beginning of many heart pounding adventures to come for the Papaya & his Daddy. Sometimes, as a mother, you'd just rather not look or know.
See the Papaya stuck to the steep rock?
We've heard that this is one of the caves that the Hopi used to hide out in to keep their kids from being taken away to government boarding school about 100 years ago (it used to be mandatory, and some of the parents who resisted were actually taken to Alcatraz!). Evidently it doesn't have much in it now except for rat poop (yes, they explored it).
Here's a just plain gorgeous picture, professionly taken by Papaya Daddy:
Goodbye!
There's at least one great thing about living on an Indian reservation where there's almost zero interest in national politics (I haven't seen a single sign for either presidential candidate on the entire reservation): when you show up to vote, the number of poll workers will almost certainly outnumber the amount of people waiting in line. This morning, Papaya Daddy & I were the lone voters, with about 10 workers at the polling station to help us along. It still felt good to be a part of the national democratic process, however.
