Shane's Day

Shane usually joins me in bed in the middle of the night, but last night he actually let me sleep all the way through - so we both had plenty of energy for his big day! He scrambled into the bed early this morning, full of giggles and hiding under the covers when daddy came in.

After we dropped the big kids off at Grandma's, we turned back up the hill towards Mayhill. We stopped at the cafe there for a donut, where he charmed chuckles out of several regulars with his chipmunk chattering and enthusiasm for all things dessert.

He even got to eat it in the car, which is usually a big "no". The whole inside needs to be pressure-washed after tha camping trip, so what's a little chocolate?

And he NEEDED the sugar, obviously.

He kept saying "Mommy, I am SO EXCITED!!"

Twenty miles past Mayhill we came to Runyan Ranch, where we were the only visitors the whole time we were there.

Man, I need to shave my legs.

Some new animal friends since our last visit!

So. Dang. Cute.

Zipper has earned his sign.

The goats are always the pushiest, and there was a brown one in this pen who wanted ALL OF THE FOOD ITS MINE ITS MINE ITS MINE. I distracted him with dribbles of food at one side of the pen, while Shane fed everyoe else at his end!

For some reason I always hear the pigs in my head cutesy-baby-talk style:

You gots food for me, too?

They are about to have MANY baby goats!

As always, we had to see the fish.

And as usual, the geese were our very noisy entourage.

Eager but sweet llama.

Pushy and pregnant goat.

Shane got attached two these two littler ones. They are all now named "Buddy".

Found a feather, too!

We grabbed a popsicle, returned our empty feed bags (and a plastic bottle some halfwit left behind), paid for everything, and headed back down the hill.

By the time we reached Cloudcroft the popsicle was gone - and Shane was slightly sticky. We stopped at the Family Dollar there for wet wipes, and managed to also come out with cookies, socks (not ankle!), erasers, and a Paw Patrol picture.

Quick stop in High Rolls to hide a rock,

Then to the Blue Stone to get his summer reading prize, and say "hi" to Ivan, of course. 

And, of course, Alamo Jump (or, as Shane says, "Aminal Jump")

He made friends with a slightly younger boy, and they chased each other around for an hour.

Shane isn't starting school yet, but he needed school supplies too! We picked up a few things at the Dollar Store. 

By the time we grabbed groceries at Walmart, he was asking to go home. Don't have to ask me twice! And by the time we hit the driveway at 3PM:

Yep, I broke him. He broke me, too! The bigs were all playing with friends, so we had some quiet time at home for a bit, working on some of the things we bought for 'school'.

For his meal, he chose...TV dinners. 

Well, it was easy, at least! I let them eat in front of the TV, which we NEVER do, and that was enough to remind me of why. He wanted to sleep in the camper too, so off we went - with his new double barrelled squirt gun, "so I can protect you from the aminals."