Ah Reckon, Pard’ner…

This weekend we were invited down to West Pueblo, CO to spend time with some of P.Pie’s relatives whom – for the sake of this post and personal enjoyment – we’ll call Aunt Callejón, Aunt Grammy, Uncle PopPop, Hot Tub Cowboy, Miss Priss, and Bush [ed. note: see below for exact familial relationship].

Personally, I wasn’t all that thrilled with going as there is always things that need to be done around the house, at work, or in an attempt to have a social life. But I always worry when the family travels alone, so I drove us all down there.

West Pueblo is, as you might imagine, west of the town of Pueblo. As it turns out, it’s quite a bit west; I was beginning to think we were in Monument Valley, Arizona. But when we finally got there – among the scrub brush, stunted cedar trees, and low mesas, plateaus and buttes – I was awestruck. The beauty of Southern Colorado is often overshadowed by the majesty of the Rockies to the northwest, but it should not be.

The property is in a ‘subdivision’ of large lots (think 40 – 400+ acres) made up of small herd cattle ranchers, equestrian ranchers, alpaca/llama ranchers and people who just like wide open spaces. The home we visited was perched on top of a small mesa looking over sparse cedar trees across a plateau and a valley beyond that. Amidst the scrub, large limestone boulders surrounded the house punctuated with sparse curves of lush St. Augustine grass.

The particular slice of heaven we were visiting belonged to Hot Tub Cowboy (so called because we set up his hot tub while we were there) and besides a gracious nature and a beautiful home, he also has three horses. So after dinner, HT Cowboy, Bush (HTC’s son), Squeak and I took a walk to feed said horses.

After a skidding fall in the dirt and the shale, resulting in dirty hands, a slightly skinned knee and a few tears, we made it to the horse stalls. Squeak sat on the top of a fence rail, in awe of the massive majestic animals. After a dumping of hay and hand feeding of corncobs, we were joined by Axe, P.Pie, and Aunt Callejón.

HTC asked who wanted a horsey ride. Have you ever seen a 3.5 year old girl turn down a pony ride? Yeah, me neither. She was in absolute heaven and Axe would not miss his turn. They both did great.

While the entire trip was great and the horse ride was probably the cherry on top, my favorite moment was after the kids had had a quick swim in the above ground pool. Squeak was naked in the kitchen, changing from wet Disney princess bathing suit to dry shorts and Axe was grabbing her from behind in a rough/tough brotherly hug, to which Squeak replied, “Axe! Don’t love me while I’m naked!”

[ed. note - here's the familial stuff]

Aunt Callejón is P.Pie’s cousin, Miss Priss is Callejón's 4 year old girl, Aunt Grammy/Uncle PopPop are Callejón’s Parents and related to P.Pie on her mother’s side while Hot Tub Cowboy is Callejón’s boyfriend and Bush is HTC’s six year old boy.

Clear? Good. Now explain it to me.