PECOS BABY!

We had so much fun. Except for the F*%@ing birds, but I'll get to that in a moment. We got up to the "Forked lightening Ranch House" around nap time. I was so happy to find that the Casita we were staying in was super comfortable, clean and well stocked with all the things I forgot - like dish soap. There was plenty of room for all four of us and there was even a washer and dryer (new!) in the unit. The best part was the scenery. I had no idea New Mexico could be so pretty.

The park people were so friendly and welcoming, they clearly loved their jobs and took a lot of pride in their park. Very refreshing. I posted a bunch of pictures on the link above. I am still not very good at getting slide shows on my blog.
The bird story:

There was a nest outside of our casita and it was very noisy during feeding times (every 15-20 minutes it seemed). As of Saturday late morning I hadn't yet had a chance to check out the type of bird when the kids and I returned to the casita for nap time. When we arrived I saw a bird hopping around on the ground unable to fly but it had feathers.
So I spent about five minutes chasing the f*#$ing thing around the yard until I finally caught it. I showed it to Lucas who thought it was really cool and then I stood on a chair to return it to the nest. ( Ahhh I am such a good person aren't I? Sainthood is just around the corner for me. ) As I reached into the nest the other FOUR FLIPPING BABIES all jumped out of the nest and onto the ground, and then the fifth one whom I had just returned followed them down. But they weren't flying. And the parents. . . ahhh the parents were so pissed off at me. They were screaming at me and dive bombing me and I still didn't look to see who/what they were. I was now focused on keeping track of where all the babies went so I could catch them. The kids laughed their cute little butts off as I ran around the yard cornering and then carefully returning each and every baby to the nest - carefully not disturbing the others this time. When I finished a full half hour later I realized that I still didn't know what they were. So I looked up at the incredibly PISSED off parents who were perched on the roof still raising hell and this is what I saw:

A Brewer's blackbird. Ugg. I had hoped that I would have rescued something glamorous, like baby eagles. Haa haa. They clearly weren't eagles but you get the point.

The worst part was that for the remainder of our time there the birds dive bombed me every time I left the building. I took a walk and they FOLLOWED me on my entire 20 minute walk and yelled at me the whole time. I had no peace or quiet at all.