Raya almost crawling at Auntie Morgan's

Raya and Mama hike to Morgan's house

Raya is not really napping enough. Mama had a blessed unscheduled day on Thursday. Determined to help Raya have a long nap, she packed up Raya, her carrier, a few Lara bars, and some water. We hiked from Pinebrook Hills to the top of Sanitas, and then down Sanitas to Morgan's house in town.  It took a very leisurely three hours.  Daddy picked us up at Morgan's.  On the trail, mama saw way off trail what first looked like a large piece of charred wood. She decided to check it out, and was amazed to see what it was--a beautiful wild turkey, intact but very much dead. How did you get here, dear turkey? How did you die?  Here's the charred wood appearance:

And feathers so beautiful, it was just hike-stopping.

And Mama and Raya at the top of Sanitas (she's asleep on back):

  

 

The crown glory of the day was that in the late afternoon I became part-witch and drove and then ran back to the site of the dead turkey.  With gloves, dust mask and trash bags, I gathered up that turkey, named it Pavo, ran with it up the hill, and plunked it in the back of my car. It's now living in a freezer at an unnamed location, ready to be dissected for wings and feathers to keep.  Turns out wild turkeys are plentiful in Colorado, but I sure have never seen one. 

Raya and her Daddy

So far, Raya's magical sleeping through the night was a one shot deal.  But we have high hopes.

Raya sleeps through the night

It was a night of miracles.  Leo had been missing for 38 hours, it was 7 degrees out with snow on the ground, and we were leaving for Florida in the morning.   I was distraught, convinced Leo was forever gone.  David somehow was able to convince Southwest Airlines to change our tickets to two days later so we could look for Leo.   They didn't charge the $600 they could have charged us!  11pm rolls around, and I am just getting ready to go to bed when I hear a meow at the door.  There's Leo, unscathed, chill, not even that cold or hungry.  His paw pads a bit swollen and pink, but otherwise looking fine.  We are amazed.  Where has he been?   There's icy snow on the ground, and we discover paw prints leading to where he came from.  How fun!  We'll follow the prints in the morning to find out where he was!  (Sadly, in the morning, the prints are gone due to a big wind that crusted new snow over the evidence).

We go to bed, grateful to have all the eggs back in the nest.  All four of us cuddle on the bed and go to sleep all up against each other.   We sleep.  We sleep.  We sleep some more.  I wake to Raya's cries for milk.   I feed her, and then go to pee, checking the clock in the bathroom.   Holy of holies, it's a miracle!  It's 5am!  Our daughter slept 6 hours straight.   This officially meets the medical definition of SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!   After one feed she keeps going till about 7am.  Daddy takes her, and her mama sleeps until 9am.  This is a very very good day.