One of our biggest regrets with leaving Wyoming is that we lived there for 3+ years and didn't go anywhere or see anything, with the exception of Mt Rushmore, but that's not even in Wyoming. Ryan actually saw quite a bit of the state through scouts, but I didn't.
We vowed to change that. We decided that wherever we live, we need to make a greater effort to explore the area around us.
What better way to start than with Pie Town, NM?! Yes, this is a real place. It is tiny. I think less than 200 people normally. Ryan heard something about it and we found that they had been featured on some cooking channel for their pies, obviously. Well, Pie Town has had a Pie Festival every year for the last 35 years. This was their 36th. We decided we would head down on Friday after Pierscen got out of school, and spend the night in the free campground there. I have never been camping with Devry. We went last summer on Casper mountain, but I went back home in the evening. So I was a little nervous, but Ryan was awesome and bought a Mr. Heater - one of those indoor propane ones meant for tents. My biggest worry was keeping her warm, so that helped to ease my worries.
We arrived around 7 and got to work setting up.
It's hard to see in the picture below, but Devry was super happy to be helping too. P and D carted several things from the car to the tent. They were awesome helpers.
We wanted to do things as simply as possible, so we brought some hot dogs and roasted them over the camp stove. It worked. We didn't do any s'mores, which is a camping blaspheme, but that's alright.
The night went about as expected. I did not sleep. I have not slept while camping in a long time. It has nothing to do with temperature, and all things considered, I'm decently comfortable. I just don't sleep. Devry woke up several times crying, but I'm sure that it was more because she was disoriented. I was able to hold her for a moment and she fell back asleep. Every time but one that is. She woke up around 4 am and was so wide awake she kept pointing at the ceiling and saying, "Sky!" and babbling for quite a while. She did finally go back to sleep. The boys slept great.
In the morning we broke down camp and headed to the fairgrounds which included a swing set, slide, pavilion and basketball court. We found the table to get registered for the Pie-K. Get it? 3.14? I don't know how to make the pie symbol on my keyboard. This pun makes me giggle more than it should. Very creative. This was Ryan's first ever official race (minus his track days, obviously). Pierscen was really excited about it... until it started.
Here's the "crowd" getting ready to race down main street, which is a dirt road. :)
Horrible picture, but here is Ryan pushing Devry. We stayed together as a family for about the first 30 seconds, and then P hit a wall. It was going to be a looooooong three miles.
I devised a way to keep P going by setting a timer, or setting land marks that we would jog to, and then walk for a while. A 5k really is way too long for a 4 year old, but he is a trooper and he wanted to do it. I did not carry him and I kept cheering him on to keep him moving. Toward the end, Ryan and Dev came to meet us.
Ryan had me jog ahead so that I could cheer him on as he crossed the finish line. There really is nothing to quite match that proud smile as she met a small crowd of strangers cheering him on as he ran that final leg.
I am immensely proud of him for doing this. It was NOT easy. And he did NOT love it. But he did it! And his efforts were rewarded.
The kids played games and dug in the dirt to find marbles while we waited for the race award ceremony.
To our surprise, they called Pierscen up to give him a ribbon for being the youngest child to complete the race. You should have seen him jump when they called his name. He was shaking with excitement and couldn't stop grinning.
The purple ribbon is the one he got for the race. It says "I ran for pie." The green one says "I ate pie". There were a couple different ribbons available that you could purchase for $1 each. The "I ate pie" one allowed the kids to participate in a pie eating contest. There was another purple one that was for games, but those were sold out. The kids weren't interested in the pie contest, but they were happy to get a ribbon.
Below are our times. Ryan: 31:55, which is quite impressive considering he was pushing Devry the whole time and there were some pretty intense hills. Diana: 1:01:28, a new slowest record for me - haha. Pierscen: 1:02:29. So proud of that little guy for not giving up.
This was the slide. It was pretty steep and apparently a little on the scary side for this little guy. He would NOT let go.
The festival lasted all day with games, horny toad races, pie eating contests, crowning of the new Pie King and Queen, and a dance in the evening. Here is Pierscen doing a balloon race.
I will say I was surprised at the lack of pie. Most of the booths set up were for crafts and such items. There was only one pie booth. Granted, there are a few pie shops open "in town" meaning at each end of the street. We didn't realize this until there was a long line forming outside of Pie-o-neer. Otherwise we totally would have gone in and bought one from the actual store. That's alright though. We purchased a berry and an apple cranberry one. Both delicious. We also didn't stick around for the pie baking contest or pie eating contests, so there was definitely more pie available later.
We went down the street to the Windmill museum and watched some old west shootout reenactments. That was pretty fun, though Devry did NOT appreciate the loud noises. It freaked her out pretty bad.
Following the shootout, we decided to head back home. It was amazing how many people came to the festival. It's a pretty big deal for being in the middle of nowhere. When we got home and told people where we had been, there were many people who have lived here for a long time that have never even heard of Pie Town. It was the perfect way to start our New Mexico exploration. Pierscen had such a great time he was really unhappy that we had to go home. He wanted to stay and go to church there the next day, which apparently we could have done because they have a church building there! Tiny, but it's there! That actually would have been really fun. Oh well.
I would rate our first adventure a success. We all had a really great time. Hmm... What to do next...
No comments:
Post a Comment