King and Queen of the Canyon

Yesterday

Mommy! You know what I am? I am a princess.

I know, Jayno, you're my princess.

No, I Princess of the Mud. See, see what I can make? You want a cupcake?

Teigue, did you know that your sister is Princess of the Mud?

She's Princess of the Mud? Well, I want to be a prince. I am Prince of the Cracks! {He points to the areas where the rain water ran down the canyon and created runoff rivers. Teigue likes to take the dry mud and crack it open.}

What do you do as Prince of the Cracks?

I fight bad guy robots that may come into the canyon.

As we hiked through the canyon the kids discovered a little patch of mud. After digging in the mud they discovered that there was an underground stream that must lead to an ocean so they upgraded their titles to King and Queen of the Canyon. You know, because only a king and queen can make water appear. They decided that the stream would have fish come out of it soon, so they needed to make a little pool.

Oh, cool, like McElligot's Pool?

No, Mommy. Just a pool.

We left, taking a bit of the canyon mud with us.

Today

For a good part of the late morning and early afternoon the kids and I ran errands to get last minute items for Teigue's birthday party next Saturday. {Can I just tell you how excited I am for his birthday party? I feel like I did as a kid the night before Christmas or a really fun field trip. I can not wait. My little boy and his *gulp* 14 friends are going to have so much fun running around here. Can. Not. Wait.} That meant that poor Billy was in his crate for a good 4 hours while we were gone. When we got home, the kids and I took a little walk mosey around the block to get some energy out of the pup. 

Note to self: Never take the kids out again when Getting Energy Out of Pup is the mission. Every berry and bush had to be inspected along the way. Mosey, mosey mosey. 

As we headed out I told them that we would not be heading into the canyon because I didn't want them to get all muddy and dirty. It was close to Making Dinner Time and I didn't feel like dealing with the cleanup. Teigue decided that he needed to head into the canyon, really quick, just to see if his river was still there. He promised, promised, that he would not get muddy. Jayno agreed. We headed into the canyon.

Never trust a King and Queen.