My granddaughter spent the night with me this weekend. She has stayed over at my house since she was 6 months old and I believe that she believes that my whole house is her playhouse, and I’m ok with that.

While we were eating breakfast, she asked if we could go on an adventure together and take pictures. It made me laugh because she has picked up on this adventure mode stuff over here.

I knew just the place to go, and I did some logistical research first instead of announcing, because you can’t say to a kid, let’s go here and then it’s closed when you get there.

I asked her if she wanted to go to the Carousel of Happiness in Nederland, Colorado. The answer was a resounding YES! Sofia has always loved them and has been riding them since she was an infant. So we put the address in the new robot and off we went! Oh to tell you how wacky the old robot was, my granddaughter said,

“ Mhamó, I’m so glad you have a new robot, that old one was lame!” Well, you must be pretty bad if a 6 year old says you’re lame!

Other times when I’ve driven to Nederland, the carousel was closed. I’ve wanted to see this carousel for months now. Mainly because the man who created these animals and restored the Victorian era carousel, is a Vietnam veteran and a Marine, like my father. My dad also enjoyed working with his hands and I believed it was his therapy. My dad’s medium of choice was leather craft. And let’s just say that quite a bit of my childhood was spent in Tandy Craft stores. (IYKYK).

Because it was a Sunday, there were lots of families sitting amongst the train cars having just finished their ride and snacking or waiting to go in while others finished their snack. Lots of motorcycle riders out for ride on a beautiful Sunday with no rain and perfect temperatures. Everyone was out and about, enjoying the day.

Sofia had lots of questions about anything and everything on the drive. She asked why some times the clouds moved and other times they didn’t. I told her it was science thing, that the science was called Meteorology, but I didn’t take those classes in college, but that we could look it up online later.

She asked me about when I was a little girl, did I play tea party too. I told her that I did play tea party and so did my sister, Aunt Becky but then we would ask our Daddy, and he would pretend the tea was poisoned and would fall over coughing and roll around on the floor. She thought was funny. She told me that she thinks brothers are mean because boys always want to fight. That little girls were nicer because they share and invite others to play and that having a sister would be better. I told her I was a big sister to Aunt Becky and when we were little girls, we were not nice to each other and that we did fight. This news shocked her, but she smiled and said “ Now you’re both grown ups so no more fighting cause you both love each other.”

We covered big topics and little ones too. Anything that was important to her heart.

As we approached the plaza where the carousel was, she had nervous worry in her eyes, I asked her what was wrong and she said,

“What if I don’t like it? You drove a long time, will you be mad at if I don’t like it?”

That question made me want to cry. She is just 6 but thinking about me as she plays out scenarios in her head. I told her

“If you don’t like it, no big deal, we’ll leave. If you are on the ride and you don’t like it, wave to me so I know and I’ll come and get you.”

She looked at me and smiled and said,

“What if they don’t stop the ride? She was looking for the outrageous answer, so I put my car in park, turned in my seat and said,

“If you are waving to me and need me, I will try and get someone’s attention, if they don’t hear me, I will yell really loud over the music, “ Hey stop this crazy thing, my grandbaby needs me! And if that doesn’t work, I will turn into Granny Ninja and leap over the gate, hop onto the platform, and snatch you from the ride and run to the car with you!” (I thought to myself, hey I sounded like George Jetson!)

She broke into loud, hysterical belly laughs and we went into the most adorable lobby!

As I said earlier, the Veteran who restored the carousel hand carved the animals and they are beautiful. Sofia did love the carousel and can’t wait for Mommy and Daddy to see it too.

Here is a little peek for you. Spoiler Alert: She loved it and rode a cheetah.

A beautiful day, a beautiful drive, beautiful conversation with the one who holds my heart. This was one of the best adventures, so far.

The goal is 60 new things before I turn 60 and I have 40 more to go and I can’t wait!