The Journey Continues

On our second leg of the journey we left Farmington, NM and headed north to Colorado. It was a beautiful drive; there was blue sky mixed with cotton candy white clouds to the east of us and gray skies covered with charcoal clouds and heavy rain to the northwest. The mountain and rock formations are incredible. We passed Shiprock which in actuality is what's left of a volcano that has been dormant for thousands of years.

Our destination was....

In order to get to the park you must drive up a very windy road. Until you get here; and then you hike up a little further -

until you get here....to the top of the world.

Here are pictures of two beautiful girls that happened to be passengers in the car.

This is a picture of one of the beautiful vistas from our view.

The formation in the background haze is Shiprock.

After we finished taking pictures of the beautiful vistas from this point we hopped back in the car and drove on until we got to the visitors center.

Upon checking the schedules we discovered we were too late for a tour since we had to be in Alamosa later and it was already 2:00 p.m.

We decided to do the driving tour so after we found something to eat and did a little shopping we began our personal driving tour.

The canyons that the Anasazi's built their dwellings above were gorgeous. Especially this day when the skies were so exquisite.

To the novice's eye you would never guess that there were dwellings below you.

They built their homes on the side of the mountains to keep them safe from enemies. Their advantage was being able to see what was coming.

(How did they know what was above them though?)

I couldn't help but wonder how many children they may have lost over the cliffs. Boys will be boys - and boys are very active.

We were standing on an overlook. You had to walk down to the dwellings below this vantage point. You can't see the cliff from here but it's straight down.

As we drove we came across this flat land dwelling. We were able to walk around and through some of it. The structure was larger than my house but the rooms were very small with doorways that were about three feet tall.

The notch in the bricks above is actually a water spout that was built into the brick and pointing toward the outside. Maybe they collected water this way?

I'm not sure what the above picture is....maybe a kiva?

This picture shows how short the doorways were. Hannah had to bend in half to get through them. They were so narrow I didn't even try to get through them.

I didn't think anyone would have any Crisco shortening to grease me if I got wedged in.

We have come to the end of our personal driving tour of

Mesa Verde National Park ; I hope you enjoyed this tour as much as we did.

Goodbye - from your personal tour guides.

Our Adventures through AZ, NM, CO, WY, UT - Part I

I have so many pictures that one post will not suffice. Therefore I will break this incredible adventure into a number of posts in order to document them as they occurred.

On July 20,2009, Natalie and Lon met Mother, Becky, Hannah and me at our house and we embarked on a 1800 mile journey through AZ, NM, CO, WY, and UTAH.

Our first stop for rest and relaxation- after eight hours of driving was in Holbrook, Arizona.

If you're not aware (which I was NOT), this town is the basis of the movie "CARS". You know: Lightening McQueen, the shiny red corvette that was lost in Radiator Springs? If you haven't seen the movie, you really must. It's even cute for adults to watch.

The Wigwam Motel is the place to stay.

Becky and Hannah were so exhausted they had to drag their bodies into the room....after posing for this picture of course. After we had dinner, enjoyed a cool dip in the pool and played a few hands of UNO we crashed for the night. The next morning we were up and ready to continue our journey.....all of us except for Hannah.

We couldn't get her out of bed. So we left her behind and gathered up for a picture before we hopped in the car.

Not really of course.

We didn't stay at the Wigwam and we didn't leave Hannah behind. We stayed at the Adobe Inn right next door to the Wigwam.

As our journey progressed we found ourselves stopped at a number of the Navajo trading posts along the way in hopes of finding a papoose baby doll for Becky's granddaughter.

We didn't find the papoose, but we found this very serious guy sitting in the store.

Hannah did her best in trying to get him to break a smile

I thought if I jumped in and we both turned on the charm it might do the trick.

He must have been made of stone (or wood) because he didn't even twitch.

So we left him in the dust of the reservation and headed to Farmington, NM.

Pat met us for lunch at a restaurant where we had some delicious food. They made their own root beer there as well as cream soda and....well....regular beer. We didn't try the beer but we did try the root beer and the cream soda. The consensus was that the root beer was really good but the cram soda was way too sweet. After lunch we checked into the La Quinta in Farmington. I was really disappointed with the accommodations. I thought we would have a non-smoking room but we ended up in a room that was definitely a smoking room. Not only that, but the clerk had us drive around to the back of the motel where we were supposed to be able to go up the stairs and directly to our room. The stairs were blocked off because of damage so we had to walk all the way back around carrying all of our bags, pillows, and the extras that we always seemed to have and wrestle them all the way up the stairs, around the corners and into the room down the walkway. By that time I had steam coming out of my ears and it wasn't because I was too warm.

As I calmed down Becky, Mother and Hannah made their way down to the pool where I eventually caught up with them. Becky and Hannah gave me a wave but mother was busy cleaning the pool!

That's her on the left under the umbrella.

Natalie was sitting under there enjoying the cool afternoon weather.

I've decided that mother wouldn't know what to do with herself if she didn't have something to clean every day. She was perfectly happy as she dipped that net into the pool and extracted each little stem and leaf.

After we dried off we headed to Pat's house where we ate watermelon and s'mores. The food was good but the company was great!

Thanks Pat and Larry for entertaining us.

That's all for this post. Stay tuned for the next segment.

I'll be sharing pictures of Mesa Verda, National Park.

Random Sampler

These are pictures of random activities that have taken place in the last month or two. I've been slacking in the Blogging department so I thought I would throw a few pix together so I would be able to remember the enjoyment of them.

Remember how the month of May was so extremely HOT?

We pulled out our expensive pool, filled it with water and the kids

started their summer fun.

This is Katelyn with strawberry juice all over her mouth.

How does a girl eat strawberries daintily when she is missing her two front teeth?

Cameron....the epitome of BOY. Si, mi mama es . . . trying on hats.

No - she didn't buy either one of these. Hannah went to one our Young Women activities and became certifies in CPR.

Here she is working on Baby Jane Doe.

And here's Baby Jane Doe....alive and well.

This is one of our favorite restaurants; we took Hannah and our neighbor, Andrew

with us this night.

Here they are trying to eat their rice with chop sticks.

It was too funny NOT to take a picture of.

When you think of Mike and his truck, you think of this little green Ranger.

But he cleaned it out and traded it in for

this band new Toyota Tundra.

It's been his dream truck for a couple of years now. Dreams really do come true.

Our Backyard Wild Kingdom

Not long after we moved into the home we're in now we discovered we had moved

right in the middle of our own WILD KINGDOM.

We repeatedly heard from various neighbors that there were mountain lions that

roamed the neighborhoods around us.

We didn't believe them.....until we woke up one morning and saw THIS in

our back yard!!

Alright, that's really an African lion but we did see this bobcat lounging in

our backyard when we came home from church one afternoon.

He was old, hard of hearing, and apparently lost his ability to hunt

sufficiently. He had striking blue eyes but his face was frightening; so

we named him Lucifer.

He got up and slunk away when he noticed us.

If you click on these pix and enlarge them, you will see a beautiful red tailed hawk

perched on the bird feeder. We had a couple of baby hawks born in the trees just

below us and we listened to them squawk for weeks after mom and dad left them to

hunt for themselves. They have learned that bird hunting is very good in our back

yard when the quail, dove and blue jay are feeding.

Here they are when they were younger - one perched at the top of the tree

and one perched on a limb lower down in another tree to the right of his sibling.

They sat there for hours waiting for mom or dad to come back.

One afternoon Mike was in the backyard and walked in to tell me he

thought there was an alligator on our hillside. When he walked down

to get a better look, he discovered that it was an iguana; but it had died.

He felt very badly thinking that he may have contributed to it's death by

poisoning our "friendly neighborhood rats" (I will not include a picture

of the rats; they are too hideous).

After a proper funeral service he very gently picked it up..... And heaved it further down the hillside.

May he rest in peace and decompose quickly so the smell will cease.

We do love our backyard wild kingdom.

We have had roadrunners, woodpeckers, hummingbirds,

ground squirrels (blast them!),

cottontails (those waskeley wabbits that are so destructive),

coyotes, cooper hawks, kite hawks,

our red tail hawks, the bobcats and an occasional

sighting of racoons.

It's exciting to walk into the kitchen and anticipate what we might see today, tonight or tomorrow. WE LOVE IT HERE.

Friends, Fun and Food

Last Sunday (6-7-09) Circulo Lazo had a Block Party.

Yes, it was on Sunday - and YES we did participate because we have

many friends on our street and it was a good opportunity

to become acquainted with those we didn't know.

So we pulled out the grill.....and our tables, and began setting up

for the party.

Instead of closing the street off, we chose to set things up close to

the curb across the street from us. Duane and Scott, spreading the tarp for the bounce house.

Hannah jumped at the chance to be the chef after her daddy told

her he didn't care if she did. She enjoyed it so much that she volunteered

to grill anyone else's food that would let her.

It was organized where everyone brought a dish to share,

and then they chose what meat they wanted to bring and grill. We had some FABULOUS food!!!

As well as some DELICIOUS desserts!!!

Here's Hannah and our one of our newest neighbors

enjoying the bounce house.

After everyone's stomach was full, the kids and two of the dad's

opted for a game of baseball.

Here's Hannah up to bat....

She swings and - IT's A HIT!

RUN HANNAH! RUN!

After the food was consumed and the sun began to set we said our

goodbye's and ended the day with a promise to gather and do it all

again very soon. We have some wonderful neighbors who all appear

to be very good in the kitchen!