On To the SLV - San Luis Valley

After touring Mesa Verde we headed down to Alamosa by way of Wolf Creek Pass. This pass is absolutely stunning and it's a must if you have never traveled that way. The majestic mountains are magnificent, and the scenic views are picturesque.

It was evening by the time we made it to Alamosa and we had to be up early for the Sanford festivities.

I won't mention who this may be, but as you can see it probably took some time to get the hair under control.

Arlene's corner is where the parade begins for Mormon Pioneer Days.

So everyone gathered outside... grabbed their camera's,

and got their chairs into a good place to view the parade.

There were cowboys with grandchildren,

Mormon missionaries on floats,

and cute little children and puppies in hand carts.

After the parade we drove to the school where mother met up with Judy and Nancy. They stood there and brought tears to my eyes as they sang one of their oh so familiar songs. It sounded almost as beautiful listening to them now as it did 40 years ago when they were at the top of the charts - in Alamosa County and Conejos County anyway.

This dear man with Natalie and me is one of our dear friends that we grew up with when we lived in Sanford. His name is Bobby Morgan and he is Nancy's son; the woman with the red hair in the above picture. We would have hours of fun with him when mother would go to Nancy's house to practice songs that they were going to be singing.

The reason we were at the school is because they were having a delicious bbq lunch . The only problem was the seating was in the direct sun so we found the most shade we could - away from the tables and enjoyed the food.

This piece of artwork is actually made from miniature photo's of all the students that have graduated from Sanford High School. They are known as the Sanford Indians, hence - the Indian.

It's found inside the school building which consists of Kindergarten through 12th grade! I wanted to show Hannah the school I used to go to so we walked inside.

This is Hannah and me sitting in my 3rd grade classroom. It was fun to share stories with her of things that I did and things that happened to me when I went to school there.

Such as working in this kitchen when I was in elementary school. This is the very sink I stood and washed dishes at....and watched sweat drip down Mrs Faucett's nose into the dish water! Yuck!

The tour of this extremely large school (not) , as well as browsing the quilt display that was in the gym must have been exhausting because everyone had to find somewhere to sit before we could venture on to the next activity.

Luckily we had a day's rest before we had to do the Manassa activities.

Here's Mother with Uncle Herman, his daughter Judy and two of his grandsons.

Here's Aunt Mary Jane and Uncle Kenneth enjoying the music that was being played by one of the bands in the park. Well, Aunt Mary Jane was enjoying it. She sat in her chair and danced her feet around as Uncle Kenneth enjoyed his zzzz's.

Hannah talked me into going on some of the carnival rides with her.

I remember as a child being so excited for the carnival to come for the 24th of July celebration. I couldn't wait to ride all of the rides; especially the scary ones! I looked at those rides this day and it scared me to get on them. How safe are carnival rides.....REALLY?

Here we are on the scrambler - my #1 choice as a child.

Here's mother and Becky on the Ferris wheel.

And me and Hannah.

She even talked me into going on this thing - TWICE!

And here's Becky and me ready to toss our cookies.

Okay Sarah, this part will freak you out so you may want to scroll down to safer territory, like maybe the end.

When I was a child Arlene would get the baby dolls out and let me play with them. At that time I had no idea that the doll I was playing with was probably an antique even then.

This is a picture of the doll Arlene's aunt sent to her a few years ago. She has a sawdust stuffed body, leather joints sewn into her cloth body, porcelain head and hands and real human hair. Does she remind you of anyone.....maybe an old movie character?

I hate to say it, but when I saw her she reminded me of the Betty Davis character in the movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Does anyone agree with me or am I the only one that was permitted to see that movie as a child? Here's my baby girl holding the baby doll that Arlene use to play with as a child.

I think she's a little prettier.

On the south side of Alamosa is an Artesian Well that runs continuously. Artesian Well water is always cold and tastes so good. We had to stop and fill our empty water bottles one day as we drove by. Why buy water when you can get if for free?

The night before we left to head up to Denver, Nancy and Judy wanted to get together with mother again and do some reminiscing of old times and sing a few more songs. I love these women and I was just as excited as mother was to have them come over to the motel and visit for awhile. We loved listening to them sing some of the old songs they use to sing. And we laughed when they began singing one song and mother started singing words to another one when they were in the middle of it.

To listen to them tell stories and laugh was heart warming and touching. These women truly love each other. I had to call it quits when they started talking about how sad they were when mother moved away. I will be forever grateful that I went with mother to Colorado - if it was only to see these women together again and listen to them sing.

Thanks, Mother, Nancy and Judy....

for the memories.

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.