Adventures to Southwest Colorado - Day 1

As we had to vacate the house while the floor was being refinished, we organized a trip to the Southwest. Since it was a LOOOOONG drive, lots of the driving was broken up and slotted during sleep and nap time to help with our sanity.

So, after a late night of crazy driving the night before, we woke up in Alamosa, all ready to hit the Great Sand Dunes National Park. They kids were still excited from our last trip to the dunes in Michigan.

The moment we got there, Tyler pointed to the tallest peak and said "Let's get up there!!" We liked his spirit but had to tell him we were only there for a short time and therefore NOT going to make it there that day. He was not happy.

We picked another peak(one of the closest, shortest peak) and headed for it. The boys had a blast climbing the peaks and then dashing and sliding down the sides. We were sorta sad we didn't bring anything to ride down(next time!!!).

Face coated in sand!!!

Nice family pic at the official sign

Dumping out the sand

The temperature rose from a chilly 64 F to a balmy 80++ pretty quickly and i was happy that we were done at about lunch time. After a quick lunch, as the kids konked out, we started our 4 hr drive to Mesa Verde. The kids still drove us nuts during the last 1-2 hrs of the drive with their "when are we going to get there?" and "it's taking too long"!!!

But thankfully we eventually got there and were welcomed to a beautiful straw bale studio house. The first thing that Tyler said was, "Look mommy, there's grass in the floor!!!"

As the kids rested, i drove to Mesa Verde National Park(which was 1 mile away!!) to sort out tickets and tour for the next day! That night we ate at a local bar in downtown Mancos before retiring for the night.