Adventures to Southwest Colorado - Day 2

The plan for the day was to explore the Mesa Verde National Park which is home to the cliff dwellings of the ancient Pueblo Indians about 700 years ago. There were a few ranger tours that we can do and some of them did sound a little daunting for little kids. So, i started us off with Cliff Palace which seemed the most interesting but not as physically challenging.

This was by far the biggest cliff dwelling and had a few ladders for the kids to maneuver so that we can gauge their ability and interest. Turned out they loved it, even when they had to sit through the ranger talks during the whole tour(though some grim threats had to be doled out).

It was also interesting for us to explore these ancient dwellings and learn more about the history in this area.

View of the cliff dwelling across the canyon

Tyler was excited to start the descent

Cody was also excited

Some ladder to get up

The Cliff Palace

The kids loved it

Tyler even went on his own to check out ancient painting

Ancient mud wall

Tyler

Family pic!

Due to several fires, the park is severely scarred with dead and burnt trees which i found eerily beautiful. And the plants take about 100-300 hundred years to grow back. So, it's going to look like this for a LONG time.

When the kids got out of the Cliff Palace tour, they were raving about how brave they were and how fun it was. So, we decided to go check out a smaller site before we break for lunch. The Spruce Tree house is a smaller site that we could go explore ourselves. It was a short hike down to the dwelling and it had a kiva(small underground round room).

The Spruce Tree house

Ladder into the Kiva

Of course he had to go down(we all did!)

Someone's a little grumpy

Parting family picture

On our hike back up

Tyler enjoying an Indian fry bread

After lunch, it was nap time and we figured it was a good time to head over to Four Corners which was about 1.5 hrs away.

At Four Corners

1 family 4 states

Alan confirming it was indeed the four corners(it was a little off)

Some interesting rock formations

After we got back to our rental property, the kids explored the surroundings a little found a little tractor.

Beautiful Sunset

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.

New Hardwood Floor

Our hardwood floor has been needing some work for some time and we finally decided that it was time! Time to bite the bullet. As we needed to be out of the house during the repair, we planned a trip away while the work was being done(more on our trip later).

Anyways, we had to empty out our entire downstairs and rip out our old carpets. We had plenty of good help from friends like Armen and Damith and a week later, we have new floors!!!

So, here are the before and after pictures!

This was before..

This is AFTER! 

Cody's first day at school in his new class

Cody graduated over summer from 'Very Junior Kindergarten Explorers' to Junior Kindergarten Explorers. He is now with the same Teacher that Tyler had when he first went to Broomfield Academy so we will see how he gets on.  

Some of his friends from last year are in the same class and some are in different ones, but he does seem to like going and learning.

All the stuff he needs for School!

Cody and his new teacher

Old and new friends

The Pledge of allegiance

Holy Cow Stampede 2013

Got back from our trip this week, and Saturday was the Holy Cow Stampede.  This is a trail run and last year I finished tenth in a time of 22:01, so I was looking to run closer to 20 minutes this year.

The race this year was faster, and I managed to come in 8th place in a time of 20:44, fastest time this year and it would have been good enough for 3rd place last year!!

I did manage to win another cow bell, and get a picture with a cow, as well as dipping under 13 minutes for first two miles which is a critical requirement to run under 20 minutes.

Cow or Chicken?

Pretty even splits