First of...our St. George trip. Trent's brother Randy and his family joined us on Thursday. We swam and enjoyed the sun. On Friday we found a park Molly had heard about with a crack in the rocks you crawl/side step through. Even barrel-chested Trent and cute little pregnant tummied Molly fit. Sorry, no pics, didn't want to ruin the camera. It was so fun. Cole and his cousin Ike climbed (with great help from Uncle Randy-thank you Randy) up through a hole and of course carved their names in the top. That evening we attended the Tuacahn's Aladdin. Only one of the kids made it through. Jayden took a nap, but we had to wake him up early. Cole should have taken a nap. Both zonked during the play. Even Trent slept a little bit. The play was pretty good.
We left St. George on Saturday and started towards Kanab. We passed a National Park called Spring Pipe and decided to stay the night closer to the park in order to check it out on Sunday. We made it to Fredonia, AZ. Tiny little town, but big enough to have two wards. We parked in the church parking lot for the night and attended the ward the next day. We couldn't get the times worked out and so while the boys attended primary, Trent and I went to Gospel Doctrine and then jumped into the next sacrament meeting. It was...interesting. Definitely a rural community. They talked cattle ranching...
We went back out to Spring Pipe National Park and found it was a former cattle ranch owned and designed by the LDS church. The fortified ranch house was designed by Pres. Brigham Young and the ranch supplied meat, milk, butter and cheese for the workers of the St. George temple. It was fortified against Indians, but never needed defending. It was a hide out for polygamists when the federal government was prosecuting them. They could see the federal agents buggies from miles away because they used white tops on their buggies and then the extra wives and children would run into the hills and hide. They were never caught.
We drove on towards Four Corners and got close late Sunday night. We stayed the night in the parking lot of the local post office. That was a first. We slept pretty well even though we were right at a highway junction. Monday morning we went to Four Corners. It was funner that I remember. They have a nice plaza there with the states defined and the flags of each of the states flies above it's area. There are booths around the perimeter and the local Navajo people can set up their crafts. We visited with an older woman who was creating tiles with sand art. She was amazing. Using glue she would draw a design and then pour the sands on it. It was so detailed and defined. The story of the picture was written on the back. It was so simple, but such a talent. Her lines were straight and her lettering would have two or three colors in the letters. She gathers the rocks and grinds them to sand herself. I chose a bear in a beautiful turquoise. I paid $15.00 for it. On the other end, there was a man who makes pottery, colors it and then carves it by hand without a pattern or design ahead of time. I got an amazing pottery with a bear carved into it. That one was $300.00. I love them both! The boys each chose an arrow and we'll hang them over their bedroom doors at home.
After Four Corners, we headed to Mesa Verde.
In Cortez, NM we stayed at our first KOA. Loved it. The staff was so great with our boys. They had a couple of dogs there and my boys seem to love dogs even more since ours had to go live with Grandma due to allergies. We went into Mesa Verde on Tuesday and enjoyed exploring. Cole earned his Jr. Ranger badge and really enjoyed the activities he (we) had to do to earn it. We enjoyed learning about the Anasazi and Puebloan people.
We left Cortez on Wednesday and drove to Albuquerque. We chose to take the route through Durango. The drive from Cortez to Durango is BEAUTIFUL. It is green and the fields are lovely. Then the mountains around Durango and the big river are amazing. I was more than a little disappointed that we couldn't stay, but we really needed to travel more than 46 miles! We will definitely come back here. It was so picturesque in Colorado, but almost from the moment we passed into New Mexico it wasn't. Glad the speed limits were so fast, so we could zip right through.
We ate at an amazing restaurant in Old Town called La Puecita. It was so cool. It was one of the first homes built in Albuquerque in 1706. It now has six different dining areas. We ate in the interior courtyard. It is now enclosed but a living tree grows up through the roof. The kids got a kick out of that. We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot! What an experience.
Thursday morning we went back to the Old Town area so the kids could play on an awesome playground and I could wander around to take pictures. We traveled to Roswell and yes, we went to the UFO Museum and Research Facility. Yippeee....k, not really. The kids were interested though.
We stopped at Carlsbad KOA for the night and I finally got the laptop! Trent works will I drive and it's worked well...so far! We are enjoying ourselves so far and the biggest problem has been getting the satelite working for Trent's NBA final games:)
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