Favorite Day Yet

This morning we left Albuquerque and made our way into Colorado. Again, the scenery changed distinctly and the view was simply amazing. We all oohed and aahed when we spotted the first set of snow capped mountains. It is almost so beautiful that you can't comprehend it. God's creation is simply amazing and his creativity abounds, to be sure!

Our first glimpse of snowy mountains

Today is definitely my favorite stop yet. We spent the afternoon at Mesa Verde National Park and it was incredible. The park consists of many cliff dwellings that were once the home of the ancestral Pueblo people. It is believed that the most ornate of these dwellings are about 800 years old, and they are fascinating. Because we were there in the off season, we only got to get really close to one of the sites, which was very cool. After that, we were able to drive a loop trail which provided amazing views of a number of other dwellings. One nice thing about going in the off season is that we didn't have to fight any crowds which makes the rangers easily accessible.

Here's Lizzy climbing out of a kiva.

This is the dwelling we got to explore a little bit. It was called the Spruce Tree House.

See the T shaped doors? This allowed the people to enter and exit with packs on their backs.
The ranger invited the kids to use a "Pueblo food processor." They all agreed those Pueblo women must have had some serious biceps.

The first shot all trip of all 7 of us! We were resting on a bench after an uphill climb.

A kiva without a roof.

This is the square tower dwelling.

Cliff Palace Dwelling
Incredible views!

It was a great day. As is our usual custom when we visit National Parks, the kids completed the Junior Range booklet. We had done some reading about Mesa Verde on the road from Albuquerque and that made the booklets a little bit easier to complete. We had a very enthusiastic ranger who checked our work. He had a great sense of humor and definitely made this badge presentation our most memorable yet! We were all impressed with what we saw.

Working hard on their Jr. Ranger booklets.

Getting their badges from Ranger Craig

We are staying in a town called Cortez, CO and Ryan thought it was high time to scout out some good Mexican. So, we made our way to "Tequilas" which had some pretty good reviews on Trip Advisor. We had a great meal and we've settled in at the hotel to watch the KY Wildcats take on UConn. The kids are loving our hotel room as it's got a special kids section called "Fort Holiday."

The kids are excited about the bunk beds!

Abe made us laugh tonight at dinner. The waiter (whose first language was most definitely Spanish) was walking away from the table after taking our order and Abe said to Ryan, "Daddy, who is Sissy?" We were confused for a moment and then Ryan realized what he was asking and explained to him that "Si, si" is the Spanish way of saying yes.