4 Corners and Mesa Verde
I have always wanted to visit Mesa Verde. I remember when I was in the 3rd and thinking it was such a cool place as we learned about it. I have begged Jed a million times to take a trip there. We finally got a chance. On the way there I figured we could take a bit of a detour to see the ' 4-corners.' First of all, it was HOT. Second, it was hot AND you had to stand in a line (without shade) to get a picture standing on the point where the 4 states meet. But I am glad that we did it. After waiting in the sun for 30 or so minutes I had each of my children get a picture...I figured we waited so I was going to get every picture I wanted. The kids had no understanding of what we were "standing" on, all they did was complain that it was too hot to be outside! BUT all the kids can now say...they have stood in 4 states at one time :-)
We left that morning late. After staying up late for the past several nights we struggled waking up to leave on time. So we were rushed to get to Mesa Verde before the park closed. I really wanted to hike through one of the cliff dwellings. Not sure what I envisioned it to be BUT as we were driving to the entrance of the park I thought I would read about the park to the kids. So they would have an idea of what we were about to see and do. As I was reading we found out that there were 100 ft. ladders to climb, uneven-BIG steps, some even had a mile (+) hike to get to the entrance...and babies HAD to be in a backpack! Freaking out that we made it this far and I wasn't going to be able to see this place...we had NO backpack to carry Teague AND I am SO afraid of heights, there was no way I would be able to climb 100 ft. ladders. Jed was ready to turn around and head back to the hotel when I begged him to let me talk to the entrance worker to JUST SEE if there was anything else we could do there. Luckily...there was! There was a cliff dwelling that we could hike to, only 1/3 of a mile, and it allowed strollers (yeah!). They also had a 6-mile drive that had special, historic spots marked - that drive took 45+ minutes to see everything. In the end, I am SO glad that I got to see this place and I would love to go back someday and hike through some more of the dwellings. Great thing was that Zeke (since he just finished the 3rd grade) learned about Mesa Verde and taught us a lot of neat facts about dwellings, he is such a smart boy! This was such a neat place! Zee was a little nervous climbing down into the Kiva (but I could tell he really wanted to go down - he has my nerves of ladders) but eventually he went down. As you can see...I did not make it down, I just couldn't do it. It rained while we were there and we saw some amazing rainbows - the kids said it was Beckett wanted us to know he was there with us - very sweet of them to think of him there.
**Ain't those structures just amazing. I am just in awe. To see the progress of time in their construction is so neat. Some of the earlier ones were built in 550AD. It is just crazy to me...I had to tell Jed that I am so thankful to live in this time period, it would have driven me crazy living like that...seriously, some of the villages were right on the edge of the cliffs - I don't know how they didn't fall!**
Love family trips and especially love when we get to see extended family. Can't wait until our next reunion!!
