Durango Trip - Part 3

Apparently I'm trying to make these pictures last until I can find something interesting enough to photograph around here. There have been some hilarious potty training moments, but they're all pretty indecent. My favorite is Christopher asking himself, "Peepee, where are you? Are you coming?"

I'm going to try to pare down the last few days to finish in this post. We'll see. I just have such cute boys I can't seem to choose just a few pictures!

Riding up the ski lift with Daddy at Purgatory - he thought this was really cool!

Riding down the "alpine slide" sled track thingy - Daddy thought this was really cool!

Then we drove over the mountain (at 11,000 feet!) to Silverton, CO. It had just finished raining there, and get this, it was only 60 degrees! I almost cried I was so excited. I put pants on the boys! Here's my big helper pushing Patrick on a slow boat to China. Don't worry, we rescued Patrick before the stroller tipped over.

On the way out of Silverton, we stopped at this beautiful alpine lake. Patrick decided a little trailblazing was in order.

The next morning, our last day in Durango, we went to the railroad museum. A fabulous time was had by all, especially Christopher, who had to be dragged kicking and screaming (literally) away from the model train setup after at least 30 minutes.

Patrick at the engineer's desk in a caboose. So much work, so little time...

On our way back to Show Low, AZ, we decided to go through Four Corners. Not something I need to see again. This was pretty much it, although I can now say that I've been to Utah.

Many ridiculously long hours later, we got to the Petrified Forest National Park where we saw many "dinosaur trees" and even a real dinosaur. I didn't quite capture the joy on Christopher's face - this is the first dinosaur fossil he's ever seen in real life. He thought it was super cool!

So there you have it. After this, it will be back to our regularly scheduled boring lives until we go to see Grammy and Grandad in a few weeks!

Enjoy!

Road Trip Part 2

I'm currently hiding from the boys after a long day of potty training. Mostly "Let's try to pee. NOOOOOOO. Let's at least sit on the potty. NOOOOOOO." You get my drift.

Now I have help. Patrick has arrived to make sure I don't get too much done, but I'll try to persevere and get up some more pics of our trip.


The second day in Durango, we drove back about 45 minutes to the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park. It is one of the largest Indian cliff dwellings ever discovered. Too bad it was another 20 miles back a little twisty turny up and down road, which explains Patrick's rather low opinion of the trip.
Once we got to the largest of the ruins (and the most accessible), it was really neat. I was amazed at how much was still intact. I expected foundations, but there were numerous large adobe walls still intact.

Christopher and Daddy ventured down into a kiva whose roof had been reconstructed. Mommy and Patrick stayed topside.

Patrick finally started earning his keep grinding corn for tortillas.

My two giant handsome boys together. Not sure why they aren't looking at the camera, but oh well.

Christopher decided to do a little trailblazing on the way out of the canyon.

The natives are getting restless, so I'll try to put up a few more later.

Enjoy!

The Great Four Corners Road Trip - Part I

We've been back for over a week, yes, but I'm just getting to uploading pictures from our adventure in late July / early August. We took a 6 day road trip through the Four Corners area to Durango, Colorado and back. Overall we drove nearly 1400 miles and saw all sorts of neat things!


Here is Christopher the night before we left with his new suitcase packed and ready to go with the important things - trains, crayons, books.





The first day we drove to Gallup, NM with a quick stop at the Painted Desert Visitors Center. After deciding that we didn't want to drive 20 miles each way out of the way to see the Petrified Forest part, we sat on the "Dinosaur Tree" outside the museum for Daddy to take a picture.


We then went on to Gallup and checked into the hotel and brought in our things.

After we settled in, we went into "downtown" Gallup to the main drag, the old Route 66, just like in Cars!

The next day we got up and finished driving to Durango, Colorado, arriving mid-afternoon. We decided to scope out the Children's Museum, which turned out to be more of a playroom of sorts, but was great for the boys to just get out and run around. Here is Christopher unloading his groceries.

Then we walked a few blocks downtown to find dinner. On the way we passed this GIANT boy sitting on a bench. When did he get so big?

Here's my little love bug and I at dinner. He fell asleep in the stroller so he was snuggly for a minute or two.

And of course, the coolest place in town, Christopher's hide-a-bed. Who would've thought a sleep sofa could be so cool - but I guess a bed that disappears into a sofa during the day is pretty magical when you're 3.

This is a monster post, so I'll put up some more tomorrow. Until then, Enjoy!