Cortez - back to June

So, back in July, I posted about part of our trip to Arizona, Colorado and southern Utah.  In my last post about our trip, I asked what was in Cortez, Colorado, but I never posted what it was!  It is Mesa Verde!  I had never heard of the place, but my brother insisted we visit it.  It was one of my favorite things from the trip - and the kids agreed.  It is filled with cliff dwellings that were absolutely COOL!  The ancestral Pueblo people lived here from 600 to 1300. There are nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.  We visited a few of the biggest sites that housed many families.  It was impressive how these people lived.  It is believed that when conflicts started to arrive among other communities they moved their homes down into the cliffs below where their homes had been.  They used feet and hand holds to scale the rock faces and carried not only their water up from the river bed far below, but their food they hunted and gathered down from the open, flat plains above them.  Even with ladders and rock stairs built into the cliff faces (by the National Park system) it was difficult and a little nerve racking to get to these dwellings.  I can't imagine carrying water, food or a deer down on my back.  And as a mom, I can't imagine my scaling the rock face.   

We toured Balcony House.  Where we scaled this 32 foot ladder, crawled through an 18" wide and 12 foot long tunnel (see lower down for a pic) and then climbed up a 60 foot open cliff face with uneven stone steps and two 10 foot ladders to exit.

 

These are some of the pics of what we got to see after we got to the dwelling.

This was the way we exited the dwelling - the tunnel I mentioned earlier.  and my brother coming out of it.  You could not come from directly above the dwelling so you either went in this way or up ladders and through a small opening on the other end.  This tunnel is not even wide enough for shoulders to fit through and only tall enough to crawl on all 4.  It isn't very long that it is this short, but the tunnel is 18 feet long. It sure slows you down to get in and out.  Toward the end of the time they lived in the cliff dwellings, water was in short supply and families were fighting over water to stay alive.  This particular dwelling had a natural spring in the rocks and it is believed that they closed off the openings (as you can see they bricked in a much bigger opening) making it easy to prevent people from entering.  One person could easily stand guard of this small opening and with a bow and arrow at the other end of this tunnel, prevent anyone from entering their home and stealing water, which would threaten their lives as well.

 And this is a shot looking down after we finished climbing out.  This is the rockface we scaled to exit and one of the two ladders.  I can't imagine doing it with just my fingers and toes holding me to the cliff - there are a few of the footholds still preserved and they are TINY!  Not a foothold - definitely a toe hold.  I would say these people were rock climbers. 

 

The second cliff dwelling we toured is the largest one, Cliff Palace.  Some were just small single family, one room homes, but this one housed LOTS of families.  This one was reached by descending uneven stone steps, a path and climbing three ladders with an elevation change of 100 feet. 

 

 This is a kiva - a large hole in the ground used for religious purposes as well as family gatherings. 

 The kids sitting and looking down into the kiva.

 A look back at the dwelling before we left - notice the smaller openings along the top - that is their grainery and food storage areas.  You can see a few of the kivas, but it is believed that each family had their own and that would mean this area housed about 30-40 families. 

This is a picture of some smaller cliff dwellings from across the canyon.  Gives you perspective of how far below the top they are and if the picture showed further down, you could see that the bottom is much further down ... not in the picture. 

Amazingly cool place to go!  Less than a day's drive from home and I didn't even know it existed.  So many cool things to see!

Birthday night

I have a close group of friends from my neighborhood (although some have moved away now).  We do a lot together as families, couples and just the ladies.  Each month, the ladies all get together and celebrate each other's birthdays.  In August, it just so happens that there is me and 3 others so we do one giant get together that I LOVE.  It was at my friend Michelle W's house again this year and I loved it.  Such a fun, relaxing evening of feeling spoiled, eating, chatting and swimming - just us girls. 

These are pics from Michelle W's blog.  I will add some pics later but for now this is what you get.  I did change the words ... didn't copy her entire post.  :)

 

Birthday Girls

Me- Angie - Carol - Melanie

These ladies know how to throw a party and as always, food was insanely good and there was tons to choose from.  Appetizers ... homemade fruit salsa with cinnamon sugar chips, homemade guac and chips and punch.  Michelle W and Laura did the appetizers.

 

 

 After chowing on appetizers (fruit salsa is sooooo yummy), we had dinner.  Michelle T made this amazing BBQ chicken salad and Nichole made a yummy bowtie spinach & chicken salad.  Then there was super good rolls, and grilled chicken with a mustard dipping sauce made by Michelle W. and two giant bowls of fruit brought by Rena and Michelle T.

  

 

 

 

 

Check out all my awesome friends!  A few came late though and some just didn't get to come at all. Missed you. 

 Here are the four PILES of PRESENTS for us!  FEELING SUPER SPOILED!

 Angie opened hers first!

 Then Melanie!

 And me!  I got a bracelet, earrings, necklace, new cute crockpot, picture frame, hot chocolate, some decorative stuff for my house, a BYU sweatshirt and car magnets, and some new clothes.  And I'm not sure I even named it all.  Seriously - SPOILED.

 Aren't these ladies cute! Seriously, they were cold.  Makes me smile!

 Tosha - Laura - Jessica

 More super cute ladies!

Nichole - Lisa - Brooke - Angie - Carol

 And Carol opened her presents last!

 Here are the four of us being a little silly.  Where to put my hands ....

Me - Angie - Carol - Melanie (on our laps)

 But hang on ... these ladies didn't stop at all the amazing food I described.  Oh no!  Each of us got to pick our fave birthday dessert and they made it for us - FOUR DIFFERENT ONES! 

I always pick:  "Webecke" CHOCOLATE CAKE ... LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  I even got to bring home several pieces of left overs.  So good.  I don't typically love cake, but this is just so rich and so yummy and ... just to die for! 

 Angie's pick: CARROT CAKE (made by Jessica)

 Melanie's pick: HOMEMADE ICE CREAM with Ghirardelli chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries and peaches!  The fruit was amazingly PERFECT. 

 Carol's pick: Cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and sour cream topping

 Love these friends and so lucky to celebrate my birthday month with them!

 And the desserts all set up.

After dessert we went and swam and hung out in the hot tub - what a GREAT night!

 

Again, I can't say enough about my awesome friends.  I don't really have a single best friend in my life, I just have ALL of these ladies (plus some other amazing friends who aren't in my neighborhood group).  I don't know what I'd do without each and every one of them.  They are there for me through thick and thin.  They help with kids, carpool, work, emotions, hair, shopping and so much more.  They always have my back and I know they are always watching out for my kids too.  So spoiled and blessed!

What is in Cortez, Colorado?

When my brother suggested Cortez, Colorado for part of our trip, I really saw no reason to justify going there.  But I am glad he insisted on seeing Mesa Verde - a place I had never heard of.

When we woke up that morning in Page, before we left, Taylor discovered the room decorated with banners wishing her a happy birthday and a ribbon proclaiming her as a birthday girl.  When we arrived in Cortez that afternoon, the kids wanted to spend some time swimming and then we went to dinner for Taylor's birthday.  She wanted spaghetti noodles so we chose a pasta place and everyone really enjoyed it - although I'm not sure the table next to us really enjoyed us.  :)  The waitress brought Taylor vanilla ice cream with a candle so we could all sing happy birthday.  Taylor was completely happy.  Happy birthday to my sweet little 10 year old. 

 

The next morning, we loaded up again and headed to Mesa Verde.  Again, I had no idea it even existed but it was one of our favorite places on the entire trip - even the kids thought it was neat.  Unfortunately, I'm so tired tonight ... that you will have to wait until the next time I find time to blog to see our pictures and learn about Mesa Verde.  :)

After the Grand Canyon ...

The next morning we got up and headed to our next location ... Page, Arizona.  We hiked to Horsehoe Bend overlook and then toured the Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell.  My kids were excited to say they had at least been to Lake Powell and to see it - even if they didn't get to go boating.  Glen Canyon Dam is also a National Park - so their 2nd Junior Ranger Badges were earned.

 

The next morning we intended to see Antelope Point slot canyon, but unfortunately the Native Americans who operate the tours (because it is on a reservation) only accept cash (and a lot of it is expected) and we didn't have that much on hand.  We opted to forgo the hike and headed to Corte, Colorado while my brother and his family took the tour.  After seeing his photos, I definitely want to go back some day. 

 

Grand Canyon - North Rim

My brother David and his family live in North Carolina.  I started really admiring my brother when I my early teens.  I appreciated his sense of humor, how he could always make me smile and how he seemed to understand what I was going through.  I didn't always appreciate how much he teased me and he didn't always appreciate the fact that as the baby in our family, I seemed to get my way.  But, we became good friends and we enjoy hanging out together.  We don't get to see him very often because of the distance and expense of traveling but over the years, we've done a few vacations together over the years, just our two families.  We did Yellowstone when Aly was a toddler.  We went to the beach in NC with him when Jessica was a toddler.  We went to Disneyworld a few years ago and this year, we decided to enjoy some of the natural wonders in of the mountain and dessert west. 

His family started the trip by going to Bryce Canyon in southern Utah.  We joined them the next night on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The next day we did lots of hiking and the kids earned the first of 4 National Park Junior Ranger badges.  It really made the trip kind of fun because the kids were really trying to learn things in order to complete their badges. 

 

Getting a little closer (but not too close) to the bison ... which are not native to this area and are going to be removed in the next year because they are damaging the landscape causing problems for native animals and plants. 

Angie and Jess checking out the flowers. 

 Steve decided to walk out on this point and scare the .... out of the kids and I.

 Thought I'd die on this point, but the view was amazing.

Another view with the kids ... one that caused a little bit of panic on the part of the moms - but there was actually another large rock right below Steve which made the one he was on very secure.

 

The view was amazing.  At this point, the kids were more interested in chasing the lizards though so Alyssa was done with pictures ... thus her scowl.

 

The kids had fun jumping from rock to rock while the adults played with the settings on our cameras to get the best shot possible.  I'm more of a quantity photographer than a quality photographer, but I learned a lot from my brother.  Maybe someday I'll take a class and really learn how to use all the settings on my camera.  In the meantime, I have lots of pictures ... and the kids had fun jumping around.  My brother has 3 kids including Sarah who is a month younger than Alyssa, Zachary who is 11, and Caroline who is 6.  Alyssa had her birthday while we were on vacation.  It made it so the kids were 13, 12, 11, 10, 8 and 6.  The really enjoyed their time together.

Beautiful!

I wish I had taken pictures of our accommodations ... LESS than desirable especially for Steve who likes clean, space and comfort.  Our cabin was so small I could hit my head on the ceiling above our full size bed.  The first night, when Steve rolled over he wacked me in the neck with his hand and the next night he put his shoulder against my nose while the back of my head was literally on the edge of the bed - I had to move him over so I didn't get pushed off the bed.  Looking back, it was actually kind of funny but wow, were we tired by the time we got to our next location. 

Dance, Dance, Dance

Aly loves to dance.  We switched studios this year.  Our experience at her previous studio had not been positive.  After 6 months of 5 hours of practice a week, I was concerned about the cohesiveness of the team and the fact that the girls were back-biting to each other and to a team mate who gave notice just a few weeks before competition that her family had just decided to move out of state.  I attended a practice and discovered that the girls did not even know each other's names ... after 6 months together.  When I asked the studio owner about it and expressed my concern about how the teammate was treated, the owner responded by telling me that told me that the attitude came from the girls chatting in the back of the room -not from the teacher - but in the same conversation told me she didn't have time to be their social director and that the girls didn't know each other because they didn't have time to chat.  I was extremely disappointed that she didn't see the value of team work and trusting their team mates.  I didn't understand how the girls could trust each other and care about each other if they didn't even know each other's names.  It made me wonder if the teachers even knew their names and used their names.  Aly never felt like she fit in on her team and after my discussion with the owner, I realized that the studio didn't have the same values for my daughter and her dance experience.  So I started looking.  I found a studio run by a lady who had previously been one of Aly's dance teachers.  I had liked her as Aly's teacher so I talked to her about her our experience.  She has daughters close to Aly's age and she was shocked and disappointed to learn about our experience.  She shared some things that they do at her studio to prevent problems like this and to bind the girls together as a team and we made the decision to move. 

 

This year, she has been happy to go to dance class, she has practiced more and loves her teammates.  They aren't necessarily her best friends and she doesn't hang out with them outside of dance very often, but she enjoyed being at dance, dancing and being at competitions.  She wanted to be around her team.  She felt like her team and studio had her back.  They had a party for her team before their first competition.  They had team moms to help the girls.  They had good luck gifts for each girl at each competition.  The girls from all the teams supported and cheered for the other teams at their studio.  They were kind to each other in the dressing room - even if they were on different teams.  They were positive and even when mistakes were made, the girls pointed out good things about each other and encouraged them.  It was exactly the environment I wanted for my daughter.  I don't remember hearing negativity.  The coaches gave feedback in the form of things they could do to improve but they always gave it in a way to build the girls, not tear them down.  I am very glad we made the decision to move.  I have no doubt it was the right decision for Alyssa.  She has LOVED it. 

 

June 15th was her final recital for the season.   They did competitions and did well.  Alyssa drastically improved her skills and the coaches seemed to find ways to make her shine.  She is excited for next year.  But first, here are a few pictures of her and her team.



 

 

Thank you Performers Place in Lehi for being a good experience and the right fit for Aly.