Mesa Verde Day 3

On Sunday morning we left Mesa Verde National Park after a great weekend camping there. (To see what we did Friday & Saturday click here). Here’s another pic of AB and her mule deer friend from Saturday that I didn’t include in the last post.

Before we hitched and rode on Sunday, we were able to go on a beautiful hike on Point Lookout, which is another trail that starts right in the campground. Here’s the view of the campground from half way up:

It was another really pretty hike that we plan on going back to next week when we’re in that area again because we had to cut it short since we had to check out at 11.

After lots of switchbacks (maybe 30 minutes of them I think?) we knew we had to be near the top but AB was so short of breath and didn’t feel good in the high elevation. B and E decided to go a bit further to see how close we were to a view. They said when they came to this spot their jaws hit the floor and they were so pumped!

B came back and hollered to switch places so RR and I could see the view. It was so gorgeous!

Next week we will do the hike again and will take our time and I’m sure AB will be fine! I love this capture of E running down the hill. She’s turning into such a hiker and athlete! All 3 of them are but E has really grown a lot this trip.

Here are the views on the way down and then on the drive out:

Betty is doing great and handles very well on hills; turns, and everywhere. Thank you Lord! It’s still funny to see my front door, kitchen window, and bedroom window trailing behind us as we travel😊.

This area of America (Southwest Colorado) is truly beautiful.

SO much of the beauty we have seen on this trip (superbloom, all the green) is thanks to all the rain this year….. actually – every single thing we’ve seen and gotten to do was because of rain 😉. Thank you Lord!

Some Trip Recaps

I gave up sharing monthly recaps (where I listed our expenses and random info) but if there’s something you’re curious about or want me to share about then ask away! (Here are previous ones… January, February, March,)

Here are some random things I’ve been meaning to share by topic.

School:

• Is great! We continue to do our quick drills on work days (math grammar spelling) so we don’t lose the skills — but my goodness! I’m sure anybody can see that so much learning is going on as we live this adventure. As we interact with people, creation and America… the Lord is teaching us all so much and our minds (and spirits and bodies) are thriving.
• I’m also so grateful for the Junior Ranger program in the parks and think it’s so great!

• It’s so much easier to memorize state capitals and nicknames when you’ve been in that state! We’re making great progress in this area.

License plates:

• We finally found all 50 thanks to a neighbor that came and parked next to us in Holbrook! They were from Rhode Island and we had waited weeks to find that plate. Hawaii and Alaska were easier to find than Rhode Island, for goodness sakes.

Maps:

Here’s an updated pic of the map that’s on the outside of Woody:

And we are continuing to scratch off our states on the inside maps and the bucket list adventures on the bottom on the hanging one

B is drawing our driving path with a sharpie!

Technology use:

• When we were in Arizona we got on a Walton’s kick and watched an episode together every night. We love the Walton’s and a lot of the places in Cali and AZ reminded us of Walton’s mountain! This would make sense because that’s where all the mountain scenes were filmed (sorry to disappoint you if you thought they were filmed in VA!). Since then we haven’t watched any TV but the kids are allowed an hour of technology on Sat/Sun (more if we are driving longer). I have many more opinions on this but that’s all for now.

Weather:

• Has been amazing! I’m so so so so so so SO grateful we’ve only had about 7 (?) days of rain in these 5 months. <insert my happy tears and happy dance>
• I’m spoiled forever and want to be in sunshiny warm weather forever!

And a last random thing to share… when we were in Williams AZ we noticed all our bottles of liquids going crazy when we opened them haha. Every morning my face wash would run all over me and our water bottles spurt up onto our faces. We realized it was the high elevation ! Colorado has taken it to the next level, like I talked about on the last post, and everything’s super inflated! It’s hilarious! Our chip bags are like balloons! Everything looks like this:

We love experiencing and seeing America the Beautiful and all the diversity… and similarity, too. I believe we’re all much more alike than we are different. We are hanging in Southwest Colorado for another 2 weeks then we head north! 😊 Thanks for all the love and prayers.