Friends and Grand Views

One perk of being in Cortez for the summer is that we were only an hour away from one of my old college roomies who I haven't seen in ten years. It's funny, aside from Facebook and instagram we haven't talked much since then, but there is something about being college roommates that bond you for life.  It was kind of a crazy year that we lived together, but it helped make us the people we are today. And let me tell you, this woman is amazing. After catching up on the last ten years I don't think I know a stronger more courageous person and I am blessed to be able to call her my friend.
This is an awful picture of a picture of Sarah and I, circa 2002.

And last week, 12 years and 6 children later.

And I'm so glad we got to visit when we did, because our summer plans changed last week and we decided that the kids and I were going home. Thad had meetings in Bakersfield, and I just felt like we needed to get back for lot's of reasons. So we are home now. But on the way home we had one last adventure and took a small detour on the drive to the grand canyon. It was beautiful, and I'm glad we took the kids, but I'm also glad that I've seen it before so I could chase peter and keep him from falling into it while Thad took pictures and enjoyed the view. Peter is insane and I was mildly panicked the entire time we were there because he just kept darting off and trying to get away from me.
This picture is as good as it gets with Peter. I don't know if he hates the camera, or just being restrained, but most of our pictures of him from this trip look like this.

We also had Flat Stanley along for the ride thanks to cousin Walter, and Thad and the kids had fun getting some adventure shots of Stanley. It's going to be a good story.

It's been a crazy week of packing, cleaning, driving, unpacking, more cleaning, and restocking. But I'm glad we came back, I can't imagine doing this two days before school starts and being remotely ready.  Plus I've already been able to hang out with friends I've missed and the kids are happy to have their own rooms back.
Oh, but Peter decided to begin a new rite of passage as I unpacked.

Ya, that happened. He was so proud of himself and was bouncing around with the marker, until momma went crazy, then he wasn't so proud as you can see. And this piece of art happened after he had found Andi's markers and colored all over his legs earlier in the morning.
We plan to spend the next few weeks hanging out by the pool with friends and maybe decorating the office. I've been staring at blank walls since Thad built the desk 5 months ago. I need to fix that.

Happy 4th of July!

Another fun filled weekend had passed so it is time for an update. Thad brought home sparklers early in the week, the good kind that you can't get in CA, and the kids asked every five minutes if it was time to do fireworks yet. We then got to thinking about our usual 4th of July's, and how we bounce from one ward activity to family party to the next, and how the kids would drive us crazy all day waiting for fireworks if we didn't find something to do to keep them busy. So we headed in to Durango to the children's discovery museum and cool downtown shops. It was beautiful.

 This is the bike path along the river that ran right behind the museum, which is an old converted power building.

This bridge was a little ways up the path and on the other side of the river were some pretty sweet homes.

I've always wanted to rent one of these. We didn't. I still want to.

 Fun stuff inside the Museum. 

 There are a lot more museum pictures, but the kids were running around so crazy that most of them ended up blurry. Proof that it was a good time. After the museum we grabbed some lunch and went to a park to play. Colorado is big on parks, and they are all really nice.We even ventured over to the mall so I could find some board shorts. Mine just died. And even though it was a real mall, it was still pretty sad in comparison to Ca shopping.
After naps at home they were ready for fireworks. We broke out the sparklers, and though they were definitely better than the crappy ones you buy in CA, they were not as great as we remembered. Maybe our batch was a bit of a dud, or maybe our childhood memories over exaggerated the coolness of them. Either way the kids enjoyed them.

The city does a free show at the park right across from our townhouse. So we climbed out on to the roof for a great view. It was a great show, and I'm pretty sure the entire town was there to see it.

Saturday we went to Mesa Verde National Park to see the cliff dwellings. Thad would like to go back without the kids, because we were limited on what we could see with them in tow. But what we did see was really cool.

Inside the spruce tree house. Peter hates being restrained for pictures.

There it is from the top of the trail. Peter is in the "do everything myself" phase,  which means he wanted to walk down the steep hazardous trail all by himself. It was a very stressful walk for Thad and I who were taking turns guarding the cliff side of the trail.

It was a great adventure filled weekend. These pictures are from earlier in the week when Thad took the kids to the climbing wall at the rec center. They did pretty well!