This year we went with most of our kids and grand kids to Southern Utah. We caravaned from our house and took multiple rest stops along the way.
Our first day's drive took us to Cortez, CO where we spent 2 nights. It was not far from Mesa Verde, which we planned to visit on day 2.
Here we are all lined up ready to travel to Mesa Verde:
Jonny, Emilee, and Suni stayed in a camp ground in their camper so we met them at an overlook just inside Mesa Verde. It was the first time everyone had met Suni [except for Kent, Becky and I].
Here we are saying hello:
The somber baby is Suni - not sure yet about all of these people
Izzy's ready to roll:
We had tickets to tour the Balcony House after lunch, so we plotted out which overlooks we could do and where we could eat lunch before arriving at the starting point of the tour. Our first overlook was called Geologic Overlook:
Next we went to the Spruce Tree house:
After lunch, those going on the tour departed for Balcony House:
Emilee, Jonny, Suni:
The Tuomisto family:
Alex, Skylar, Haley and Aspen:
The rest of the Robins family:
The last stair way out:
Alex and his daughter Sky and the Robins family:
Suni making her way through the tunnel:
Listening to the guide:
Those who had done the tour were hot and tired but very happy. We did one last overlook at the Cliff Palace:
Then we began to have melt downs so we went back to the hotel and some of the grand kids went swimming:
This is the setting of the pool:
Aspen, Becky with Grayson, Dwight:
Lexi and Skylar:
Skylar, Crash, Lexi and Izzy in the tube:
That night for dinner we celebrated Ashley's birthday at a place called J Fargo's. We had a nice patio setting, all to ourselves. It was a lot of fun. Izzy and Suni really bonded:
Suni in Crash's hat:
The following morning we checked out of the hotel and drove to Four Corners:
Aspen and Haley:
We had to take the obligatory pictures on the four corners, right?
Crash:
Lexi:
Becky, Grayson, Izzy:
Dwight and Jenny:
Max, Ethan, Aspen, Haley:
Alex and Ashley:
Skylar and Ashley:
We, of course, had to do some shopping too. Some of us bought jewelry and others Christmas ornaments. We took turns holding Grayson so Mom could shop.
Skylar with Grayson - both adorable!!
At this point we were going to split up for a bit so we had this one last chance to take a family photo. Even Kent made it into this one!
All but Jonny's family drove to Monument Valley for some quick pictures:
The reason Jonny didn't come with us here was because the next portion of the drive was up the Moki Dugway - you can't pull a trailor etc. up this road:
We met up with Jonny's family again at Natural Bridges:
Then we had to say goodbye to Jonny/Emilee/Suni. They went on back towards home near Denver and we continued on to Hanksville. We spent the night there and then in the morning we made one last stop at Capitol Reef:
Petroglyphs:
We had to eat, so we stopped in Torrey and had lunch at a place called Slacker's Burgers. The food was good, we ate out in the shade on their patio and they had some funny signs hanging around. This was my favorite:
Ha Ha Ha!!
This was a great trip. I missed those who weren't able to come and I hope we can do it again in a year or two!! Love my family.
