Christmas Tree Hunting

Eden, UT

Our original travel plans included being safely located at a tropical beach location well before winter even began to set in. For various reasons though, we ended up postponing those beach plans and now find ourselves in the mountains of northern Utah completely unprepared for cold. Part of the great purge last spring included most of my winter clothes, so even though we did get to our storage unit before coming here to Utah and were able to grab a few things, some things just were not even available. Like a winter coat or even a warmish jacket. I was happy to find in my lone box of saved clothing a pair of tights that only had one small hole in the foot. The weather has not yet reached terrific winter lows here and the snow has been sparse, but even so we have had to purchase a few things to make it through these couple months. Which is why thrift stores make me so happy. If I am going to wear this winter coat for approximately 4-6 weeks, I appreciate that it only cost me $10. Appropriate winter footwear though is a different matter, not so much because I am squeamish about wearing used shoes, but because size elevens are hard to find anywhere but especially at a thrift store.

In addition to a lack of winter clothes, we realized that we were not prepared to decorate for Christmas. In that same trip to our storage unit in which I gratefully retrieved a pair of tights, we did manage to grab the Christmas stockings, but the rest of our decorations remain stowed away in boxes in a storage unit in Colorado, or, in the case of our 7 foot tall pre-lit Christmas tree, lost to the purge along with my winter wardrobe. Thanksgiving weekend came and went. The college kids came 'home' and consumed copious amounts of an improvised turkey dinner with us. But, for the first time since we moved our Christmas decorating to Thanksgiving weekend, we did not hang stockings or garlands, put a wreath on our door or erect a tree and hang all our favorite ornaments on it. Something had to be done. So, while my friends in Colorado were posting Facebook pictures of their families braving the cold to hunt and cut down a tree in the wilderness, we went Christmas tree hunting too, at a local thrift store.

At the front of the store, behind a row of precariously balanced, donated bikes, was a stack of 'trees,' most still in boxes, many of the boxes sporting copious layers of packing tape representing years of being un-boxed and re-boxed year after year. Erin, Kris, and I began the process of going through boxes, aided, in some cases, by the box knife we found abandoned on the dusty window sill behind the stacked trees. Many were incomplete, but we still managed to assemble at least three and drag them over to a nearby outlet. Not a one of them had working lights. But a store employee quoted us a price of just $10 on one of the trees, so we took it, faulty lights and all. Sadly I took no pictures to post on Facebook and impress my friends with our own tree hunting process, one which involved us knocking over parts of the bike display about a half dozen times.

We bought our little tree all new lights on the way home and spent a half hour cutting wires and removing all the original lights in favor of the new. That was a more involved task than we had anticipated and resulted in lots of little green 'needles' all over the kitchen floor. Three weeks later we still sweep them up. Along with lights, we also purchased a ream of white paper and went to town folding origami birds and cutting out snowflakes. Okay, mostly Fionn did. And by St Nicholas's Day we had a tree ready and waiting for the shoes that are now under it every night in anticipation of chocolate being left, not IN the shoes, because I have been informed that that is gross, even if the chocolate is wrapped, but rather ON the toes of said shoes. When Christmas is over and we are getting ready to move on, our little tree will probably go back to where it came from, or possibly be passed on to someone who needs one and next year we may just head to another thrift store in another town to find our next tree.

"Home again, Safe at Last"

Eden, UT

Prior to selling our house in Colorado, a standard line in almost every prayer: morning or night, at meals or bedtime or whatever, was "thank you for our home." (I know, no 'vain repetitions') I find myself still saying it, but have changed it up to say "this home" instead. I mean, how can you not be thankful for a roof and beds and running water, even if you don't actually own said roof and beds and water. For months this summer and early fall we lived in successive new homes every few days, finally slowing down for a whole thirty days in Cedar City Utah in September and now we are settled in Northern Utah for the holidays before taking off again in January.

Moving every few days to a new 'home' meant learning new things at each place, like which light switches do what (or nothing) and where the toilet paper is in each new bathroom, and also led to some interesting adventures and exposed us to a myriad of decorating schemes and paint colors that frankly we would never have experienced in a home of our own. We started to name the houses according to their primary decorating schemes: the James Bond house, the 70's house, the mermaid house, the hippie house, the cactus house. We have lived in the middle of a California walnut grove, in a small third floor apartment in Idaho, and in a beach cottage in Oregon. Sometimes we had to fill in a one night gap between home rentals and so ended up one night in a fabulous hotel on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and also experienced a few other less desirable, but equally memorable, hotels.

One of our homes this summer sported a five foot long vinyl sticker cowboy silhouette scene on the wall above the bed.

One night we arrived late to our newest house to discover that our hosts had actually stocked our kitchen for us!

In one place, "two full baths" turned out to be one full bath and a bathroom off the master bedroom that had NO doors and no shower, but a tub that could not be filled with hot water before the water heater wore out. So it was 'showers' sitting on the floor of the tub and ducking my head under the water spout.

In one house the doorknob on the bathroom door was about 3/4 of the way from bottom of the door and it always made me feel short.

That same bathroom door locked on the outside so that one day we were surprised by Ronan suddenly knocking on the back door to get in because he had locked himself in the bathroom, couldn't get anyone's attention and so squeezed out the tiny bathroom window onto the deck.

We experienced our first airbnb that was not strictly a vacation rental, but was actually someone's lived in home (they rent it out when they are on vacation). It was a little weird at first. We had to remove a load of their laundry from the drier. The fridge and pantry were full of their food. It was the first time we have ever had a wine collection in the house or beer in the fridge. But it was comfortable and clean,  the neighbors were nice, and it was actually a really good experience.

There have been so many sinks that do not drain properly and so many dull kitchen knives.

The instruction at one house included permission to smoke pot as long as we brought our own but to please not have any open fires in the backyard as the fire danger was high. We were back in Colorado.

We slept for the first time ever in a camper trailer.

We briefly enjoyed a bathroom sink with rainbow lights that flashed whenever the water ran.

One home had a beautiful hand made African chess set on display and the kids played chess every day.

It has been fun to bounce from one place to the next. When we arrive we explore the new house and find out what sort of kitchen supplies we have and what games or puzzles or even books might be in the house for us to use while we are there. Kris and I search out the best walking path options, Liam hopes for a bike in the garage, Ronan for a nearby basketball hoop, Fionn just wants a puzzle with all the pieces still there. On the weekend we will do hangouts with our big kids and introduce them to all the fabulous and/or bizarre aspects of our newest accommodations. It's all part of the adventure. And we have discovered that wherever we are, we can be at home.

A Museum Full of Airplanes!

Eden, UT

Yesterday we took several hours out of the middle of our school day and went to see the Aerospace Museum on Hill Air Force base. It was something I just found on one of my 'free stuff to do ' google searches that I do at each new place we go to. And it was really amazing. We are well into the traditional school year by now and for one of my sons the SAT is looming ever more near, only three weeks away in fact, so one could make the argument that a field trip just now to look at a bunch of airplanes was unwarranted and perhaps unwise and definitely an interruption to our school day routine, but I think that field trips are always a great idea.

Our kids stood underneath a B-17 bomber while their dad explained where each member of the crew sat and what his job was. (Is it redundant to say B-17 "Bomber?" The B stands for bomber, doesn't it?) Fionnula asked why would someone fly a helicopter instead of an airplane and how did they fly anyway, and luckily Kris was there to competently answer that question because my knowledge on the topic is vague at best. They saw a reproduction of the Wright Brother's 1903 flyer. There was a detailed display about the Vietnam war and specifically POWs. We watched a short video about Gail Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber. We saw one plane that is in the midst of being reconstructed and watched as another that is on display outdoors was being repainted. Liam decided on a new favorite plane. Fionn decided she wanted to learn more about the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). And we all learned the name of the B-29 that did the weather reconnaissance over Japan and determined that the atomic bomb could be dropped. Now there is a fabulous piece of historical trivia for you. I know they also read and watched things that I missed.


If I was concerned about following a specific curriculum or scope and sequence, this short trip to a museum was definitely a bit all over the place. But we were mostly thinking that airplanes are cool and free museums are cool and taking a break from math on a computer is cool. The fact that Fionn came home and looked up articles and books on the WASP and that we started to put together a list of World War 2 movies to see was just a bonus.

It's Halloween!!!!

Greeley, CO

Over the weekend we went shopping for Halloween costumes. Primarily one Halloween costume, because one teenager is boycotting the costume thing altogether and the other says his quidditch hoodie paired with a pair of sweatpants counts as a costume. Fionn has been sure what her costume for this year would be since at least last Halloween, possibly earlier since I know she maintains a list of future Halloween costume plans. Early this month she put together a detailed list of requirements for said costume and has been carefully hoarding things like cake decorating tips and cardboard tubes, and pestering her brothers for the use of their belts and her father for the whereabouts of duct tape. Because she is determined to be a convincing Tusken Raider. You know, the Sand People from Star Wars, only in our house no one other than I calls them Sand People, because the proper name is Tusken Raider and my children are politically correct Star Wars fans.

Halloween has always been a big deal to our kids. Years ago I used to spend the last week of October slaving over a sewing machine to produce all the requested costumes. Somewhere along the way we switched to a deal whereby mom made two new costumes and everyone else was responsible for coming up with their own. Lately everyone has been responsible for their own, so Fionnula has been making her own most of her life. I have been worried about the execution of this particular costume. Worried that Fionn's expectations are beyond anything we could possibly reproduce with a trip to the thrift store, a few odds and ends, and some duct tape. But while she did make a few sacrifices in the end, her costume turned out fantastic I think. And after my first trip ever to an official Halloween costume store I am just so thankful that my daughter not only wants to be a Tusken Raider but that she is disgusted by the sexualized Snow White and 'Pirate Queen' costumes that were on prominent display there.

But Halloween isn't only about the costumes. There is also a lot of anticipation about the family celebration. For lots of reasons, we have never been big on the trick-or-treat thing, though my older kids can remember a couple attempts at it. For one thing it is typically cold and miserable in Colorado on Halloween night. So we have had to come up with our own traditions that don't leave our kids feeling deprived of the trick-or-treat experience. We have tried a few different Halloween night activities in the past. Its a good night for a pinata as there is an abundance of pinata sized candy available this time of year. You need an indoor pinata venue though if its snowing outside but conveniently we had access to school gyms for years when Kris was a principal. Little kids in Halloween costumes dancing in the living room to Thriller was once a standard, but its hard to get Ronan and Liam to still participate in that. What has stuck, and been our Halloween evening tradition now for years is the treasure hunt. Its so popular that kids at college will get on a hangout call with us so they can participate even though they won't get any of the treasure! This is not an average treasure hunt. Kris spends hours putting together the clues and they include complicated riddles, palindromes, number puzzles, scrambled letters, rebuses and brain teasers and even make use of youtube videos and music scores. This year it will be held in Grandma's house which should add an extra level of difficulty, not to mention Fionn's extremely limited vision through her Tusken Raider costume.

Unschooling our way

Greeley, Colorado

With 3 children left homeschooling I would say we are extremely relaxed in our approach. While I consider our methods to be unschooling because we are pretty far removed from the institutionalized, subject based, school-bell-driven techniques of the typical public school, others would say we are not. My understanding of the generally accepted definition of unschoolers is that there are no outside influences or requirements on what or how a certain child learns, but rather the adults are there as a support to help the child find resources to learn when and how and what the child chooses. While I am fascinated by this approach to education, it is not exactly what we do. We call ourselves 'almost unschoolers,' and have in fact had periods of time of varying lengths over the years when I would say we were true unschoolers. But we have settled pretty comfortably into a world where we make a few academic requirements of our kids and then allow them to be largely in charge of the rest of their education.

This hasn't always been our style. In fact the first book I read on real homeschooling methods was a classical homeschooling book. I tried a lot of what was in that book. Initially I spent a lot of time planning, I figured how many chapters from our history book we would need to read each week in order to finish it within the desired time frame. I was dedicated to making sure we covered all the traditional school subjects and we had a schedule that detailed when we would do our math and when science and when history and when writing.  We read some great books together and we did some fun projects too, but I found myself feeling overwhelmed trying to fit it all in each week and frequently frustrated when we had to skip an art project or a hike again because we hadn't finished the planned history or science lesson.

A few things led to me slowly relaxing my control over when and what each of my children were learning. First, I constantly felt like we were running behind and trying to catch up with a schedule that I had inflicted upon us. At the same time, I was realizing that while one child was thriving with a schooling method that was heavy on reading and writing, others were floundering. My husband was also reminding me that school subjects were a creation of the school system that were more about making evaluating students convenient for educational institutions and were not, in fact, real. Science learning isn't actually separate from math learning and reading learning and so there really isn't any reason to teach them separately in different sessions during designated slots of time. And finally, my oldest two took college entrance exams and were tested on exactly two things: English and math.

Our shift away from a more traditional approach was not sudden, but each of these considerations led to a slow transition. I went from making lists of required reading to lists of books to choose from to not making any lists and just letting them read.  I stopped insisting that at thirteen years old they start, and work sequentially through, a specific general science book, and just left the books on the shelves and let them take down whichever one interested them whenever. We did, in fact spend one full year as true unschoolers. One child became an expert on all things NASA. One built Rube Goldberg projects all over the house utilizing wooden train tracks and orange match box car race tracks and dominoes.

Two things made us step away from complete unschooling. We wanted them to be prepared for college entrance exams and felt that that required a more formal approach at least with math. But more importantly we felt that it was unrealistic to allow them to expect to never have to do anything not of their choosing. So we settled comfortably into our almost unschooling methods. We expect each of the kids to read, to write, and to practice math regularly. Not daily, because we are frequently out doing things, but regularly. They read anyway. I am usually ok with counting journaling and emailing as writing. Math is a little more formal as they each are expected to be working through khan academy.  The rest of their learning is up to them. Though I do encourage them to be learning something.  And The 'almost' part of almost unschooling gives us some leeway to crack down somewhat if we feel that the 17 year old is going to need to take SAT prep a little more seriously if he is to have any chance of reaching his own goals.

It is difficult though to separate school from family life and family life does have a few additional requirements that I don't consider to be academic, but do consider to be an essential part of their education: daily scripture study, church attendance, cooking, cleaning.  Maybe my eleven year old has no interest in learning to clean a toilet but I still expect her to take her turn cleaning the bathroom.  When Kris and I go on an afternoon  walk and I leave behind  instructions on how to finish dinner preparations or even ask someone to prepare a part of the meal on their own, it doesn't really matter a lot to me if they chose to learn to shred chicken or bake corn bread.  One could even say that when we take everyone hiking in the mountains or send them to the park to play frisbee for a bit that we are making some of their learning choices for them. Again, calling ourselves almost unschoolers allows us to make these decisions and not feel as though we are betraying our educational philosophy.

Our home is not an academy of intense learning. Most days they do their scripture study and math and then spend an inordinate amount of time reading Harry Potter, or playing chess, or writing stories, or drawing, or tossing a football in the yard. But  I noticed earlier this week that Liam is watching Crash Course biology. Fionn routinely uses all our note cards to take meticulous notes from stacks of library books. I resist the urge to take over and tell her how to take notes or what to do with them. She occasionally gives me a paper she has written and she can spout unusual facts about trees and snowflakes. I make book suggestions and sometimes they read the books I suggest. I read history out loud to them sometimes because I love history but I do not ask them to write anything or produce any proof of what they learned. We go hiking. Kris took Liam and Ronan on a tour of an airplane factory. They listen to and discuss the news and are way more politically aware than I was as a teenager. Occasionally someone will get seriously engaged in a topic. More often they sort of jump from one interesting thing to another. But this is working for us now and if we begin to feel that it is no longer serving us we will make the changes we think are right then.

Still Exploring in Southern Utah

Cedar City, Utah

This was our last week in Cedar City, Monday we head back to Colorado to meet another returning missionary, to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a couple weeks, and to get all our teeth cleaned. We had already done the big sites here that were within a reasonable distance and our options for adventures this week were: to go back and explore further in favorite places we had been, to commit to 3 hours or so in the car to get to destinations a little further off, or to find more obscure locales in which to adventure. With the encouragement and advice of Cheryl and Rob (or maybe Ron?), who we spoke with briefly in the hot tub at the local pool, we chose option three. Did I mention we purchased a one month membership to the Cedar City Aquatic Center? Well we did, and it has been fabulous and not only because of the travel tips provided by locals in the hot tub. Though I have to admit that, while I did get in a few laps here and there, most of my pool time was pretty lazy stuff.

So, this week we saw:

An abandoned iron pit mine, affectionately referred to by the locals as "2000 Flushes," because of the bright blue water that filled the pit when the mine struck underground water. As is becoming standard out here, the road in was a relatively rough dirt road that google maps did not even know existed. The plan was to hike down into the mine a bit and get closer to the water. The reality was that there were multiple groups out shooting nearby and there were so many spent shotgun shells on the ground that it was impossible to walk without stepping on at least some. The place was used as a convenient dump and just down the hill from where we stood were things like broken microwaves and a burnt out old car. And also there was a dead cow. For reals. So, in the end we took a picture and left.

The remains of an old mining town, creatively named: Old Iron Town. As far as ghost towns go, it was pretty sparse in actual buildings, but there was a short little trail weaving around and through the ruins and explanatory signs at each to help those of us who don't know what an arrastra is (basically, its a mill).   There were the remains of one house and a handful of industrial remains, like a chimney from the foundry, a mill for grinding sand (the arrastra), and most impressively a huge furnace for making charcoal to heat the iron. All pretty cool stuff, but I think our kids were most impressed by the jack rabbits they spotted out on the edges of the site. Those were some big bunnies.

Lava tube caves: Utah's Mammoth Caves, which are just holes in the ground from the outside but huge caverns once you venture inside. The only real caves I have ever been in before are Carlsbad Caverns. These are no where near that size, but they also are not artificially lit, so once we went through the opening and then around a corner it was completely and totally dark. We all had flashlights, but they lit only a little path right around us, even standing near the opening still, the light penetrates only a little way into the cave. We turned all of our flashlights off a couple times just to experience the intense darkness. Supposedly there is a way out at the end of the main cave, but we didn't go that far, the further back we got, the more the floor was littered with large lava rocks that made walking difficult, the drippier the walls and ceilings became, and the lower the ceiling was getting with still no end in sight, so we turned back to the entrance. One of the side caves, Ronan did climb all the way through, the last quarter crawling on his belly out the other end, but the rest of us again went out the way we came in.

Lava Flows. Pretty much the whole canyon was full of lava, and we stopped at two great places to view the immensity of it all. First at a canyon overlook near the caves where groves of aspens were looking spectacular in their fall foliage against the lava rock landscape. Next we drove out along possibly the scariest dirt road yet at the bidding of a tiny wooden sign reading: "Lava Flow," to view acres and acres of lava rocks as far as we could see.  I sincerely never expected to see lava anything in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

Short Trips near St George

Cedar City, Utah

Thursday we went to a few more places on our 'short trips' list. There is no official list, its in our heads. But there are a handful of things we have read about or seen pictures of that we want to go see but which are not all day trips on their own. Thursday happened to be a day that we needed to go back to St George. Again. Because Cedar City has no Costco. Or Target. Or lots of things. So it seemed like a good chance to also see a few things that we had a vague idea were near St George.

First was the Glitter Pit. Or Sparkle Mountain. Whichever name you like, it is part of a once abandoned gypsum mine. I say 'once abandoned' because everything we saw online said it was abandoned, but signs at the actual site would indicate that that is not accurate and that it is indeed owned and the owners have all rights to the gypsum located there. It was however empty when we got there with no indication that anyone was actively mining it or taking precautions other than a sign to keep anyone from at least exploring the pit. So we did. The dirt that has been dug up and then piled in hills all around the pit it was removed from really does glitter and sparkle in the sun as it is absolutely full of loose pieces of gypsum. It looks like piles of broken glass. And down in the pit, the red rock wall is broken up by a huge vein of pure white gypsum. Funny that on the wall it looks bright white, but the small pieces when separated from the wall are clear like glass. All this sparkling beauty and it turns out that the main use for gypsum is in dry wall of all things.

After exploring the mine pit for a while we headed off to stop number two, the Warner Valley Dinosaur tracks. The glitter pit is just barely over the Arizona border outside of St George. The dinosaur tracks are near Hurricane Utah. As far as I can tell the only route to those dinosaur tracks though is a long dirt road heading north from pretty much where we were. It started out relatively friendly but became increasingly rough as we went. There were several places where the road is obviously at least occasionally under water. It was a super pretty drive though and we barely saw another soul the whole way. Luckily the dino track site is marked, so we parked and walked out to it. Dinosaur tracks in red rock ground. Exactly as promised. Somehow it is especially cool to see them there on the ground as compared to seeing a piece of rock with a print on it in the museum.

The last visit of the day, if you don't count hamburgers and Costco I guess, was the Brigham Young winter home in St George. Its exactly what it sounds like. A tour of an old house with some church history thrown in. We met missionaries from Texas and Canada and Ireland. And learned that pomegranates can grow in St George, a fact that I am sure has contributed to Kris's desire to live there. They have palm trees, it doesn't snow, they grow pomegranates. Basically it is paradise on Earth.

Bryce Canyon

Cedar City, Utah

Tuesday's trip was to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was amaaaazing! We made sure to wear long pants and real shoes and even brought light weight jackets this time so we would have no need to abort the whole trip. For at least part of the day we were glad to be better prepared. It wasn't super cold or particularly windy, but it is plainly not summer anymore and there was still a chill in the air.

The main feature of the day was the Queen's Garden trail. We stopped at the visitor's center when we came in and debated whether or not to use the optional shuttle to get to our trail head. We were even in line for the shuttle when Liam noticed a sign telling us to move our car from the main parking lot before boarding a shuttle as the visitor's center parking was restricted to one hour only. So we walked back to our car, intending to move it, but decided instead to drive on to the trail and just see if maybe there was enough parking. There was. Our trail began at Sunrise Point and there were (luckily) signs leading us there from the parking lot, so off we went. There is a fabulous canyon view from Sunrise Point, they call it the amphitheater though and say 'canyon' is wrong. I thought amphitheater was 'outdoor theater,' I guess that isn't all it is. It is also a canyon full of cool stuff to look at, in this case hoodoos, a word I love. The view from above, though, was quickly overshadowed as we descended on the trail down into the canyon and actually walked among the rock formations. The queen of Queen's Garden, by the way, is a pink formation named Queen Victoria. I am still unsure why she gets a garden in southern Utah.

The trail winds back and forth and loops around and through the hoodoos and cliffs below. In some places the ground drops a bit dramatically off the side of the trail. At one point, we were stopped at a drop off where the ground beside the trail was just a lot of loose sand cascading between giant rock formations. We could see that our trail went around a curve ahead of us and continued way below us. Liam, gazing at the steep landscape between us and that trail far below jokingly asked; "Is that the trail down there? Why don't we just walk that way then?"  An older woman nearby overheard him and said firmly "Because you would die!" Then, perhaps deciding she was being a bit extreme, added; "Because your Grandma wouldn't want you to!" Haha. We stayed on the trail, for grandmas everywhere.

So we wandered along the Queen's Garden trail and then took the Navajo Loop off of it that took us to see a couple land bridges and through a few tunnels and then back up a steep, back and forth, trail reminiscent of San Francisco's 'crookedest street in the world,' (only we were going up... and walking) and up to Sunset Point. But there was construction at the view point and we were asked to wait 10 minutes before we could pass, in that 10 minutes we noticed that another trail was ending here also, and looking down that trail we could see that it went through a slot canyon way below us. So after climbing all the way up, we climbed back down the other trail so we could go through the canyon at what was, I think, the end of the Under the Rim Trail. It was awesome! We didn't continue on the trail but came back up the way we went down, giving us a chance to walk through the narrow canyon twice.

We finished our day in the park by driving the road up to Rainbow viewpoint and then coming back down stopping at most of the viewpoints along the way. The highlight of the viewpoints was probably the Land Bridge, but seeing things from up above was nothing in comparison to walking down among them.

Shakespeare!!!!!

Cedar City, Utah

Some months ago when we were laying out our plans for the summer we determined that after we dropped off Noah and Amik at school, and before we picked up Erin in Colorado Springs at the end of her mission, we  would spend a whole month just chilling in one place. There was a time when we had thought we would continue the road tripping life and head to the east coast, but when it came down to realistic plans we just knew that one month wasn't enough time to see and do half of what we wanted to in, and on our way to, the east. Also, our pre-BYU I plans had been rearranged to get us back to Boise in early August for a quick family reunion weekend and so we had missed seeing some of the National Parks we had hoped to see. And that is how we ended up in a house in Cedar City Utah for the month of September. Where we could rest a little from so much moving about, where Ronan could more seriously study for the SAT (hopefully), and where we could get to and from a few of Utah's national parks. I was just disappointed that we were too late for the Utah Shakespeare Festival that Cedar City hosts every summer. Except guess what? We weren't. They have plays going into October, and this year, one Shakespeare play would still be playing while we were here; A Midsummer Night's Dream. This became one of our exceptions to cheap and free activities and we bought tickets to a matinee performance. Wednesday was our scheduled play. I had given the kids a brief synopsis of the story of the play, but when I asked them if they wanted to read it or watch a version Liam was adamant that his 'first experience' with it be seeing the play itself.

The Shakespeare Festival is held on the SUU campus here. Its a relatively small university I think, but it appears to have a pretty amazing arts complex, including a Globe Theatre! Sadly our play was not in the Globe, but the little theatre it was in next door was very nice. As we approached the doors we were greeted by an older lady who asked if we already had our tickets. We explained that they were on our phones and she questioned if they could be scanned from phones. Yes they could (we had actually called way back when we first bought them to be sure that this was a possibility since we travel without a printer), she looked doubtful and said "we are all old here you know." Despite her doubts she was very intrigued by this technology and personally escorted us in the doors and around to the other side to explain to a handful of other white haired ladies that "these people have their tickets on their phones and they say you can scan them from there!" This generated quite a bit of excitement and momentary panic from the woman with the scanning device when she couldn't get it to turn on because she "really wanted to be the one to do this!" But, no worries, she got it to turn on and then it did indeed successfully scan the tickets right off Kris's phone and there was much rejoicing among her comrades. Haha.

We were seated next to what appeared to be at least three middle school classes on a field trip. My reaction when we run into school groups while out on an adventure is complex; on the one hand I am annoyed that they are invading my happy homeschooling world, but on the other I am impressed by the school that is doing something so cool as to hike through a national park or attend a Shakespeare play in the middle of a school day. They were loud. So, so loud. And Liam was seated right next to them, he has come a long way from the days when we had to put noise blocking headphones on him to keep him from crying when a family game of charades got to be too much, because he was able to just block them out and read his book until the lights went down. And, to their credit, they ceased to be noisy once the play started.

The play was fantastic. The words were pure Shakespeare, the costumes and mannerisms were American jazz age. The actress who played Helena gave me an appreciation for the character I have never actually had before and Puck was, of course, absolutely brilliant. I had assured my family before we went that seeing the play would make the words so much easier to understand and they did indeed laugh in all the right places and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I would love to return next summer for The Merchant of Venice. Or Othello. Or both.

Cedar Breaks and Parowan Gap

Cedar City, Utah

It is no longer summer. For reals. We have had to change our plans several times in the past two weeks because of weather. And on Tuesday, we should have changed our plans, but didn't. Or rather didn't until it was literally forced upon us.

We were going to Cedar Breaks National Monument. I had never heard of it before picking up a map at the local pool, it looked cool, we have a parks pass, we decided to go. So I Googled a couple hikes of the under 5 mile kind and Tuesday morning we packed our lunches, donned our usual shorts and sandals, loaded into the car, set the GPS and were on our way. Its only about 40 minutes from Cedar City, which is probably why I didn't think to check temperatures before we left. The visitor's center is also at about 10,000 feet. As we got closer, the car kept reminding us of the outside temperatures which rapidly dropped from over 60 to below 45 by the time we parked. Kris and I had windbreakers/ raincoats. Only because he always brings them. For both of us. Not because of any preparation on my part. But none of the kids had any sort of coat and all were wearing shorts and t-shirts. And it wasn't just 42 degrees out, it was also windy enough out to knock a small child over. And that wind was straight from the arctic I swear.

Still pretty, even in the cold.

We scrapped the hikes and instead stopped at each overlook and then back down the other side of the mountain, through the recent burn area of the Brian Head fire, and on the longest route possible to Parowan, Utah where we knew we could find the Parowan Gap and dinosaur tracks and Petroglyphs. Good save I say.

One of many petroglyph panels in Parowan Gap.

Zion National Park

Cedar City, Utah

This week we went to Zion National park. We had planned to do Zion Canyon on Tuesday, even though we were feeling discouraged because we were reading that even though it is September, the park is still busy enough to require the use of shuttles in the most popular areas. And that meant Zion Canyon.

Heading into Kolob Canyon

We had had high hopes that with kids being back in school we would see lots fewer visitors in the parks. Then we left later than planned that morning (always, I know). Then we realized that the park entrance was further from our home in Cedar City than we thought. Basically it all  added up to us feeling generally a little grouchy and negative about the whole endeavor. So we changed our plans en route to the park. Instead of heading to the main entrance we decided to spend our day in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park, and that turned out to be the cure to all our grouchiness.

In Kolob we first stopped at the visitors center to show our pass and officially be allowed in to the park. The truth is, this is totally an honor system since it would be super easy to drive on past the parking lot and into the park. We weren't issued any kind of pass to hang in our window either. But we are honest people (who also have a parks pass and so didn't actually have to pay anything anyway) and also this was our last chance at flushing toilets after all. That's probably how they ensure honesty really, the lure of the flushing toilets.

View from the overlook

First we drove to the end of the canyon road and then walked about a mile to a park overlook. Then we drove back down the same road to a trail head back close to the entrance, the Taylor Creek Trail. The trail followed along the creek the whole way. Eventually Liam and Fionn mostly gave up walking on the trail and just walked down the middle of the creek, which was basically ankle deep the whole way.

First half got a little warm, but as we got further into the canyon there was more shade and more trees. Eventually we arrived at a huge canyon wall with two partial arches. The canyon walls were, I am guessing, the source of the creek, as they were leaking water from above. We ate lunch there, took our pictures and then turned around and hiked right back the way we had come. The whole hike was right about 5 miles and we were all very thirsty by the time we were done. Note: one small bottle of water each for a five mile hike just does not cut it, we've proven that twice now.

The lower arch of the double arch

Thursday was our day for Zion Canyon, and after our relaxing day in Kolob Canyon we were ready! Then we awoke Thursday to a persistent thunderstorm that showed no signs of letting up. And it didn't until about 3 that afternoon. So we did Zion on Friday! We had to park outside of the park and take a shuttle into the park, where we had to catch another shuttle to take us up the canyon to everything we wanted to see and do. It wasn't quite Yosemite, but it was sometimes uncomfortably crowded both on the shuttles and on the trails. The shuttles though were much more dependable than those in Yosemite. We never waited more than 5 minutes for one. Not even when we got on going the wrong way, had to get off at the next stop and wait for another to come along going our way. By the way, there are only two ways the shuttles can be going; up the canyon or down the canyon, there is only the one road. Sometimes we don't read signs well. 

Looking out from under weeping rock

First we stopped at the Three Patriarchs, which was just a quick walk up from our shuttle stop and back to catch the next one going by. Then we hiked the Emerald Pools Trail, which goes up and up and up past emerald pools 1 and 2 and 3, each formed by water falling over the canyon wall and each one harder to get to than the last with the hike to the last pool being really quite challenging for such a well traveled trail. Next we saw weeping rock, where water seeping through the rock falls like raindrops from a cliff overhang and you can actually stand in the alcove and watch it fall in front of you. And finally we walked the mile River Walk at the end of the canyon. The walk leads to The Narrows, where lots of people go ahead and continue their hike right up the river. As in they walk IN the river, there really is no trail anymore. But we did not have shoes for river walking and instead just played by the water and then caught  our bus back to the entrance and then another back to our car and headed home to our crockpot dinner. I love it when the rental houses have a crockpot and I have the foresight to actually use them.

And Then There Were Three

Cedar City, Utah

Last week we left two of our boys at college. One of those two has been living away from home for the past two years, but the other, besides the occasional camping trip,  has been sleeping under the same roof as I for the past 18.75 (or so) years and I feel his absence deeply. I also keep forgetting he isn't with us. When I get up in the morning I am still surprised that he isn't making pancakes and frying bacon in the kitchen. At church I look for him, expecting him to follow Kris and I to Sunday School. On hikes I have to remember he isn't there to happily trail behind the rest of us, keeping his little sister company and willingly listening to her constant chatter. Of course I have known this was coming for awhile, well, since he was born I guess. It is a lousy deal you make as a parent of a newborn, that you will raise this little person into a competent adult who will then leave you. But along the way you get incredibly attached.

Up until the day we actually hugged them both in their apartment and then drove away leaving them waving through the window behind us, I was feeling pretty confident about their ability to survive without us. They cook, they do laundry, at least one of them has better social skills than I do and they have both done college before. But shopping that day with them I totally started second guessing their preparedness. They weren't putting nearly enough vegetables in the cart. They each were carrying their apartment key just stuffed alone in their pocket because neither had a key chain! They had no dentist, no doctor, and no car. Amik doesn't even have a water bottle. Plainly they were not equipped to handle life on their own. What if they didn't get up in time for class? What if they hated their roommates? What if they drove one another crazy? What if they got sick? Still, I sucked it all up and we waved back as we left them there. And they have been just fine of course. They paid their bills, they bought their books, they are attending classes, eating, and Noah has even figured out how to use the 'Walmart bus' to get himself to the store for bread and milk.

Those of us left behind are adjusting too. It always leaves a hole in the family when one moves out and there is a period of reshuffling as everyone left behind figures out their new positions in relation to one another at home as well as how to continue relationships with the one and ones that are further away now. Someone left behind has almost certainly just lost their best buddy. Others have lost the older sibling they have looked to for guidance, for entertainment, for advice, for whatever. They each have a unique relationship with the sibling who left. In this case, Ronan has lost the only sibling who regularly played basketball with him and now he shoots baskets on his own whenever we go to the pool/gym. Fionnula lost the brother who is most willing to just listen to her. Liam lost his ally in the fight to have bacon on at least one pizza in the pizza order. And we are all missing the constant silliness of his ridiculous jokes and pranks, though Liam seems to be taking over somewhat in that regard: he sits behind me in the car and if I put my arm out the window he reaches out his window and grabs my arm from behind. Exactly as Noah always did.

Grand Teton National Park

Idaho Falls, Idaho

As we drove into Grand Teton National Park, Liam asked "So what's this park have?" So far, most of our national park visits have sort of had a theme: tall trees, fat trees, cliff dwellings, geysers. I told him that this one was mostly about the amazing mountain views. The problem with that is that there is currently so much smoke in the northwest that we really could barely even see those amazing mountains. It made for a fairly disappointing trip. Or at least it felt that way. But I am hanging on to a few great experiences we did have despite the smoke filled skies that blocked out those mountain backdrops that I know were there!

We entered the park through an unmanned backdoor just north of Jackson and drove basically a counter clockwise loop around the park with slight detours from that main loop. There were lots of pullouts to stop and see and photograph the views, but the views were mostly obscured by that smoke. We did eventually go through an actual entrance and have to show our pass, but that wasn't until halfway through the day. Still, we did get to see some pretty great things.

The first pretty great thing we saw that day was the Mormon Row Barns. I think I have already demonstrated that I am pretty taken with abandoned buildings, and these did not disappoint, even though the magnificent mountains that stand beyond them were mostly invisible. There are houses in addition to barns but the barns are definitely the main attraction. The birds everywhere were a bonus.

At the Schwabacher Landing beaver ponds we saw a mama and baby (okay, adolescent?) moose. Everyone watched them for a really long time. In fact we would have missed the baby if we hadn't stuck around as he emerged from the grass after we had been watching his mama for a good thirty minutes. Animal sightings in the parks are a real favorite, though we still haven't seen any bears.






Next was a short walk near Jackson Lake at Colter Bay.  Whenever we let the kids out of the car at a big body of water, well any sized body of water, they always, always start throwing rocks in.

The best view of the mountains all day was at Jenny Lake. It was beautiful, if still a little hazy.

And then we drove out through Teton Village. It really wasn't a bad day, I mean you really can't call a day in which you saw a baby moose a bad day.

Working Out in the Kitchen

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Ronan's birthday was last week. Our birthday traditions are fairly simple really. There is a present or two. We make a custom happy birthday poster. And the birthday person chooses the meals for the day. Presents weren't too hard. I am actually carrying with me the last bit of old printer paper (you know the kind that comes in a continuous sheet and has perforated edges punched with holes so it can spool through the 1980's era printer) that we have used for years for birthday posters, and while Fionnula's colored pencils are not the ideal medium for poster making, they worked. So all that was left to pull off on the actual day was the birthday meals. We cook most of our own meals as we travel, but cooking in strange kitchens with basically no food staples on hand has led to pretty simplified meal plans. Tacos and taco salads are a staple. We do a lot of spaghetti and sometimes break up the monotony with a pasta primavera of sorts or maybe an alfredo sauce. Ronan's requests for his birthday were a coffee cake for breakfast and a dinner of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and corn with a german chocolate cake for dessert.

Conveniently this house does have a small grill for the chicken. It does not have any baking pans beyond one pizza pan and one cookie sheet (which was conveniently stored inside the oven ON the heating element and not discovered until after I had heated up the oven...). Baking has proven a challenge even in kitchens that do have pans. It requires such a variety of ingredients and tools that are frankly difficult to carry from house to house. We have experimented with refrigerated cookie dough but have decided we are not that desperate. Most recently we have given in to the boxed brownie mix and found it a vast improvement over the cookie dough when I just really need some fresh baked yumminess. But a german chocolate cake was going to be a challenge.

First we had to buy all the ingredients, even the flour and sugar because we have no 5 gallon storage buckets in the pantry like we once did. I bought foil baking pans, the recipe said to use 9 inch round pans but we ended up with some odd ball rectangular ones, something like 11x9, a size no one ever uses for anything but still they manufacture foil pans in this size. Then I had to produce a decent cake with no mixer of any kind. This kitchen doesn't even have a wooden spoon. Who doesn't have a wooden spoon in their kitchen? Someone who never cooks. Well I creamed that butter and sugar BY HAND with a rubber spatula! It wasn't quite kitchen-aid quality creamed butter, but it worked. More impressively though, I whipped my egg whites into at least semi-stiff peaks too. I had actually forgotten that this step would be necessary when I agreed to produce this particular dessert. If I am going to continue making cakes by hand I am going to have to train my left arm to do some of the beating and whipping too or I am going to develop bulging biceps only on the right arm.

Dinner was a success. A not quite 9x13 two layer cake served straight from the pan is not as pretty as the 3 layer round ones Erin used to produce for us, but it tastes basically the same. The chicken was perfect, even if the tiny grill may have been a challenge to cook such large quantities on.  The potatoes had to be peeled with a knife and then mashed and whipped with a fork and plastic spoon, but the leftover buttermilk from the cake made them extra yummy and corn on the cob wasn't much of a challenge at all, we may need to add it onto our list of foods easy to prepare in even the worst stocked kitchens. 

Yellowstone!

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Seven years ago, we visited Yellowstone park with all ten of our children, ages 4 through 19. Kris was on crutches after a pretty severe and scary knee break a few weeks previously, but our reservations at the KOA had been in place for months and we were getting dangerously close to the time when our kids would begin to move out on us, so he was determined to pull off this vacation as planned. So we did. Yesterday we returned to Yellowstone with only five 'children' and no crutches.

Near Yellowstone Lake

Yellowstone is huge. There was no way we were going to be able to see it all in a day and we were not sure if we would have another day to return, so we decided on the lower loop which would at least get us to the most geysers. Our house in Idaho Falls is actually about two hours from Yellowstone so we planned to leave as early as possible to get the most of our day and 'as early as possible' turned out to be right about 8 am. Because early is just not our thing. About two hours later we arrived at the west gate of Yellowstone park and got started.

Hayden Valley

Our basic plan was to drive around that lower loop and stop at as many sites as we possibly could. So we did. And we saw lots of geysers, and bubbling 'paint pots' of mud, and waterfalls and bison. Lots and lots and lots of bison. Practically as soon as we were in the park we spotted the telltale sign of a wildlife spotting-lots of cars pulled over at the side of the road completely ignoring all those signs that say NOT to stop on the side of the road even if you see something spectacular-it turned out to be an elk which actually isn't all that exciting to people from Colorado, so we drove on to the next traffic hold up and this time it was a bison which is way cooler than an elk and so we did stop. In the nearby parking lot like good rule abiding citizens. Later in the day we encountered huge herds of bison crossing the road and walking right next to the road and even in some cases walking right ON the road and that one lonely bison we saw earlier lying all nonchalantly in the grass by the creek seemed pretty tame.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

At the first geyser basin we stopped at, Fionnula asked why the ground and the water was so hot, so we revealed, a little nervously, the truth about the entire park basically being within the caldera of a volcano. She can get a little anxious over potential dangers and so I was worried what her reaction would be, it was still early in the day and I wanted to see lots of things still and not have a panicked 11 year old on our hands all day. She asked if it could possibly erupt. I didn't think that lying was the way to go here and so I said that technically, yes, it could erupt and then one of her brothers was all "Well if I have to die, being here for an eruption would be one of the top ways!" and interestingly, that was the end of the conversation, she was good. Sometimes I overthink things I guess.

Old Faithful

We arrived at Old Faithful right after it had erupted and so had approximately 90 minutes to wait for the next one. We ate our lunch. We played with a raven. We listened to all the accents and other languages all around us which has been one of the greatest parts about visiting the parks this summer. Some of us may have napped briefly. After several false starts it did finally come through and erupt for us, though it took more than the predicted "90 minutes give or take 10" that had been advertised.




Then we moved on, from geyser basins to the "Dragons Mouth" cave to the lake to the canyon and its waterfalls and back to more geyser basins and finally finished at the artist paint pots as the sun was setting and then headed out of the park and back home to Idaho Falls where we were too tired to even care that we had missed dinner all together.

Artist's Paint Pots

Eclipses and Missionary Homecomings

Greeley, Colorado

Given our mobile lifestyle, one would think that we were in a perfect position to have scheduled a trip to the zone of totality last week and witnessed the eclipse in all its glory, but instead we were back in Colorado Springs watching a not quite total eclipse with friends in their front yard from behind eclipse glasses hastily and gratefully purchased in a shopping center parking lot just days before the event and through cereal box viewers taped together the night before and on the shadows formed between our interlaced fingers.

We missed totality because the day following the eclipse we welcomed home missionary number four. And when I say 'home' I mean that he flew into the same airport that he flew out of two years ago. But, while we drove by the house he spent 8 years of his life in, he saw its glorious blue color for the first and possibly last time ever that day and then spent his first night home sleeping on a spare bed in the basement of our dear friends' house. I am so thankful to have good friends who took us in, helped us celebrate our missionary homecoming and especially let us eat their food and sleep in their beds (and on their floors and couches).

Having my children serve missions has really been a great experience for our family. We miss them terribly of course while they are gone, but we also love to get our weekly emails, love our Skype calls on Christmas and Mother's Day and love to learn about the places and the people where they each have served. Most of all, missionaries are just dear to my heart because I know that my life as I know it is because of other missionaries. My parents were taught and baptized by missionaries when I was an infant. I will never know who those missionaries were, and my understanding is that my parents went through many of them before committing to baptism, but I am so grateful to and for those missionaries and their families. Kris was taught and baptized by missionaries only a couple years before we were married, in this case I do know one of 'his' missionaries, thanks to a ward member who went out of his way to help us reconnect about twenty-five years later. And I am also eternally grateful to and for Elder White for serving a mission. Having my children out there serving and impacting lives the way I believe mine to have been is really a precious thing.

So missionary number four has returned, numbers five and six are still serving, and number seven is finishing mission papers and expecting to go early next year. I love the tradition of missionary service that my children have begun, and I hope that the rest of them continue to follow the tradition of their older siblings and choose to serve missions also.

Ordinary Days

Greeley, Colorado

We aren't always out hiking amidst giant trees and towering waterfalls or exploring fantastic city scapes or ancient ruins. Many of our days are very ordinary. We play Monopoly. We read books. We do math. We wash laundry. We cook. The kids have been slowly working their way through all the Marvel movies. I finished a quilt. Right now we are back at my mom's house and in fact spent yesterday evening weeding the flower garden and catching toads.

We spent the week of the 4th of July living in Rexburg, seeing our older kids whenever they weren't in class or at work. And exploring the town on our own when they were. We had a barbecue. We went to a fireworks show. And we played at the park a lot. En route to Canada we met up with old friends who had moved and just hung out at a park for a couple hours. We went to a small family reunion in Boise and met extended family most of us never had before and had a really great time eating and talking and playing in the backyard. We spent 3 days in Ogden with no other agenda than visiting big kids again.

The ordinary days and the ordinary activities are important. First because laundry and cooking and school are all things that still need to get done. And because a daily walk with my husband and an almost daily yoga routine keep me sane. And weeding a garden and catching toads is just plain fun. Yes even the weeding. Without the ordinary stuff, we couldn't maintain the fantastic stuff. But also, the beaches and waterfalls and giant trees have all been great, but none of it beats having our grown up son crash on our couch and sleep the afternoon away or watching my little kids get to play in the river with their big sister and her husband or piling into a hammock with cousins they previously didn't even know they had.

So we look forward to more adventures and excitement, but we also plan to continue enjoying and celebrating the ordinary days.

Sunday on the Road

Durango, Colorado

After two busy days of exploring we are relaxing after church. I have my LDS hymns Pandora station playing. Noah is getting leftovers ready for lunch. Kris is napping. Later we will get the big kids on hangouts when they too are all home from church.  We will all email our missionary siblings and Noah will also email his missionary friend. We will take a walk in the neighborhood. We may play a game of Skip Bo or Greed. Probably we will try to see some shooting stars tonight if it isn't overcast. With our traveling lifestyle I think I have come to appreciate the restfulness of Sunday more than I may have in the past.

Wherever we are, when Sunday comes we find a church and attend a ward. Mormon.org makes this super easy, I type in where we are and they show me the closest building, the ward or wards that meet there, the Bishop's name and number, the missionaries' number, and the meeting times. Once Mormon.org failed me. We were in California, the nearby building had two wards and one was Spanish speaking. Guess who showed up for a Spanish speaking ward instead of the intended English speaking ward? Not only that, but we were too late for Sacrament meeting even, because they had started at 9 not 10 as the website had led me to believe. This margin of error could probably be eliminated if we routinely phoned the Bishop or assigned missionaries, which we did the week after that mishap, but on this trip we have had no issues and so have perhaps become lax. I learned today that when traveling outside of the US we can even filter for English speaking wards should we desire, though they are not to be found everywhere.

We have attended a different ward every week since we left my Mom's in June. It is an interesting experience to be a visitor every week. Fionnula's name gets pronounced all sorts of interesting ways and she has had different primaries sing her the famous primary welcome song (HELLO! hello!) nearly every week for almost two months. Different wards have different personalities and some are definitely better at the whole visitor thing than others. At one ward my boys were actually greeted in Sacrament meeting by another young man who then took the time after sacrament to get them all to the right classes too. That's a service that isn't always volunteered even by the adults and leadership in every ward, we frequently need to ask. A branch we attended that had no youth of their own made up a Sunday School class on the spot just for our two boys.

 There are things about belonging to a ward that I miss, like not having a class of young women to teach, and my boys not participating in the blessing and passing of the Sacrament. I was so grateful to the branch that asked my boys to pass the sacrament because they had no young men. But overall, the visitor thing works out pretty well. The wards are not all on the exact same schedule with the lesson materials, so sometimes we get the same lesson we had last week and sometimes we miss a lesson or two. But the most important things are really just the same no matter where we attend.

Mesa Verde Part Two (Saturday Aug 12, 2017)

Durango, Colorado

This morning we had tickets for a 9:30 am tour of Balcony House. We got up early, we ate cold cereal, I even put dinner in our borrowed crockpot in our borrowed kitchen. We were out of here, fed, showered, and with packed lunches in hand, by 7:45 am, and that is a huge feat for this family. One of the reasons homeschool works so well for us is that we do not have to pull off this same performance five days a week, 9 months out of the year.

Climbing back out of Balcony House

The Balcony house tour promised to have us climbing a thirty foot high ladder and crawling through a tunnel that was only 18 inches wide. I actually got out my tape measure this morning to verify that my hips were less than 18 inches wide. I had a nightmare about this stupid tunnel last night. Standing at the trail head as our tour gathered I was comparing myself to others hoping at least a few of them fell into the category of "more likely to get stuck in the tunnel than me." I made it. It wasn't even close actually, it is narrow to get into the tunnel and narrow to get out, but I was never in any real danger of blocking the whole thing up and leaving everyone behind me in line stranded with no way out of the dwelling. Whew. Information presented at this tour was mostly the same as at Cliff Palace, but the tour itself was more fun. We climbed multiple ladders and crawled through two tunnels, we were actually inside the ruins and saw the springs that once provided water to the inhabitants. And this time we climbed out along the actual toe-holds (enlarged and with handrails added) that the inhabitants would have used themselves.

We only had one more thing to see on this side of the park, the Chapin Mesa Museum, so we stopped there on our way to Wetherill Mesa. Generally speaking we have steered clear of most of the visitor center stuff at the national parks, but we made exceptions for this museum and the peek into the research center at the park's entrance, which we looked at yesterday when we got our tour tickets. Because who doesn't want a glimpse of all the artifacts that have been dug up around these canyons?

Then we were on to Wetherill mesa on the other end of the park, where we saw Step House, did our Long house tour, visited the Badger House Community, oh, and ate lunch. And saw a rattlesnake. And wild horses. For reals, just like Man from Snowy River. Wetherill Mesa also featured the first flushing toilets we had seen since the entrance, so that was nice. There is one parking lot for all of this, so we parked and walked from one thing to the next. The tour at Long House was probably our best tour yet, though it did not involve as much adventure as Balcony House, we climbed a total of one ladder and there were no tunnels whatsoever. But the tour itself was more in depth and the ruins were immense. The ranger guide showed us petroglyphs on the walls right within the ruins, pottery shards in the fire pit, suspected 'cowboy holes,' where looters in the past broke through walls, and was able to describe many aspects of the daily lives of the Pueblo people who once lived here in much more detail than the other tour guides did. He wasn't exactly humble about that either, mentioning that there were a few rangers there who knew their stuff, presumably to include himself, haha.

Long House

My favorite random fact from Mesa Verde (as related by our Long House tour ranger guide): that there were 180 cacao jars found in the whole southwest region and that 166 of those jars were all in one storeroom in Chaco canyon. Whoever owned that storeroom, I feel a deep bond with them.