Cortez with friends!

Pulling out of Albuquerque Monday, October 16, was hard. For months we'd been looking forward to the balloon fiesta and now it was over. We spent time talking about our favorite activities and balloons then turned the conversation to future items on our bucket list. By the way, the balloon fiesta just might make it on our annual bucket list :) .

New Mexico scenery can totally change every mile or less. I love it!

     We planned to spend the night at a friend's in Cortez but our first stop was a laundromat. I had looked on Google maps and found one with a huge parking lot behind it so we headed there. Eldon unhooked the camper and we hauled massive piles of laundry and loaded an 80 lb and two 40 lb washers. Bedding, towels, and nearly all our clothes! Two weeks of no hook-ups is doable! 

     Eldon washed the truck while the children and I walked to Dairy Queen for lunch then back to switch clothes. While the clothes dried, we did our grocery shopping and filled up with fuel and by then our clothes were ready to be folded.

It was so nice to have everything clean again!

A big reason we wanted to get groceries in Cortez is because we were after a few specific products that are grown in that area.

Anasazi beans are by far my favorite but the pinto beans are delicious as well!

My sister declares this flour makes better bread then any other flour!

We parked at Jennifer and Destry's, friends we had met at church last summer when we worked in Cortez. 

He farms on a big scale and Ethan just loved the tractors.

These silly goats loved animal crackers!

Trampolines are wonderful for expelling energy!

Ethan had a blast with their boys and all the toys!

Aspen trees are so pretty!

Annie and Emily played dress-up and tea party all evening :)

I never saw so many John Deere clothes and toys as in this house, lol.

     Jennifer served us chili and cornbread along with coffee and bars for dinner and it was amazing! Most of all we loved sitting around the table with Jennifer and Destry and several of their older children and discussing a huge range of subjects. The conversation went from hilarious to serious and everything in between. We're so thankful for friends like this who make our journey on earth easier!

Spud Lake

Last Monday was a beautiful fall day and we knew we should take advantage of it and get a good hike in! The trailhead is off of the 550, between Durango and Silverton so it took us nearly 2 hours to get there.

The trail was 2 miles round trip and marked as easy since elevation only changed 419 feet. The worst was that it had some very rocky areas so that made it a little harder but the children all managed just fine. Ethan even walked a good bit of the way, but only because he has decided that he's to big for the carrier.

The Aspen leaves were just changing to a bright yellow and against the brilliant blue sky it made a stunning picture! There was several beaver ponds along the way but we didn't see any beavers. No surprise really, we're fairly noisy hikers :) .

We ate our lunch at the lake and the children waded and played with "boats". After an hour of relaxing and soaking in the beauty we headed back down. This is actually a pretty easy hike, esp if you take your time! Emily made it with basically no whining so that says something :).

I'm so glad that we did this because ever since then it's been cool and rainy-not nice hiking weather at all!

Arriola Bible Church

One of our biggest cons of full-timing is the church situation. Growing up, our whole lives revolved around church so the very idea of not attending 2 or more activities at the same church each week could seem quite scary and unsafe. We have however, found it to be a huge blessing in visiting random churches and worshiping with other believers. 

I had asked a friend who has family in the Cortez area if they have a church to recommend in the area and she mentioned Arriola. The first Sunday we were here my sister and family went with us since they were visiting us. It didn't take us long to realize that we could most definitely be back. They were so extremely welcoming and we loved the solid Bible teaching and old hymns as well as worship songs.

The children were in love with the way they do church and we liked it too. The first thing we do is drop them off at their Sunday School classes. The adult Sunday School is all together in the auditorium and then we go pick our children up. They are with us for Bible reading, prayer, and singing then First grade and lower is dismissed for children's church. Children's church simply goes deeper into the Sunday School Lesson and we were so impressed with how much they have learned! There is also a nursery for 2 and under but my dear son decided he would not stay without his mother. I tried multiple times but he got so upset I soon realized it was not worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the nursery with him and made some wonderful friends with the nursery workers and other mommies. Eldon said he got more out of church then he has in years since he had no children distracting him :). 

The children attended VBS this summer as well. We've had a wonderful time and will miss all our friends here. One advantage of traveling like this is that you make friends in many places but then it's also hard to leave!

Hiking near Cortez......

In July we set a lofty goal of hiking 15 miles a month. July was no problem. August rolled around and we got less then 5. I'm not sure what happen other then Eldon started working nights and we got a little lazy. In the last 2 weeks we've managed to do 10 miles. I'm not sure if we'll hit our goal this month or not but it will be close! And our "hiking" miles also include when we walk and the children bike at 2 lovely Nature Preserves in Cortez.

Mesa Verde is a gorgeous National Park with many hiking trails. It's also only 20 miles from us so that is another reason to love it. This was the first time that we ventured far enough into the park to even see any Ruins. It was neat to see them but if a person is after Ruins, we would recommend Aztec in New Mexico or Hovenweep in Utah. These were a little to commercialized for us!

Saturday we did Bear Creek. The children did so well and the weather was perfect! 

Today was Eldon's last day off before we leave Cortez and it has been cold and rainy! We did manage a mile at Hawkins Preserve first thing this morning but it was pretty chilly. The mountains have fresh snow again. It's beautiful but the "hitch itch" is setting in :).

Bits of this and that!

I apologize for not updating much the last few weeks. I've started scrapbooking our family photos again and that is the one true hobby I have so I tend to get a bit obsessed once I open the computer program :) . I'll share a few of our highlights from the last 2 weeks and then I'll give the Grand Canyon a post of its own. 

One evening we drove out to the Yucca House National Monument. It is located between Cortez and Towaoc and very non-commercialized. The road actually goes through several fields and the "parking lot" is in front of a barn. There was a few small signs to assure us that we were at the right place so we ventured on. 

The National Park Service website states this: "Yucca House National Monument preserves one of the largest archeological sites in SW Colorado. The unexcavated nature of the site preserves its integrity and beauty for future generations of scientists and visitors. Experience a sense of discovery by visiting a site that has remained largely untouched for the past 800 years!"

At first we weren't very impressed. It was basically a nice walk in sagebrush and cactus country with gorgeous mountains as a backdrop.

Soon we could see mounds of stones and even a standing wall. That made it more fun. Makayla suddenly pointed out a stone that looked like a what they used to grind corn on. A closer look and we could see that it was indeed a metate! For some silly reason I didn't take a picture but that helped us all realize that we need to be looking more closely at the ground!

We also found broken pieces of pottery! The actual real thing, not in a museum but just laying on the ground, some with beautiful lines and designs. It was rather thrilling to us to imagine who may have last used these items, hundreds of years ago!

Eldon found this neat rock, with shell-like fossil on it. We loved the Yucca House and would definitely recommend a visit to it! It's nice that it's not commercialized but also sad because anyone could walk off with the artifacts that are there. Hopefully one day soon they will excavate it and learn more about who lived there!

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We took the children into Cortez early one morning to watch the hot air balloon festival. There was a total of 12 up at one time. 

It was fun to get a front row seat and watch this cat balloon take off.

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Our truck needed some maintenance done so we made a quick trip over the mountains to my sister's place one weekend. It sure is nice to have family close enough to mooch off of every now and then :).

The children had not been to Telluride yet so we stopped for a few hours. All the bright flowers, brilliant green trees, huge blue sky, and the massive mountains make for a stunning picture. The gondolas are free so of course we rode them down into town and to the top of the mountain. The children were thrilled. We even saw a deer!

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Our stay at Brian and Michelle's was only 2.5 days long but we packed in lots of good memories. Evan and Kaylene came over for supper Monday night plus Kaylene and Alex spent Tuesday with us too.

Three little cousins, reading away!

Tuesday afternoon we drove up to the Grand Mesa. We went to Land's End, a place where the land truly does end! 

A big pull to this particular area is the chipmunks. Dozens of them ran around begging for food. We came prepared and it was so fun feed them!

We were on the end of this Mesa, looking out over the valley.

We also did a short little trail. I think the name was Land O' Nod. We could see several lakes from the look-out point.

Ethan adores "B and SH" 

We stopped in Cedaredge for supper. Amazing!!!

Michelle with her niece and daughter :) 

Tuesday night we went to the park. The children thought it was a hoot to ride in the skate board park. I wasn't so sure about it though :) . 

Little stinker loves to sit on Emily's bike and be pushed.

Geyser Spring

Geyser Spring is the only active geyser in Colorado. On Monday we set off for this 2.5 mile hike. It was one of my favorite hikes we've done yet. It was in the mountains so the weather was absolutely perfect. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but there is no possible way that they capture the beauty!

The trail meandered up through flowery meadows and Aspen groves. It really was stunning!

The closer we got to the springs, the stronger the sulphur smell was. The pool was small but as we sat there for 40 min it became so bubbly that it was running over then calmed down again. Fascinating!

Ethan was delighted to poke at the "wawa" with a "tick".

The flowers were so pretty!

Once we got back to the trail head we ate our lunch beside this stream. The children loved playing in it. Amazingly, Ethan was the only one to fall in!

Since we knew the children would sleep on the way home, we opted to take the long way. It was around 20 miles of dirt road that went past Dunton then came out above Rico. It was definitely worth taking the time for!