Mesa Verde Day 3...Arches

Day 3 of our family vacation we checked out of our wonderful hotel and headed for home. On our way though we had one more stop, Arches National Park. When we got there we were all tired from driving and vacationing. Our first few stops to sight see, we jumped out, looked, took a few pictures, and got back in the car. But then we got to Sand Dune Arch, we hiked, played in the soft sand, sat in the shade. Zoee did sand angels and everyone had a really good time. It was a nice break out of the cars. The kids slept the rest of the way home. When we asked all of the kids what their favorite part of the vacation was they all said it was Sand Dune Arch.

Mesa Verde...Day 2

We made it...Mesa Verde!  It was very impressive.  We did some hiking to get into the ruins but it was easy enough that 4 year old Griff was able to keep up.  There was lots of trails and ladders to get around and out of the ruins.  We all had fun and the day was amazing.  It was well worth the whole trip. 

I loved being with all of my family.  Looking around the Indian ruins was a great vacation but being there with my family was what made it the best.  After Mesa Verde we headed back to the new hotel.  It was MUCH better.  It had an indoor pool that was warm and clean.  We all swam the rest of the evening, had dinner at Denny's and settled into our much cleaner, nicer rooms for the night.

Mesa Verde Trip..Day 1

Day One...Lots of driving to get to our destination in Cortez, CO. My whole family went on this trip to see the Indian ruins in Mesa Verde. Half way there we stopped at The Whole in the Rock near Moab, UT. The Whole in the Rock is a place that a man built a home into the rock mountain and now it has a souvenirs shop and a petting zoo. We stopped there and looked around, let the kids shop for souvenirs, and let the kids stretch their legs. We had more fun there than we thought we would and the kids loved it.

After more driving, the kids were excited to reach the hotel.  We were not that impressed.  The hotel was not as nice as the pictures on the internet made it look!  :)  But it had a pool and the kids were excited to swim.  We got on our suits and found that the pool was dirty, cold, and the pool towels were hard to hunt down.  But we swam anyways.  Griffin cleaned the pool with the help of uncle Kelly.  We decided not to stay two nights there.  The pool was too cold for the kids and we felt that we would prefer a cleaner, nicer place.  We found another hotel to check into the next day.

That night Kelly suggested that we go bowling. (There wasn't going to be any night swimming, the pool was cold in the daytime!)  The bowling ally wasn't far from out hotel.  It was so much fun.  A great end to a long, fun day!

Silly girls...Mustaches are for boys!

On our girls trip to St. George we also did our toes, went shopping, and went out to eat. The one night we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and they had a gum ball machine with mustaches in it. For fifty cents a piece we all had a good laugh at dinner...we usually do. We just enjoy getting out and being together.

Girls Trip 2011

Our girls trip this year. We went to St. George to see the plays at the Tuacan outdoor theater. We go every year and try to see both of the shows that are playing. This year was 'Grease' and 'The Little Mermaid'. I liked both shows but Little Mermaid was the best. My favorite show that I have ever seen there was 'South Pacific'. We saw it the first year that we went on our girls trip.

They Call Me....

Ryan has been a boy with many names.  When he was born we couldn't think of a name for him.  So for two days he was 'Baby Boy Davis'.  Then we named him Ezekial and we were going to call him Zeke.  He was Zeke for two more days until his uncle Stan said that there was too many mean things that rhymed with Zeke.  He then became Ryan Kaleb Davis.  When Ryan was about 3 or 4 years old he decided that we all needed to call him Fry Guy the Master.  We had always called him Fry Guy but he added the Master part and he would correct you if you didn't call him that.  Then about a year ago Ryan and a friend would play cowboys and Ryan would come home and tell us that his cowboy name was Randy Hart and his friends name was H.D.

Young Love

8 year old Ryan said, "Abbie's almost my girlfriend.  By almost, I mean not even close...but I'm working on it but it's really hard because everytime I talk to her, she leaves."

Your never too old....

Your never too old...to fall out of bed! Kendra fell out of her bed this morning, but she didn't fall far. She hit her head on the night stand that she built in woodshop this year. :) The gash isn't deep and hopefully it will be gone in a few days...poor thing. If this happens again, though, we might have to build her some side rails. :)

Hadley's 14th birthday

Hadley loves t-shirts that are strange or funny. So for his birthday I made him a cake with one of the t-shirts that he wants for his school clothes this year. The shirt reads 'Paddle Faster...I think I hear Banjos.' Everytime Hadley reads that shirt he laughs. Hadley has always had a great sence of humor.

A letter from Kelly in '09

This is a picture Kelly sent to me and the following is a letter that Kelly sent me after he went on vacation during the time he was living in Afganistan in 2009.

'How's it been? I made it back from Bali. It was nice; it kind of gave me a chance to recharge my battery. I saw a bunch of very old Hindu temples, went for a bike ride starting at one of the volcanoes and down through the rice fields and then of course diving. I did 13 dives. There were stingrays, barracuda, sharks and all the other tropical fish. It was nice. I hope things are going well for all of you there. I'll talk to you later. Oh ya, I’m sending a picture and if you think that I’m wearing a dress I’m not! It’s a shura and they made me wear it to get in the temple.'
Kelly