Mesa Verde

My sister Mandy and her family came to visit us over fall break. We went to Mesa Verde.

This is on the drive there, the leaves were all changing color and it was really pretty.  One thing I do miss in all this red rock beauty is trees.  So speaking of drive, on our way home in the dark we saw something on the road and slowed down and it turned out to be a cougar.  I wish we had our camera handy, I have never seen a cougar in the wild before, but it was pretty cool, and I was glad to be safely in the car.

Here are Spencer and James showing their "brotherly love" or constant competition to be in the spotlight.  They are wearing the glow in the dark Halloween shirts that Mandy brought them.  They were perfect because we drove through and crawled through a tunnel where they glowed.
We did 3 tours, well I did 2 and everyone else did 3.  The first one was the best, it's the one we did a few years ago with the Whitakers.  There are a few pretty short ladders, and the ruin is huge.  Also, the tour guide was very kids friendly, and it was the first tour, so the boys did great.

James is always good at getting people to hold him, and he loved the extra attention Anna gave him the whole weekend.

The last tour- number 3 for everyone else was also a guided tour.  It had a 35 foot ladder that James had to climb by himself. I think Devon might still be having nightmare about this one.  It was an interesting ruin though, they think it was for religious purposes.  There was only one way in, through a tunnel, and there was a huge smoke signal thing that looks like a face.  The tour guide was less kids friendly, and it was the end of the day, but the boys did surprisingly well all things considered.

This is the first tour, the Cliff Palace, it's huge.  James kept telling Devon to "take a picture of the castle"

We also hiked to the arch by our house and mostly just played with cousins. Spencer learned to play "wall ball" from Jase and loved having a friend to play with. James loved the attention from Anna. Thanks for coming guys.