Spring in the mountains

Saturday it was time for another adventure and there was yet another ruin that we wanted to head to. From what we could see on Google earth, it was just going to be all covered over with dirt and vegetation but we were in for a fun surprise.

Our plan was to drive to the mesa and the hike along the road to the end of the mesa to see the ruin. As we drove along, we were amazed at how green and beautiful this forest is. We've had unusual rain this spring here and Saturday was overcast with a chance of rain. We decided to take our chances.

As we drove along the dirt road toward our planned stopping spot, Stan noticed a road on an old map he had that wasn't on the newer map. The road went down into a ravine and back up onto the mesa we wanted to be on. We decided to go for the adventure and add a little workout to our planned walk by stroll on the mesa. 

Here we are at the outset of our journey, happy and dry.

As we started down into the ravine, it was easy to find the road but it surely hadn't been driven on for at least 30 years.  We decided to "off-road" it a little and make our own path which lead to us climbing straight up the mountain.

It may not look super steep, but here is me gasping for breath.

One might think that I had the harder load with carrying the baby, but with all the baby things I made Stan carry in his backpack, he definitely had the heavier pack.

Scott is getting bigger and bigger. His head is finally sticking up and over the carrier and soon we'll stop using the infant insert!

 And then we reached the ruin! It was so neat!! We haven't seen standing walls like we saw here at any other random ruins we have been to in this area. From the information we have found since on the internet, there could have been more than 1,000 rooms at this ruin with four kivas and even farming.

See if you can find Stan in this pic.

This wall was neat because the plaster is still on it

 
We decided to book it out of there because a storm seemed to be coming our way, and it sure found us. We got rained on most of the hike back, an experience that has only happened a couple other times in New Mexico.

And a few pictures of our cute boy as we were getting ready to drive home:

We couldn't get over how beautiful the forest was and with the fresh rain, it was a perfect day to be in the forest. 

We passed by this old run down cabin that looked like the lincoln log cabins we'd build as youth.

It was an absolutely perfect outing!

Birthday weekend!

Last weekend was my birthday and we decided what better way to celebrate than to head to the wilderness. Yes this was my decision. Stan even gave me an opportunity to say otherwise :) We went out to eat on Friday night to a delicious place called El Pinto...we took the camera with us...but forgot to take pictures :( We'll remember one of these days.

Saturday morning we woke up and Stan took Scott so that I could get a few more minutes of sleep while he made yummy German Pancakes.

We did what we needed to to get ready and headed out on our adventure.

Scott was, as always, super excited. Actually, let's be honest. His face seems to say "Again? You're making you go in this thing again?"

We drove to the forest by Mount Taylor. There were many beautiful views.  Our goal was to try and reach a mesa that we could then hike to a neat archeological site. Sadly, the roads were just too bumpy and we didn't make it the whole way.

Looking back at the road we had come over from Mount Taylor. Even though it looks flat, trust me, it wasn't. The tough volcanic rock sure doesn't erode away.

The sky was sure blue and beautiful that day with neat clouds!

Scott was such a good boy the whole day.

We decided to head to another forest close by and see what we could find there. We had never been to this one and weren't sure what it would be like. It was BEAUTIFUL! I think it's one of my new favorite forests here in New Mexico. We drove up canyon roads. I was in the back with Scott...

We stopped to have dinner, tacos (this time we remembered to bring our lighter!).

Stan did his manly duties with the stove and heated up the meat for us.

It was pretty windy and hard to protect Scott and eat a taco at the same time so...

We put Scott in his seat. This is how Scott roughs it

On our way out of the canyon, I saw what looked like an elk up ahead of us on the right of the road. I am known for thinking I see a deer or elk and then realizing it is tree stump...kind of embarrassing because it has happened a lot. Well this time, it really was an elk! Four of them!!!

A view of Mount Taylor coming out of the forest to the south. Pictures never do justice to what the eye can see.

It was a wonderfully fun birthday spent with my two favorite men. Stan said on the way home that we should stop at Smith's so he could look at guns (his code word for flowers). He came out with the most beautiful bouquet. (Picture quality is because it's on my phone :( they really were/are beautiful)

The lily in the middle bloomed a couple days later...

And on Mother's Day Stan made me breakfast again. :)

It was a great weekend!

Weekend Festivities: Scott's Baby Blessing and Chaco Canyon with the Moore's

We have the best family in the world. Even though we live in Timbuktu, quite a bit of our family was able to make it for Scott's blessing at church. (And we know that those that didn't make it would've if they could've :)). We had a great time with everyone who came! My family (my parents and sister) got here mid-afternoon. Mom took me on a little pre-birthday shopping trip while Emily and Dad got their Scott time. Stan's family (parents and brother, sister-in-law, and their cute child) got here early evening. We had ourselves a delicious bbq:

Sunday morning was spent just hanging out and playing with family.

Scott met a cousin for the first time and they became quick friends, holding hands and everything :)

 

For church that day, Stan and Scott had matching ties:

In the above picture he was so calm and peaceful...and then we went outside to take pictures, and he was having none of it! So he was screaming in the all the pictures :( What do you do?

 

After church we had dinner real quick before my family headed home. Every good party has food, food, and more food. Mom(Stan's) made a delicious pie!

Stan took Monday off and we drove north with the Moore's on their way home. We stopped at Chaco Canyon to show Larry and Kathryn the awesomeness of New Mexico history.

After they went on their way to Utah, we stayed and hiked up on top a mesa to check out more ruins up there. We felt really hard core climbing up this natural passageway to the top.

We had lots of diaper changes that day. Scott was a trooper and was happy most of the time :) We're seeing more smiles out of him.

We are always amazed at their ability to build such straight walls and sharp corners. This view was neat with the doorway/windows all lined up. Truly incredible work.

Same ruin from a top view. Just amazing. It doesn't get old.

The views from the top of the mesa were beautiful and serene.

Here's a candid shot of my handsome husband.

Another impressive sharp corner. I wonder how long it took them to find the right rocks to make it so straight...or maybe they just made the rocks they had the right rocks...

 

Pueblo Bonito from the top.

More hard core pics...

This trail was neat because there were quite a few spots that had fossils from sea life.

I had a funny thought when we were looking down on the massive structure of Pueblo Bonito. The brochures that they make for these sites have been humorous to me because there is so much about their lives that we don't know and so sometimes in the brochures they invite you to imagine the sound of kids' laughter or the picture of people exchanging goods in the square, I think it's kind of hokie. Well my funny thought was, what if these were their prisons and to give the prisoners something to do, they made them build, and we've got it all wrong...just a thought. The brochures are probably right though :)

It was such a fun day. We finished up with trying to warm up our dinner on our camp stove...sadly we forgot matches to light it. Stan tried and tried to light it with our car lighter and paper or dry sticks...in the end, we had cold pork :) Fun memories though!