Our Much Needed Vacay

Scot and I just got back from our long awaited and much needed vacation and we had a blast! Last Tuesday we left straight from work to drive to a little town a few hours away called Pagosa Springs to stay for the night. On Wednesday morning we left our hotel in Pagosa to drive to Mesa Verde just a few miles up the road. Mesa Verde is where a bunch of cliff dwellings are where Indians lived with their families in small communities. These "towns" on the cliffs are pretty amazing but even more amazing to me is that this place can legally have you do what it takes to get to some of these places. When we got to Mesa Verde we stopped at the visitor center to get some maps and ideas of where to go because there are a few different places you can see. Well of course the cool ones that everyone wants to go to cost money and the only way you can get to them is with a tour guide so we bought tickets to go see a place called Balcony House (That should have been my first clue) and the other one was called Cliff Palace. We had some time to spare before the Balcony House tour so we went to another small dwelling
and walked around and took a drive and then it was finally time for our tour. So we met up with our group and the tour guide and let's face it he was long past retirement so I was thinking, How hard could this be? So he is telling us about this and that and about a little old ladder and a place where you have to crawl through a hole. I was kind of half paying attention to be honest and not thinking much of it. So now before I go further I want you to see the footwear I was wearing and mind you before we left on this trip I asked Scot if I would be OK in these kind of shoes and he says to me "Oh ya, you will be fine, it is all really nicely paved, you don't need to worry about it." Great! This is my kind of place...

On the left you will see the proper footwear for this type of thing and on the right you will see what I was wearing...NOT GOOD.

So we get to walking down this path with some steps and it's pretty steep let me tell you but that is nothing compared to what I am about to encounter. Soon before me is a GINORMOUS ladder on the side of a steep cliff. Ya not appealing. I kind of looked at Scot like, is this a joke? There is no way in heck they can have people and CHILDREN climb that ladder. I am deathly afraid of heights so this was not good. Here is what I saw...
Pretty much, I wanted to cry and I was not exactly excited about wearing those shoes on that scary ladder... So here I am trying to look happy as my turn gets closer and closer...

So I did make it up the ladder...barely...I was shaking like crazy and I dropped my sunglasses so someone had to get them for me. Whoops but I made it...Hurray! and it was so worth it.

These places are just so amazing. Amazing that they are still here after all of these hundreds of years and that they are still mostly intact for us to enjoy and learn more about. These were very resourceful and ingenious people and we are so lucky to have learned more about this culture and to see where they lived and how they used natural elements to survive!

Here we are waiting to go Cliff House (and I am just HOPING there will be no more ladders!)

Cliff Palace did have some ladders but NOTHING like Balcony House. These were just small ladders that I could handle. Here is a picture of Cliff Palace from above where we walked down from...
These Camel Backs or Packs or whatever you call them pretty much saved our tails on this little day trip. It was very hot and water was essential so these really helped us through the day. I would HIGHLY recommend these!

After Mesa Verde we drove all the way to Page Arizona and stayed the night there. We got in fairly late so we didn't really do a whole lot that night. On Thursday we got up early and went and found a swim beach at Lake Powell and spent the day there and had a blast. We would love to rent a house boat there someday. It would be so much fun. The water was so nice and clear and we just had a great day...

I have short fat toes and Scot has finger toes. Opposites attract I guess...

Lounging on the beach...

After spending a few hours on the water in our floating lounge chairs we decided to give our pasty white skin a rest and we went to lunch and then went back to our hotel room and took a nap. Then we got ready and went to dinner at a nice steak house in town and walked around a couple of the shops. Before going back to the hotel we decided to go back to the lake and enjoy the sunset...

After our fantastic day at Lake Powell we drove to Cedar City on Friday for my family reunion. I was lamo and didn't take any pictures while we were there but I would love to post a few so if my ever so kind mother would like to email me the pictures she took that would be fantastic (hint, hint)...anyway one of the days we went to Bryce Canyon and that was a really fun day. Here are some pictures from that...




We had such a great trip. It was EXTREMELY difficult to come home, it always is after a great vacation, but it was nice to get away and rejuvinate and see my family. We love you guys and we miss you already!!!

*Side note: My mom and I are such dedicated Twilight fans we actually went to Wal Mart on Friday at midnight to get the 4th book in the series so yes, we actually stood in line with all the teeny boppers at midnight at the Wal Mart in Cedar City to get Breaking Dawn and I just have to say...IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.