Trip of a Lifetime

We planned a trip this year that was a once in a lifetime vacation.  The kids looked forward to it for months and even got to miss the last 3 days of school to go.  And what exotic location did we find ourselves the first week of June you ask?  Well it was the Four Corners!  That's right a once in a lifetime trip...because after you've seen it there is no need to go back. :)  Don't get me wrong we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves it's just one of those been there, done that places.

And why the Four Corners you ask?  Well Ethan learned about it in school this year.  4th grade social studies curriculum is Utah History and when he learned about the four corners it blew his mind!  He talked about it to everyone.  "Did you know that at the four corners, 4 states meet?"  "Did you know that there is a place where you can be in 4 places at once?"  "Man, I want to go there so bad!"  "If I go there I'm going to do a handstand in all 4 states at once."  Now tell me how a mother can listen to that and not do anything about it?  Plus, I had never been to the Four Corners either.  I've lived in this state my whole life and had never seen this unique wonder.  I told JayDee that we had to make it happen. It was the mother and teacher in me. Expanding classroom learning with real life experiences is a way to get children to become lifelong learners.  Now I'm pretty sure I won't be able to take my kids to Washington D.C. next year when Ethan learns about US History but the Four Corners we could do, so we did.

Day 1
It's a loooonnnggg drive to Four Corners. Much longer than I anticipated, I thought it takes about 5 hours to get to St. George so it must take about that long to get to the other side of the state.  Nope, try about 8 hours.  We did stop for all 3 meals so that contributed to some of the extra time.  On our way we stopped at an overlook to stretch our legs.  It was called Castle Valley.  The wind was whipping around like crazy but the kids loved it and ran around and climbed rocks and saw lizards and told me that this was the best day ever!  Wow pretty great praise for a rest stop.  We hadn't even seen what we came to see and already it was the best day ever.  :)

We finally got to the Four Corners at about six o'clock and the wind was still going strong. I guess that is normal weather for down south.

 Here we are!

4 kids...4 states

 

Ethan's dream come true!

After our turn being in 4 places at once we did a little Navajo shopping.  Do you notice all the little booths built in around the four corners?  Well that's where the Navajo natives sit and sell their wares.  It's all reservation land around the four corners, each state represented there is a different native tribe's land but the actual monument is run by the Navajo Nation.  Ethan, Emma and Hannah bought jewelry and of course Isaac had to have a weapon of some kind.  That kid is all boy...he chose a tomahawk.  He wanted one with a real blade but settled for one with a rock in place of the blade. Phew!

We thought since we were in Southern Utah and had never really explored this area of our state that we'd see some other famous sites. Before we left we had already dubbed this trip our hiking vacation because that's pretty much all we did.

Day 2 

We drove into Colorado on our second day to visit a famous national park there called Mesa Verde.  It's all ancient indian ruins that date back to 600 A.D. It was pretty cool. 

I'm not sure if our kids were supposed to be walking ON these ruins but they've lasted for these thousand of years and there were no ropes as a barricade so....

 Keeping it silly while waiting for our Cliff Palace tour.

Cliff Palace from above.

Amazing isn't it?  This whole settlement built right into the side of a mountain. 

A little closer

Inside.  This guy was our tour guide.  

He was good but he had a lisp just like Syd the Sloth in Ice Age 

so it was a little distracting.

On our way out we had to scale some pretty steep passes and climb ladders straight up. 

The  kids said they felt like Indiana Jones.

These next pictures are from the Spruce Tree House.

If you've noticed all the holes in these previous pictures, they are called kivas.

Archeologists believe these were like underground living rooms.  

In the Cliff Palace there are 21 kivas.  They found them in all the sites

throughout Mesa Verde.  The roofs were made of timber and earth so they didn't last through the years like the stone walls did. But here at this site they recreated a roof and let people go down inside to get a feel for what they were like.

This is inside. Isaac is facing the fresh air vent and standing in front of the short wall built to keep the fresh air from blowing out the fire that is directly behind him.

 

 Bad lighting above...this is what we were standing in front of.

After all that red, dusty rock we needed to cool off.  Pool time!

Day 3 - 4

On day 3 we headed back North.  We stopped in Moab (another place we'd never been before - I know shocking!) and spent two days at Arches National Park.

Our first order of business at Arches would of course have to be seeing Delicate Arch.

It's just over a mile and a half hike in to get to it and everything was going swimmingly...

the kids were being nice to each other, we spotted some wildlife,

 Isaac informed us he was the best hiker ever and then a little trip and fall sent him into crying mode and this is how he spent the rest of the hike.

Poor JayDee.

There was no wind on this day so it was just plain HOT.

 Since this place is called Arches, we decided that we'd keep our eyes pealed for as many arches as we could find.  Ethan found this one close to end of our Delicate Arch hike and scaled the slick rock to get up there and discovered to his delight that our goal was just around the corner.

 It really is a sight to behold!  And it's perched so precariously on a ledge that it's a little frightening with small people around.  We did make our way over to it and here we are at the base trying not to fall off either side.

On our second day at Arches we did a few less dramatic hikes but I think our kids liked them best because they were more like leisurely strolls than real hikes.  And just as luck would have it, Isaac tripped again 10 minutes into our hike to Landscape Arch and poor JayDee had to hoist him up on the shoulders again.  What fun!

Landscape Arch

 Double Arch

I think my kids liked this one the best because once you get up there you can climb up and around and all over the rocks.  Definitely the most interactive arch we saw.

 

 We headed home after this and made sure that on our way back we stopped at the Monticello Temple.  I like to give my kids every opportunity to see and feel temples up close.  This one was fun because it is so small.  I think it was the first of the small temples built and it really is no bigger than a regular church building.  This temple is actually right next to a church building (so I got a good comparison for size) and they share a parking lot.

What a great end to our once in a lifetime trip! 

Oh and one more thing...it just wouldn't be a Gunnell outing without a few of these.

Yep, this is how we vacation.  It can be a bit frustrating to be married to a horticulturist but it's even more maddening when it's a horticulturist who is writing a book.  To suddenly swerve to the side of the road with an exclamation of "did you see that one" or back up on a highway to get back to "that flower" and then wait 15 minutes or more for the photo shoot can really put a damper on travel plans.  It's a good thing this book is gonna make us millions. :)