Our Cheerleader

Nicole is excited to be a Jr High cheerleader this year.  They are practicing very hard to learn all the dances, cheers, and stunts.

Visiting Family

Richard's mom with her sister, Betty, and brother-in-law, Don.

Don taught the kids how to shoot a BB gun.  Jack had so much fun with him!

He gave Jack a hat and a bear skin rug.  Jack had fun with "his buddy".

Lookout Mountain

We took Richard's mom to Tennessee to visit her sister.  While we were there, we took the kids to Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, rode the Incline Railway, and went to Point Park.  Richard's grandfather worked as a night watchman on Lookout Mountain.

Lauren's 8th Birthday

After traveling through 10 states and 6,000 miles, we were all exhausted, but we stopped at Rebecca's house in Garland to celebrate Lauren's birthday.  She was so excited to spend her birthday with cousins.

Mesa Verde, Colorado

Snow on the mountains in Colorado.

From Four Corners, we drove to Mesa Verde National Park.  The kids have read stories in school about the Indians who were cliffdwellers, so we wanted them to see the real cliff dwellings.

Inside the park, we saw horses grazing in open areas that were not even fenced off.

These houses were built in the side of the cliffs.  We hiked into the canyon to see them in the Spruce Tree House area of the park.  The trail was about a 1/2 mile long.

They got ahead of me when I was taking pictures, so I took this to show how far down they were.

We climbed down a ladder into a Kiva, a pit house that is built under ground.  The roof is even with the ground.

The girls with the grinding stones.

Inside the museum, we saw pottery, clothing, weaving, basket making, food, types of houses, weapons, etc.

In this picture, you can see forest land in the front, plains in the middle, and mountains the snow  in the distance!   

Four Corners

We left Holbrook and drove to Four Corners today.  We kept seeing these huge rock formation in the middle of the flat plains. 

Four Corners is on Indian land.  It is where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet. 

All four children are standing in a different state in this picture!  I was standing in the Colorado section with Jack, but all three girls can say they have been to a different state without their parents.  HAHA!

The seal reads, "Four states here meet in freedom under God."

The sand blows everywhere out here and sometimes makes it hard to see.  It was piled up along the fence rows in some areas, and it was piled up really high along the cliffs. 



The Grand Canyon

We drove from Sedona to the Grand Canyon today.  I took this photo upon top of the mountains.  Check out the temperature: 48 degrees!!!!

We stopped at an overlook to take some pictures.  This shows the road that we just traveled to come up the mountain.  There were Indians with tables set up selling jewelry, pottery, etc.

We saw about fifteen Lamborghinis following each other up the mountain.  These cars cost between 1/4 to 1/2 million dollars each!

The Grand Canyon was beautiful!  It is amazing how far down the canyon goes.  They said that some parts are ten miles across.  We were on the South Rim.

The Lamborghinis that we saw earlier on the mountain were also at the Grand Canyon.  They said they were in town for a factory rally that they have once a year.

We stopped at an Indian trading store on the way to Holbrook.

Snow on the mountains just outside of Flagstaff. 

We traveled for a little way on Route 66!