Trails 2 Travel

 Spruce Tree House was the only cliff dwelling we had to hike to. I think it was only 1 mile there and back and paved switchbacks, so really not to bad. Nothing compared to the Y. This cliff dwelling was the lames as far as views go, but super cool walking around it. Here's Tyler in front of part of the old wall. Supposedly those T-shaped doors were very popular in the dwellings. You can see some behind Ty in the next picture.  Here wer are in front of all those rooms and doors! Also where those "sticks" are coming out, they're actually ladders that are going down into the kivas! Finally some that weren't totally open!  We even got to go into a Kiva! Here's Tyler climbing down! It was great temperature controlled, and their way of keeping smoke down and still letting air in was really clever!  We really wished we could go further back there and explore more! They would barely let you go anywhere! After Spruce Tree House we also...

 After Balcony House we went to Cliff Palace. This is a pretty close view straight on of Tyler and cliff palace.  It's far in the distance, but that's cliff palace behind us. From this picture you can really see how huge that cliff dwelling is.  Inside cliff palace, I spotted (so observational) a corn cob in the mortar of the walls! Go me!  The original toe holds that the natives used. Don't really know how they used them! My feet were way to big for those holds!  Tyler entering Cliff Palace!  Right  before our tour we got another pretty good view! All those people are standing around a Kiva, which was like an underground spiritual/ cultural room. Supposedly Cliff Palace has like 140 rooms and 21 kivas! Eventually where all those people are standing, we would stand to!  Down in the palace! It was so incredible!  Here's a picture of an entrance down into a kiva!  Our tour guide at cliff P...

The same weekend as my birthday we took a trip with our friends Kyler and Megan to Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado. We left on my birthday. Friday, and didn't get to the campsite till well after midnight. We slept pretty dang well that first night. Saturday morning we woke up and went to the visitor center to buy our tour tickets. On our way to our first stop, we saw a bunch of cliff dwellings and wondered each time how on earth the natives got to them. This is one of them. Our first tour was through Balcony House, and it was probably our favorite tour! We got to climb ladders, walk through a few rooms, crawl through tunnels, and literally walk where the ancients walked. It was way cool! Here's a picture of me, climbing a massive 32 foot, not so ancient ladder to enter Balcony House.  One we got up the ladder, we got to walk through a few rooms, in this picture we're walking behind a room to get to the main plaza. Here...

 July 13, 20 years ago I was born. Some of you may say this wasn't so great, others of you (hopefully my husband) are very thankful for that day. Either way this post is about my celebration. We didn't do much. We had an awesome dinner with Tyler's family, and afterwards Tyler took me to DQ, because I didn't want cake, I only wanted ice cream. So there you go.... My ice cream, after I'd already eaten most of it with a candle sticking out of it. Fun stuff :] Also, my loving husband bought me a cool Nikon camera for my birthday! It's a mix between a simple point and shoot and a SLR.. so I'd say it's pretty fancy, and  I'm way excited about it! I haven't gotten it in the mail yet so this is just a picture off the internet, and yes mine is red as well. :]  I also got a case for it, an 8 GB SD card, and some rechargeable batteries for it! Can't wait to start using it!

During the month of June, alot happened! For instance my mom and sisters stayed for a week after the family reunion which was so fun! While I was battling starting new summer classes, I had them to hang out with! We went to the Veteran's pool twice and had dinner a bunch! My mom and I even wandered around BYU and the MOA one of the days.  Jenna spent the night on one Sat night to watch a movie. She came to our primary class the next day and after church we went and hiked the Y. She was brave and did an awesome job! Even though she chugged all my water! haha Here we climbed out on a rock at Turn 7 and had Ty take some pics!  Made it to the tip top! YAY! That was a tough climb considering it was like 100 degrees and smoke was in the air from all the wild fires.  Tyler, Jenna, and Ollie... taking a little break before heading down.  We took the easy way out! Instead of taking the last 2 switchbacks we just walked straight down the Y. Jenna had blisters o...

A big group walking around on Volcanic rock. Little secret: there is a rest area off I-15 that has miles of walkways on Lava flow areas, with tunnels and caves, etc... We had fun stretching our legs on our long drive to Yellowstone. Andrew, Haley, And I were brave and climbed down into one such lava tube. This is in the actual rest area building by the  lava fields. The family caravan driving around Yellowstone.... yes we had about 2 minivans, a Ford Flex, and 2 other vehicles... We all got out to look at this buffalo. He started out laying down, stood up, and stared right at us.... Most of us started getting back in the cars. A picture of one of the boiling mud pits in the southern loop. Right next to the boiling mud, were boiling water/ mineral pools. They were intense, and really pretty colors! Tyler and me waiting for Old  Faithful to go off! It was cold and windy, and we'd just finished our subway sandwiches. We were ready fo...