It's a Rapp

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Camp invention

The first camp of the summer was Camp Invention. This was on the last day...when we went to the kids inventor's showcase.

This is Gage's solar cricket - pockey Von splat. They built them at camp, and when you put them in the sun, they move around!!

Santa Fe

Our last stop was Santa Fe, NM, which we liked way more than Albuquerque!

Pagosa springs

We spent one day around town, in Pagosa Springs. We drove out through miles of dirt roads.

Stopped at some beautiful spots

Did a little fishing..

None of us caught anything...except mama...she may have caught the attention of the park ranger...and gotten a ticket for not having a fishing license!!!

Oops. Oh well, the fun most go on. So...we went to a waterfall!

And then went back to our condo to grill elk and mountain lion. And...maybe some hotdogs and hamburgs for the kids. Savannah did try both (and liked the elk). We rounded out the day with a game of beanbuzzled

The game of tasting jelly beans that may be good, or may be flavors like vomit and stinky socks :-/

The Four Corners

Since Mesa Verse was about an hour from the four corners, we thought we should zip over.

It's not often that you can stand in two states at the same time - here they are straddling New Mexico and arizona

And then..we had one kid in each of .four states - AZ -NM - UT - and CO!!

Adventuring to Mesa Verde

We started our adventuring by heading to Mesa Verde National Park - home of the Pueblo Indian cliff dwellings.

I though this was it...but we drove up another 20 miles of windy roads to get there!!

Our first stop was an overlook. If you look carefully, you can see the houses build into the cliffs.

We also checked out the museum. While there, the kids took a test as well as an oath - to be one junior park rangers!

After that...it was time for our tour of the Balcony House. This is the view from to top of the Mesa. We took some stairs and trails down to the ladder that would allow us to get into the cliff home.

Here's the ladder! 32 feet high. Grammy and Gage were terrified.

And here's the view from the cliff dwelling - which is 7000 feet high!

Notice...there is no wall in part of the cliff dwelling. It's just a huge drop!

Below is a picture of the "balcony" that gives this dwelling its name.

And a kiva - a home built down into the ground. This would have had a wooden roof on top (even with the ground. It had a heating and ventilation system too. Amazing these were built in 1200-1240.