Mesa Verde

 Mesa Verde is a lot of driving and a lot of getting in and out of the car to see awesome things.  We did some short hikes and then at the last minute decided to do the hike to the petroglyphs.  That was my favorite thing all day!  It was a bit over 2 miles, and it had some awesome rock stairs that I loved.

The selfie to prove we were there together :-)

I have wanted to go here since I first saw pictures of it and I finally got my wish!
It is so cool!

There are cliff dwellings hiding in quick a few places.

I took a picture of this and Derek said I was taking pictures of the wrong thing!

I believe that tall skinniest one is the tallest dwelling in the park.
They did work on it a while back to keep it from falling.

This is a vent hole for an underground dwelling.

A peek into the sun temple

Some of the cool stairs I mentioned.

Derek because he kept taking pictures of me -- which perhaps
I forgot to upload to the computer.  Oops.

The foundation for a cave dwelling that was by the path to the petroglyphs.

We have a LOT of rocks at our house, but none of them look as cool
as these rock stairs!

I went and found the pictures Derek took.  I think they are
brighter than mine!

Me on the stairs I was so thrilled about.

And finally me in this awesome location with the crooked tree and rock
stairs on the left.

A Month Past Our Anniversary #36

 We celebrated our anniversary towards the end of May this year.  We went on a trip to Telluride, CO and then to Mesa Verde.  It was a great trip!  Beautiful weather and beautiful scenery!  It was nice to have time away to walk, and hike, and ride the tram, and just enjoy all of the beauty and history.  I'll just put up some of the pictures of Telluride today.  I'll do Mesa Verde tomorrow.

The tram was free to ride and it was awesome!

Connor!

 Connor's birthday was on Sunday but we had a celebration on Saturday.  It was really fun to have Amanda's family and a few extra family / friends to help celebrate.  There was pickleball playing, frisbee golf practicing, food to eat from the barbecue, and delicious chocolate trifle.  The best thing of all is having a Connor to celebrate.  

I forgot I had presents for Connor until the very last minute!

Connor with his giant candle as we sing happy birthday.

Derek told the story of how Connor got his name.  Derek read a Leon Uris book before we had any kids and he really liked the character named Connor.  We ended up having three girls first and so Derek saved the name for quite a while before we could give it to a son!

Connor was known as "The Bigg" when he was "little" and then Pally or O'Malley.  Derek is good at giving out Nicknames.  

Here's a picture of "The Bigg" being held by Tia!

Connor is a good person and we are very, very thankful that he is a part of our family!