Fourwheeling...one of my new favorite sports

Our last night there, Haley and I found the edge of the canyon and went exploring. we past a herd of roaming in the middle of the road cows. it was great fun!

smore's...yummy

Holly and I also found the edge of the canyon. it was beautiful and dusty.

Kara and I found a great rock on our ride on the mule.

So we seriously went four wheeling all day long! It was the best time ever! I absolutely love the speed, the wind, the control. It is one of my favorite things to do!

Moving campsites at Dusk...works

The caravan to the new campsite!

Never leave home without your cell phone, even if you're camping.

I officially love the desert! Never thought I would, because I have usually hated it, but between the scenery to New Mexico and southern Utah, I am amazed at the beauty and just love it!

The crew had just gotten back from a long road trip and boy were they dirty! I thought it was pretty funny, but then I joined up and became really dirty too, that's just the joy of camping with no showers or running water. We seriously roughed it!

The moving of the tents and Holly being herself.

Haley, the ever helpful girl, just doing what she can to help us along! Gotta love her!

So I guess to keep with tradition, moving just before it got dark and into the dark had been the tradition on this trip, so why not!!! Hunting season started the next day and we didn't want to become the hunted, so we packed up and moved up to goosberry mesa for a dirty, yet really fun next couple of days.

Indian Ruins in Aztec

Look at their ingenuity...using logs to help stabilize things.
This is part of their temple, where they would go and smoke the peace pipe.
Look, authentic indian grinding stones.
I thought this was just a cool picture. Note how short the doors are...wow, cause I'm pretty short and even I had to duck down.
This was a column inside their temple. Pretty cool how they were so creative and cared what every detail looked like. (A lot like us in our Temples).
We were on our way and decided to stop at the ancient ruins in the city of Aztec. That got us going on our ancient civilizations tour, which was totally cool, but made us go a bit out of our way and arrive home about 2 am. The Lord blessed me so I could stay awake and drive, because anyone who knows me, knows that I don't do well at night driving. So it was pretty much a miracle that we made it home.

On the way home

That is one narrow ladder and stair case we had to climb up.

We took a few detours, because Hal and I both believe that there has to be joy in the journey not just the destination. So we stopped and looked at some Indian Ruins. It was pretty cool. When you look at them far enough away, they look like little sand castles. But then when you get close, you see that they were people's homes. How they did it is amazing to me. They lived in stone houses, but I was telling Hal, the cool thing about people is that we have brains that are smart enough to adapt to our situations in life. That doesn't mean we always like it, but we somehow figure out how to survive and wow, the Hopi Indians did an amazing job of it. I'm still dumbfounded how people could live like that, when here I am using a lot of electricity to power my fish tank, my computer, my lamp, my ipod my phone...all right now...and they had nothing and slept on dirt floors everyday! Wow. I am amazed.

I love to see the Temple

Off we went to the Temple after our game of Spoons and took some pictures. Kids will be kids and do what they do. Austin in the fountain and Amberly chasing him running up and down the steps. It turns out that her dress was kind of an impediment!!! And then, I really liked this picture of them all walking together hand in hand like couples should to the car from the temple! It's a beautiful sight!

Oreos and Game time

So this was totally funny! We all shared a cup of milk to dip in. Austin learned how to dip his Oreo for 10 seconds and absolutely loved it! Then we played spoons. It was so funny cause

Mike ended up being the dealer and holding both kids, cause they were crying and wanted to be held. As you can see Mike managed to get a spoon, that's why the kids were crying, cause we were all screaming and yelling, fighting to get the last spoon and he was holding Amberly just after her nap! It was so funny! I had to capture it!

The way home from Santa Fe

Everyone was a little bit tired on the way home. We had a visitor waiting for us, poor thing found himself walking in the rain. I wanted to take him in, but Liz wouldn't have anything to do with it. I decided to rest a bit and read while the guys went to watch the football game.

A Day in Santa Fe. It was perfect and beautiful.

3 Howes! Amberly always props her leg up on the stroller like that. So cute!
Mike on his phone. Liz stealing an apple! It's in the blood! Gotta love it!
Apple girl! Ready to eat again!
Check out the long line of venders. Pretty cool! I felt like I was in Mexico! And there was even a lady with an Ensign! Pretty cool!
Austin really wanted to be held pretty much the whole day. So here is his ride!