MONTICELLO TRIP (Part 1)

Our big trip for the year was a road trip to from Georgia to Monticello, Utah, to visit my family. We went through 10 states to get there and it took us three days of hard driving.

For those of you unfamiliar with Monticello...it is in the far Southeastern corner of Utah...50 miles south of Moab...right by the four corners (UT, AZ, NM & CO).

Monticello sits at 7000 feet on the foothills of the Blue/Abajo Mountains (is it Blue or Abajo?? I've heard both and seen both on maps...don't know). Because of that the temperatures were in the mid-70s to lower 80s while we were there and dipped into the 40s at night...and NO humidity...it was heavenly...except for the wind, which always blows there.

As you can see in the picture above, there are a lot of National Parks and recreational opportunities in the area. It is really beautiful.

Grandma and Granpa took good care of us, we got to see Cody, I got to see my sister and her family, and we had an amazing time!

THE DRIVE TO GET THERE

Above: Frank drove the ENTIRE 1749 miles to get there. I swear I offered many times to help...but he said he wanted to :-). He let me drive on the way home (a little bit). I actually got a lot of reading done, which was good.

Above: Liz, PJ & Megan. The trip went amazingly well in regard to kids. Not that we didn't have our tense moments...but overall I would have to give them an A-.

Above: Mikayla, Ashley & Donovan. I LOVE portable DVD players and iPods! It's the only way we survived.

Above: Like I said...10 states. It was great.

Above: We had our share of "potty breaks." Luckily we found some good Rest Stops along the way.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!! The kids had fun. Donovan loved it...until he lost his grip and went flying onto the grass. I missed it...but I guess he got up a little dazed...and it was pretty funny.




Above: Rest Stop in Oklahoma (duh). We were soooo happy to be out of the car.


Above: We got to see all kinds of cool stuff like this...The Leaning Tower of Water.

Above: ...and the World's Largest Cross.

Above: Wooohooo...getting closer. We stayed in Tucumcari the night before we made it to Monticello.

Above: Finally...only 2 states away!

Above: Liz's manicured toes sticking out of the car at a road construction stop between Shiprock and Cortez...it was HOT. Where did all of the trees and greenery go??? We were having a hard time acclimating back to the desert.

JUST HANGING OUT IN MONTICELLO...



Above: Grandma and Grandpa's Slade's house. They have lived there for like 30 years...they've had the same phone number since 1979. It seems crazy these days with people so mobile. It is awesome to go back and have so many memories still in tact.

Above: Grandpa and Liz playing dominos. One of the best things about Monticello (besides Grandma and Grandpa) is that time seems to move more slowly there. It's so relaxed and laid back. We got a lot of domino and card playing in while we were there.

Above: While we were there, My dad's 1st cousin dropped in (far left) from Arizona. Monticello is on the beaten path to SLC for a lot of people driving up from Arizona....so they get drop-ins here and there (we used to live in Arizona and both of my parents are from there and have a lot of family there...so it is cool). Grandma and Grandpa Slade are on the far right.

Above: PJ and Donovan playing around in the back yard.

Above: The highlight of Gr&Gr's house is the swing in the backyard. The kids will play for hours on it. The favorite thing to do is wind it up (I think the record was 30 twists or something) and then let it go and see who can walk after they get off of the swing. Left to Right: Tristan (cousin), Mikayla, Ashley, Bronson (cousin), Megan & Ashton (cousin).

Above: Megan getting ready to twist Mikayla up on the swing.


Above: Mikayla untwisting.

Above: A favorite place of ours in Monticello is the (LDS) Monticello Temple. It was the very first SMALL temple built (dedicated back in 1998). It was really cool for the town because President Hinckley came down on many occasions to check on the construction of it so he could directly oversee how the small temples were going to work. I was there for the dedication in 1998 and got to see President Hinckley set the cornerstone...very cool.

This photo was taken as the sun was setting...I never made it over there in good light to get a good photo.

Above: A photo from the front with the sun setting in the background.

Above: I got this one from the church website since I didn't get a good "light" photo.

Above: Frank on the north side of the temple. We walked up there a couple of different times...it is just one mile from my parent's home...how lucky is that?

TRIP TO MESA VERDE NP....

Mesa Verde National Park is only about 1.5 hours from Monticello over the Colorado border. Frank and the kids had never been there, so we took a quick trip over to see the Anasazi Indian Ruins.

Above: Heading to the tunnel that leads to the Visitor's Center. (Megan, Mikayla, PJ)


Above: Grandma Slade & Frank at the Visitor's Center.

Above: (L to R back): Mikayla, Shayne, Grandma Slade, PJ & Megan. (L to R front): Ashley, Ashton (cousin), Bronson (cousin) & Donovan.


Frank went ahead of us while kids were going to the bathroom and then we couldn't find him for a long time. When we finally did he said, "It's really hard to lose 9 people (especially at a small little visitor's center)...but I did it." We must've just been going in one door as he went out the other...he went to the car to look for us.

Above: Ashton and Ashley -- AKA: Ton & Lee. Both are nicknamed "Ash" and we kept getting their names mixed up...so we tried to call them "Ton and Lee." Ashton and Bronson are my niece & nephew (my sister's kids).


Above: It was quite a hike down into this ruin...actually the hike out was the hard part...but it was fun. Grandma waited at the top of the hill for us.

Above: Starting the trek.



Above: Hey, it's actually me in a photo...one of the rare ones ;-). It's rough being the photographer ;-). See...I CAN havea good hair day when there is no humidity :-)! It was way hot that day though!

Above: Ashley is not shy :-).

Above: Finally made it to the ruins.

Above: Getting our first upclose look.


Above: We waited in line to be able to go down into the kiva. Bronson climbing in.

Above: Frank.

Above: Donovan..."Get me out of here!"

Above: PJ

Above: Megan

Above: Ashley

Above: Ashton

Above: Part of the hike back up...it was really pretty there.

Above: We were all pretty hot, thirsty and exhausted by the time we made it back up. We were shocked to see PJ giving Donovan a lift.

Above: The climb up the mesa to get to the ruins is pretty brutal...but there are amazing views. This is looking Eastward toward the Colorado mountains where you will find Purgatory (ski resort) and the towns of Telluride and Durango. The photo doesn't do justice to the beauty and colors.

Above: This is looking westward off of the mesa toward the Utah border. The moutain in the background is the Blue/Abajo Mountains. That is the mountain where Monticello is on the foothills. It's so weird to be able to see a long distance...get a "vista" view....again. In Georgia, you don't get that very often.