Thompson Reunion – Mesa Verde

We woke up early and headed out to Mesa Verde.  Here is Nathan pointing it out.

We were able to get there early enough to get tickets to BOTH the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace.  I knew that we were doing an Indian reunion, SO I bought some Indian beaded necklaces for the girls off of ebay.  I got quite a few in a group for only $2 a piece and I later found out that they retail for $40 a piece.  In the next picture you can see the older girls necklaces.

The next photo is the Thompson group ready for the tour.  EXCEPT, Stephen and Jerrica are not in the picture.  Jamin was late so Stephen went looking for him.  I should photoshop him in so that we can have at least one picture with everyone in it!

The rest of the pictures are just random, fun ones of the family.  I took a ton of pictures, but won’t fill my blog with them now.  Here is Uncle Jon with my boys.  They adore him because he is always playing with them.  I was trying to take a picture of just my two when Jon snuck in!

Next are the two newlyweds.  I still can’t believe that Janie is married.  She should still be EIGHT years old!

Grandma Brenda always had Rebecca or Ashley hanging on her.  She is so patient.

Next we have Aunt Lael.  She is always smiling and is always so willing to help out in any way.

Here is Jamin with their new little boy, Christopher.  Not only did Jamin climb all the ladders and go through all the tunnels, but he did it with a baby on his back!

Here are two more of Stephen’s sisters.  (He has SIX sisters!)  Here is Erin with her beautiful smile and then Racquel with her husband Paul.  Racquel is organized and keeps the family all on track.

Ashley was obsessed with the soft dirt in the cliff dwellings.  She would plop down whenever the tour guide would stop to discuss something and immediately begin to play in the dirt.

As I tried to watch and control my kids up in these cliff dwellings, I thought about the little Indian children that used to play in these dwellings.  What a nightmare to keep your kids from falling down the cliff!

While we were there, the tour guide showed us a kiva.  A kiva is a place that sacred practices were performed in and was a spiritual place for the Indians.  Well, of course my Jerrica decided right then to throw her water bottle down into it.  The entire tour group of 50 people let out an audible gasp.  I felt horrible until the tour guide pulled out his pole with a claw on the end to get it out.

We did have one pregnant one in our group.  Janna braved the ladders and hiking for the tour.  Here she is on her last ascent of the day.

Speaking of ladders, on the first tour we were supposed to stay right behind any toddlers and follow them up the ladder.  I was a little scared of how high up we were and went a little slow.  Ashley probably should have followed me up!

Jacob LOVED every minute of Mesa Verde.  He was constantly trying to repeat little facts that he learned.  His cousin, Lexi and him found a little wikiup at lunch time and had fun checking it out.

We were all SOOOO exhausted from the tours and hiking!  We headed to a park in Durango to relax and have dinner.  Stephen had ordered gourmet pizza from “Mamma’s Boys”.  It was SOOOO delicious!!!