Durango Day 8

Another big day today.  My mom took a day all to herself, and the rest of us headed to Mesa Verde for the day.  It took us a while to get there as we got stuck in some construction traffic while trying to get out of town.  Once we got there, we drove around trying to get some more states for our license plate game, then ate at the little café before heading down the trail to the cliff dwellings. 

The walk down was of course relatively easy...it was down hill.

You can climb around just a little bit on the edge of the cliff dwellings.  The kids thought it was pretty cool. 

This ranger told the kids more about the cliff dwellings. 

GranDad enjoyed walking around with Reese. 

In the meantime, Daddy and Witten climbed down into a little...emphasis on little...underground area. 

The hike up was much more difficult.  It was a long way down, which meant we had to come a long way up. 

On the way out, I took a couple of pictures from my window.  It was a pretty area, but I definitely preferred the trees and rocky areas of Durango. 

Durango Day 7

We decided to take today to ourselves and give my parents a bit of a break, so we packed up the kids and headed to Durango for a day in town.  When we looked at the map of Durango, we saw this river, and decided it would be a great place to start our morning. We had to go down a little cliff to get to the water.  With two littles, that was a little scary.  Mitch came down with Reese on his back, and we passed Witten down the parts that were too tricky for him to walk.  The kids LOVED playing in the water though, and they got soaked.  I wish that I had had the forethought to pack an extra set of clothes, but the kids didn't seem to mind too much. 

There were quite a few people that were floating down the river while the kids and Mitch were playing.  (I got in too, but I'm the one taking the pictures.)  The water was FREEZING!  I can't imagine rafting down in.  Especially in a skimpy swim suit!

Witten's trying to dry off before we go back to the car.

When we were about to leave, we found this car that was buried in the side of the cliff.  It has clearly been there for decades. 

The kids wanted to take a closer look. 

When it was time to go, Mitch and Reese walked back to get the car, and Witten took time to stop and smell the roses.  Well...the flowers anyway.  (He found that stick, and wanted to take it home.)

Unfortunately, he broke it, so he wanted to bring it home and put it back together with Gorilla Glue.  This kid is obsessed with Gorilla Glue right now. 

There was a little play set down the hill from the cabin, so after naps, the kids talked Mitch into taking them down there to play for a while.  

The dogs really enjoyed the fresh mountain air.  They probably would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't had to be tied up.  

Durango Day 6

Today, we hung out at the cabin and recovered from the train ride yesterday.  This is pretty much what our day looked like.  We relaxed in PJs and played.

After dinner, we did our vacation tradition and made some s'mores.  They were delicious as usual!

Durango Day 5

Over the weekend, we went into town a couple of times, and hung out a lot at the cabin just relaxing, so we didn't do a whole lot.  Today was our BIG day!  I have been waiting year to be able to take my kids on the Durango-Silverton train, and we finally got to do it.  We had to get up early so that we could get to Durango in time for the train.  When we were looking for tickets, we chose to sit in an open car so that we could experience the mountain air as well as getting better pictures. 

We were all quite excited before the train left.  We got there about 30 minutes before it was time to leave, so we were able to get a few family pictures before we left.

This is while we were all still clean.  There was definitely a negative side to riding in the open car.  All of the coal that is being burned comes back out of the train and flies around.  We were COVERED in black specks by the end of the ride, and I had to shower twice to get MOST of it out of my hair.  I washed the kids' hair a few times too, and Reese, with her white hair, still had black flecks stuck to her scalp when we were done. 

Witten doesn't look excited in this picture, but he was. 

See...now he's smiling.

This guy came and gave us some info about the train.  I took a picture of him because of his outfit.  He looked so official!

Reese got to ride on Daddy's shoulders for a bit of the trip.  My parents remembered which was the best side to ride on to get the good pictures, but the sun was right in or faces most of the time.  It was worth it though. 

The wind was pretty strong when we first left in the open car, as evident by Reese's hair. 

Got some great pictures of the train.  Would have loved to be a little further back, but all of the back cars were closed. 

 

 

This is the shot that we waited for.  The train crosses this bridge and blows out steam.  It's everyone's favorite picture of the ride. 

It was hard to get a good picture of us together, but we tried. 

The kids liked to stand up and watch everything going by. 

 

But they also like to be held by Daddy. 

The train ride was about 3 hours long, so the kids got tired after a while, and luckily, GranJan was there for them to lean on. 

Silverton was quite a bit colder than Durango, and of course, it started raining when we got there.  We got this shot and then ran into a very crowded, very expensive diner to grab some lunch and wait out the rain.  

The rain turned into a few snow flurries, and I was lucky enough to get this shot of the train before it backed up out of the way for the next train, there are 3.

This was just a beautiful building, the court house I think, and it had a gorgeous backdrop. 

You know that you're town is complete when it has a Church of Christ!

We also saw this bench which was made out of snow boards.  So cute. 

Overall, Silverton was a bit disappointing.  It was cold, which was fine, but most of the places were closed, so there wasn't a whole lot to walk around and do.  We only had about an hour ad a half to be there though before our bus left to go back to Durango, so it worked out nicely. 

 

Even though it was cold, we stopped and got some ice cream from a shop right outside of the train station.  You just CAN'T go to a small town without getting ice cream. 

 

We took the bus home because it's much faster and much cheaper than taking the train back.  My parents went straight home, but Mitch wanted to walk around the train museum, so he took the kids around for a while.  I wasn't interested, so I went shopping and came up with quite a few finds.  I LOVE buying sweatshirts and t-shirts for everyone when we're on vacation.  It's a fun way for us to remember our time all year. 

 

When we got home, we all showered, ate, and then just relaxed for the rest of the night.  It was a long, fun day!

 

This is our official Durango-Silverton Train photo.