CONMAZUT

We were invited to another wedding this year, this time in St. George, UT. Originally Heather was planning to attend alone, but as it became clearer in the winter that Dave would have extra time, we decided to enlist Grandma Joan's help for an extraneous drive through the Four Corners and the Grand Canyon.

Going into it, we thought that the scenery would be as brown as this topographical map, but boy were we mistaken

The itinerary going out necessitated a 41 minute connection in DFW. After blowing off steam at the kidport in Boston, and with 50,000 calories of snacks in tow, we made the tight connection without a problem

Flying into Durango, CO, and view of the San Juan mountains

First and only bison that we encountered

First stop in our tour of ancestral Puebloan NP sites: Canyons of the Ancients

The "Canyons of the Ancients" were a dusty 25 miles away, but the visitor center was great and super kid-friendly. Erin practiced grinding blue corn using a stone mano and metate while Tessie tried on a traditional Hopi low-riding diaper.

The next day was planned to be a long drive with an ambitious number of stops at National Park sites. Fortunately, we were all up at 5:30 due to our East Coast body clocks and made it to our first site in the early morning
 

Colorado picture 

Now you may have learned that the Anasazi built Mesa Verde, but today we call them ancestral puebloans. Apparently Anasazi is a Navajo word that can mean "ancient enemies" and is offensive to the present-day Hopi, Zuni, and Paiutes. Caroline and Erin think that ancestral puebloans is too much of a mouthful, but with the alternatives being hisatsinom (Hopi) and E'nengweng (Paiute), what are you going to do? Answer: install a giant bronze sculpture of an ancestral puebloan in the visitor center

Title of the sculpture is "The Ancient Ones"

There was even a little toddler play area


The drive up the mesa was spectacular

The girls reached a new high altitude benchmark

To see Spruce Tree House up close required a small gulley traverse and instead we stayed above it

We had hoped to only put a finger into the state of New Mexico, but turns out that the road through the Four Corners enters from the NM side. PS - don't you love those hot peppers on the state sign?

You either love or hate the Four Corners but we thought it was pretty cool

Erin missed the photo op, but here is proof of her feet officially in NM

Mom got the best pic

We bought our postcard from the tchotchke stalls as well as 2 possibly handmade Navajo dreamcatchers

 Done with the Four Corners

Hello Arizona. No offense, but you should allocate some funds to upgrade your state signage. New Mexico has those jazzy hot peppers and wait until you see Utah and Nevada...

There's a new contributor of photos to the blog: Caroline using the iPad. She took some winners

 and some that were more personalized


Navajo National Monument had a model of a puebloan dwelling


and the girls landed another Junior Ranger badge

Recognize those blocks? That's how they get you: play with them for free at one park and then cough up the cash at the next park to save the crying toddler

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Our trip coincided with a New Yorker article on the disappearing Colorado River, but even with the lost volume it is impressive


It's hard to see it, but Lake Powell is over 180 miles long and apparently has more coastline than the entire western US.


Brave souls walked out on the bridge but we did not

One wonders how those trucks made it to the bottom of the dam

Oooh, to dream: Jr ranger badges at the Glen Canyon NRA visitor center

 Now that's a cool sign

and equally cool were the real dinosaur footprints at the Grand Staircase Escalante NM visitor center

A young hadrosaur and a young chordate

 Misson accomplished for day one: smiles all around

Hot Spring

 

 Erin was a soccer girl again this spring

 

 Cousin Emily plays softball for Army and we watched her games vs Boston University

 

 

During spring break Grandma and Grampa took the girls to the aquarium

 

the sea turtle was star of the feeding show

 

Erin finally lost her front tooth

 

We decided to remove the empty fish pond from the backyard

 

It took 5 hours behind a jackhammer, but the final score was Dave 1 - Concrete 0

 

 To add to the absurdity of the final week at AstraZeneca, these strange seats were installed throughout the building

 

 There it is, the day we waited so long for, the first 80 degree day of 2015

 

 Orange Leaf never tasted so good

 

 With the warm weather came the orioles, and for the first time we found a nest

 

Don't ask what they were thinking, but this picture is perfect fodder for the high school yearbook 

 

 Max is still Erin's sleeping buddy

 

But she better watch out because Tessie is getting cozier every day



 Erin's sbas diorama

 

 Impossible hidden picture #1: can you spot the animal behind Erin?

 

We finally visited Minuteman National Historic Park to see the official Battle Road sights

 

Answer #1

 

The Minuteman statue

 

At the Old North Bridge

 

 In a different historical vein, Dave took advantage of his free time to spend a day with his friend Gary walking part of the original upper Post Road from Roxbury to Cambridge. This stretch of the road still has its 18th century stone markers labeling miles 4 through 8, and Gary has written an amazing blog about the entire Boston Post Road.  At the end of his day with Gary, Dave could say that he passed a personal milestone to pass 5 milestones.

 

On another glorious hot spring day, we went to Winthrop Beach

 

It was sunny and foggy at the same time

 

and by the end Tessie was wiped

 

 Impossible hidden picture #2: find the least tern seabird nesting on the beach

 

 I told you it was impossible 

 

 Constitution Beach in East Boston had a playground and views of the planes taking off from Logan

 

Pizzeria Regina picnic at home

 

Baby animals at Drumlin Farm

 

Dancing at Drumlin