Settling In

I think John would agree with me when I say that we were both exhausted when we left Durango.  Our kids were too!  Now that we are almost one week into our trip, I would say we are all starting to feel much more caught up on sleep and our pace of life has slowed tremendously!  Yee-Haw!  

We left Durango on Sunday, June 3rd and we were immediately reminded of the need to be open and adaptable.   The road we were heading out on was closed due to a fire and we needed to detour.  We drove to Ridgway, CO (the long way round) where we met up with my sister and her family for a night of camping.  Although it started raining (in fact pouring at times) shortly after we arrived, it didn't stop us from having a great time.  We packed in the camper and played a mean game of "Headbands" and later rocked out to tunes from our younger years.  We made a yummy dutch oven meal and huddled around the campfire until we couldn't stay up any longer.  We love you Mayers!!!  Thanks for going out of your way to meet us!

Monday morning my sister and her fam left early and we were left on our own to indulge in some "family time".  We drank coffee, played music, opened our wonderful cards, gifts and care packages, and the girls played Battleship (Thanks Catsman Family).  We chilled for most of the morning then packed up to ride the RAT Trails in Ridgway, CO 

Getting ready to descend the Rat Race Trail

After riding in the heat of the day we hit the Ouray Hot Springs and then crashed for the night in an RV park in Ouray.  

From Ouray we drove up to Dinosaur National Monument where we checked out amazing Dinosaur fossils and played in the Green River.  Dinosaur NM was so much more then I had anticipated!  Our campsite was right on the Green river adding so much to our experience there.  The campground was great, the scenery was awesome, the trails were fun, and the river was fantastic!  We ended up staying three nights.

Our first river "dip" on the trip at our campsite

One of my goals is not to be such a WUSSY about the cold water.  This is me getting in, and yes, I made some sort of screaming/yelping noise because it was FREEZING!!!

While visiting the Dinosaur National Monument Visitor Center we got a "play permit" so we could do a day trip on the green.  The river was definitely moving so we were done in about an hour and a half.  But, we had a great time and the girls did a great job on their watercrafts!

Getting ready to "launch" for our first river trip

The USS Shaw Fleet!

A family of Big Horn sheep on the river bank at the end of our trip

So far our days have been filled with paddle boarding, checking out Dinosaur bones, swimming, biking, hiking, junior ranger badges (John finally got one), hanging out, playing music, yoyo-ing (thanks Kre), listening to music, jumping rope, watching the space station fly overhead, getting into bed and waiting for it to get dark, catching up on sleep, reading, thinking about what the road ahead holds for us, running, cooking, dishes and few mean games of Battleship.

Best,

John and Francesca