"Ketchup" and Mustard on Utah Trip!

My favorite National Park is Mesa Verde in Colorado. I went as a kid and never forgot that trip. I talked my parents into driving my kids and I (a 4 hour drive from St. George, where they live) and camping with us for a few days. This particular dwelling is the most famous, called "Cliff Palace."

From the NPS, "Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States."

This is the same dwelling as the one previous, with an apartment! Everything was accessed by rock climbing and wooden ladders, like these:

The boys always tried to be FIRST to climb them all.

But Katrina wasn't shy either! She loved all the ladders!

This ladder was particularly freaky and dangerous. I hate heights! I was hyperventilating when I got to the top of it, but Briana seems fine and cute as ever!

Here are Emma and Rachel holding a pottery shard that could be 1500 years old. The people tossed their garbage off the cliff walls, in front of their dwellings and many pieces of broken pottery were found at the base of each dwelling!

Rach and Katrina practicing their metate skills . . . the same way the Indian women ground corn and seeds thousands of years ago . . . on the same stones!

These "Cliff Dwellings" are so fascinating! This is a pic of my kids, plus my parents, sister Briana and brother Eric. Ten of us drove on this trip in my suburban that seats 8. It was a tight squeeze, but we had a great time.

There were cool carvings and artwork all over, but these were the coolest!

Ben enjoyed all the tight spaces and things to scramble and climb on! The Ancestral Pueblo were a tiny people, with the men as short as me (5'2" at the tallest) and the women about Josh's height (under 5').

What a cutie! There was A LOT of hiking to all these sites and Ben did great, hardly complaining at all!

In this photo, you can see that the ceiling is all black. That's left over soot from fires inside the top room, the logs sticking out supported a porch or another room.

This dwelling is called "Balcony House" because of the wonderful intact "balconies" that are so well preserved. The balconies were used to view the gorgeous vistas that these homes provided!

Like this one. What a view! This place is so great to visit, you all should put it on your 100 things to do before you die!

Kiva is a Hopi word for Ceremonial Room. Each Dwelling had a few Kivas. One had been re-constructed to allow tourists to climb down inside and check it out. Here's Ben on his way down the ladder.

This is the view from inside the Kiva. Pretty cramped quarters . . . now just imagine a fire going and everyone smoking the pipe! Yuck!

Our cute Katrina with a view of an open Kiva behind. They were circular rooms.

The cliff dwellings were protected from enemies and the elements, tucked into open caves. The citizens would climb to the Mesa top to farm and play.

On the TOP of all the Mesas, there were also dwellings. This is a Kiva from the top.

Nina and Ben pose in the Kiva.

Rachel climbing around a secret passageway!

Notice the carvings on Josh's side. Very cool.

When we left Mesa Verde, we stopped on the Indian Reservation to stand on 4 corners . . . the spot where 4 states meet each other. This was something I had remembered doing as a child and I wanted my kids to see it.

Here's my brother being in 4 states at once.

And Josh! What a great trip! Thanks Mom and Dad!

More "Ketchup" from the Summer!

I'm still so behind on chronicling last summer's Utah trip! We did so much and I dropped off the blogging hemisphere, darn it!

One afternoon while in Salt Lake City, we drove all around, looking at past Prophet's graves. After awhile, most of the kids wouldn't get out of the car. My two sweet oldest girls, Emma and Rachel got out to stand by the grave of our beloved Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley.

The same girls posed next to Brigham Young's grave. He has his own special cemetery in Downtown SLC.

We met in Monroe, Utah for a Levie family reunion. My Paternal Grandmother was Geraldine Levie Goold. Her husband, my dad's father, recently passed away. This was the first time my kids had been to a grave of someone they'd known. Ben is kneeling on the box of ashes, of my dad's oldest sister, Janet. We were gathered at the cemetery that day to bury her ashes next to her parents.

We wandered around the cemetery, looking at our ancestor's graves. One of my favorite Great-Grandmothers, the one I'm named after, was buried in Monroe also.

Sarah Jacobina Wicklund Goold, born in Sweden 1852, to Danish parents who were immigrating to America. While in Sweden they joined with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and found passage to SLC, when Sarah was 4, with the Willie Handcart Company. Little Sarah had many hardships, as did her 9 month pregnant mother. The whole family made it to Utah and each raised a righteous posterity. It was really special to show the kids this grave.

As we continued our trip to St. George that afternoon, I read the kids all sorts of stories about their ancestors. In this photo, my sister, Briana, is standing behind Emma and my favorite aunt, Linda, the one I grew up with in Alaska, is standing near my dad and me. My niece, Ariana, is in front of Emma and my cousin's oldest, Olivia, is standing in front of me!

Utah in December

I mentioned a few days ago that we went to Utah last month for the BYU vs. Oregon State Football game. We also went for a more important reason. Damian's Great-Uncle, John, and his posterity are all LDS. They're the ones that introduced Damian's parents to the gospel. One of John's youngest daughters was sealed in the SLC temple and we went to witness that very joyous occasion.

I didn't take any pictures of the gorgous bride and her sweet husband. But I did get these, that night in the Marriot pool. We cousin swapped and Damian's cousin Val took our girls. We kept all the boys. The boys swam until midnight and were quite ENERGETIC!

Pictured: Ben and Josh Idiart, Matt Correa & Tanner and Spencer Davies and their crazy hairdo poses. Tanner won the coolest swim hair competition. We had about a million different competitions, and each boy won quite a few. Even Benny, but his were rigged, to make him feel good.

Before we left, the boys showed me their best Hula Dancing. What a bunch of Goofs. Ben was too cool for this "competition."

"Ketchup" and Mustard on my Utah Trip

These are the last pictures I wanted to post from our Utah trip in June/July.

When we were in Utah, I found out my very best friend from Alaska, Emily, was also there at the same time! We were talking and I told her I was at the BYU Bookstore and so was she!! Emma was at Volleyball camp, so Emily didn't get to see her, but she saw my other kids! I was so thrilled to see how much her girls Aubrey and Jasmine had grown, since I saw them last summer in Alaska. My kids hadn't met Jasmine yet, and they loved her right away.

We met up to swim in Lehi, but I didn't take pictures of that. Another day we met to eat out and go to a warehouse full of Bounce Houses. On that outing, we also met up with our former Babysitter, Kristy Yamaguchi Swendson and her new baby, Andrew (pictured together on the far right). It was so fun.

Josh was busy with his friend, Drake, from our hometown, but the girls had a great time! Drake came with us to Utah, to attend the BYU Basketball camp with Josh and then his mom came to pick him up.

This is Emily with her darling daughter, Jasmine. Emily is blessed with two ADORABLE, SMART, DARLING girls and I sure wish we could see them more often. I just love them.

Rachel, Aubrey and Katrina having a ball!

"I'n the king of the WORLD!!" Yes, he really says, I'n instead of I'm. It's cute. And Jock-lat instead of Chocolate, Crampa instead of Grandpa, Wiff instead of With. I love this kid.

These two really hit it off. They're the same age and had a blast together. They were all sweaty from running and playing so hard and doused themselves in the drinking fountain.

Here's a close up of the cuties!

We went back for a final farewell, Emily was heading to Disneyland and the California/Oregon Coast before driving back to Alaska. Until next time, my dear friend!

"Ketchup" on our Utah Trip!

I never finished posting about our 3 week trip to Utah. Click Here to read the first week highlights. Stay tuned for 2 more posts to finish out the "series."

Emma went to a BYU Volleyball Camp and stayed in the dorms for almost a whole week. I snapped this right before we took her home. She's with her "counselor." She had a great time and learned a lot. I attribute the fact that she made 7th Gr. Varsity to her time at BYU.

These are the girls Emma shared a bathroom with. She roomed with a girl from home, but hung out with these girls her age from Highland, Utah. I think we're related to the one in the pink shirt, Rachel Asay. I need to talk to her parents and find out. They're all still good friends and Emma hopes to go to camp with them next year! They text each other a few times a week.

While Emma was busy, we played with our Davies cousins. Damian's dad's cousin Valerie is just a few years younger than us. Her 4 kids are the same ages as ours. We love them, they're such great kids. We had a few sleepovers and day trips and truly enjoyed them. In this picture are the boys: Spencer, Benjamin, Tanner and Josh.

I took the kids to a great community pool/water park in Lehi to meet up with my BF from High School, Emily, and her girls. I'm including pictures of her family in my LAST Utah post! Ben enjoyed being silly with this Frog. Reminds me of a pictures of myself . . . taken 17 years ago!

After a fun day at the pool and Chuck E. Cheese's, we went back to Grandma Ashton's for a camp-out. Aren't these girls so cute together? Katrina enjoyed swapping clothes with Jordan, the first cousin she's met that's HER AGE! She was in heaven! In this photo, they could be twins. They really do look a lot alike!

The boys camped outside and I couldn't resist moving Josh's fingers 2 mm to pose his hand with Tanner's. They didn't really "hold hands" while sleeping, but they are VERY good friends, so maybe next time??

The girls chickened out and came inside to sleep. McKenzie and Rachel looked so cute in all their blonde splendor, I had to take a pic.

The next morning, we met their mom and hiked the Y. Val had never done it, if I remember right and I hadn't done it since '93! It was much harder than I thought and luckily, we started pretty early, so we missed hiking in the HEAT.

Josh, Rachel, McKenzie and Katrina on the Y.

Ben, on the Y, enjoying the view of Utah Valley.

Katrina looking at BYU campus from the Y.

These boys, Spencer, Tanner and Josh are CRAZY! I just couldn't watch them too closely, for fear that they'd fall off the mountain. Boys will be boys!

Here we all are together! Right before Damian and I married, I was roommates with Val for a few months. She took good care of me . . . she cooked, she cleaned, she helped me address my wedding invites. She was a good friend and a good "mother" to me. I love being around her, I count her as one of my dearest friends and wish we could be neighbors! We've known each other for 13 years and have 9 kids, combined! WOW!

The next morning, we met with the Davies again and went to Seven Peaks Water Park. It was a blast! My parents and sister Briana and brother Eric drove up to go with us, too. The kids had a great time hanging out with my family. Grandpa is CRAZY on the waterslides!

Emma got to go two afternoons to the Water Park. Once with her volleyball camp and once with us. She enjoyed it a bunch! What a cutie!


After a full day of sun (notice Rachel's burn line!) the kids are tired out. We left to come home to Oregon soon after this. We sure had a good time!