Road Trip Day 3 - Going for a long explore.

Friday June 17th was our longest driving day.

The whole day was spent in a long explore.

Where did we go? What did we see?

A lot!

We started the day with saying farewell to Aunt Fern and her furry companion Chu-Chu (He's a little dog who things he's a big tough dog and believe it or not he loved little Sweet Cheeks.....and believe it or not She loved him too...Something I never thought would happen....It could be considered a little miracle because if they hadn't gotten along it would have been a long couple of days.)

In this picture everyone is watching me try to run to my spot for the picture before the timer goes off.

It turned out that I'd set the timer for 2 seconds and although I am pretty speedy ;) I'm not THAT speedy.

But we did get this fun picture!

Second time worked beautifully.

And then everyone wanted to be in a picture with Aunt Fern.

The girls

and...

...the boys.

Then it was on to the Four Corners Monument.

When I was there last (26 years ago, a-hem.) it was just a little monument you pulled up to on the side of the road. But still it was awesome because you're in four states AT-THE-SAME-TIME! So of course the kids were excited about that.

Now it's a little nicer monument but it does cost $3 a person to get into it. We were a little surprised.

It was a good photo-op if anything.

We did hear that it wasn't exactly on the state lines.

We decided that it didn't really matter though because the state lines are all man made imaginary lines anyway so really in our minds that's exactly where the state lines are and we were in all four states

AT-THE-SAME-TIME!

However, I was just checking out the four corners area on google maps and the Utah state line kind of does a little zig-zag on the Colorado side that I don't remember being there before. Maybe someone decided to adjust the Utah State line so the monument would be in the right place.

Who knows?

Check it out here.

Zoom in on the four corners and you'll see what I mean.

After leaving the Four Corners Monument we drove South and then West on Hwy 160 into Kayenta where we ate lunch and played at a city park.

There was a merry-go-round there.

Our kids love merry-go-rounds.

MDH announced to our kids he'd push them on the merry-go-round.

Every child there at the playground swarmed the merry-go-round for a ride.

MDH told Sweet Cheeks to hold on tight and not to let go.

He went around fast.

She went flying off but didn't let go.

She was drug around with the merry-go-round until we could get it stopped.

Her poor-poor knees were scraped and burned.

She said, "But I did what you said Daddy. I didn't let go."

It about broke our hearts.

Luckily after some hugs and a few bandages she was was up and running around like nothing had ever happened. 

OH to be young. That would have been a week recovery time at least for me.

From Kayenta we drove north on Hwy 163 into Monument Valley.

Monument Valley, 

the valley of my boys' cowboy dreams.

We was breath-takingly beautiful in it's desolate Majesty.

We were happy to find this part of the dessert still green and thriving because of the late-late spring.

It was a windy, cloudy day but we didn't mind because that meant it wasn't scorching hot.

And the wind made for some awesome hair in this picture.

We (MDH) decided to take a little drive off the main highway and visit a little town called Oljato. According to the map there was supposed to be a trading post there. It was closed down and it looked like it hadn't been open for years. The little town was fascinating, the drive was beautiful and I'm not sure many people can say they've been to Oljato Utah. 

 At the little town Mexican Hat we crossed over the San Juan River.

My Aunt had told us about the Goosnecks of the San Juan earlier in the day and so we decided to check it out.

Again it was another breath-takingly beautiful sight.

There was a little trail down from the view point that MDH and the older kids decided to explore.

Sweet Cheeks and I waited at the top.

She was not happy.....she kept reminding me that she is a "big girl".

Can you see the rafters in the river?

I think we may need to go back and try that out sometime.

When we were getting ready to leave the State Park we saw a couple with their three legged dog that we had met while exploring Mesa Verde the day before. We said "hello" and were surprised to discover that they had left Mesa Verde that morning and had driven to the north and west and then south. We thought it was funny that we had driven south and west and then north and we met back up somewhere in the middle purely by chance.

I had to mention their three legged dog because she was the whole reason we met them.

Our kids were missing our dog and were fascinated by a dog with three legs so of course we had to stop and talk to them.

This truly is a small world.

After the Goosenecks we drove to Monticello to a nice hotel and dinner and a dip in the pool.

Everyone had fun exploring but I also think we were all grateful for the break from driving.