Day 5- May 28- Aztec Ruins and Mesa Verde

We started off at Aztec Ruins.  The grounds were absolutely beautiful and we loved entering the kiva.  A kiva is used for ceremonies and religious purposes.  They are all round in nature and have pillars around them.  

Several of the remains are still intact including some of the T-shaped door frames and the original kivas.  

It is always so impressive to us as to how simple the ancient Puebloan people used to live.  The rooms were small and they lived in large quantities of people.

I love this picture of the boys with the ruins in the background.  The boys love to climb through the runis and discover all kinds of old rocks and artifacts.  

As we left there, we headed to Mesa Verde National park, but not before stopping in Durango.  David and I could both live in the mountains somewhere.  These La Sal Mountains were absolutely beautiful in southern Colorado.  

While in Durango, we walked to an ice cream shop (which should not surprise you if you know me), but in downtown Durango, they were having all kinds of bike races which was very interesting to the kids.  David was not able to get out of the truck because there was no really good place to park the camper.  We took some salted butterscotch ice cream back to him.

We arrived at Morefield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park.  The campground was first come, first serve in terms of getting a site.  We did not love this approach because even though we had reservations, there were often people that were tent camping that took up the larger sites.  This makes you really nervous when you are towing a 35 foot camper.  The mesas surrounding our campsite were absolutely gorgeous.

Once set up, the boys were dying to get their bikes down to ride around.  My kids are happiest when they are free to roam-  like the buffalo.  The campground had around 400 sites, and we had #389.  We liked this because it was close to the bathroom and one of the end loops.

Kerri had gotten the boys Kan Jam for Christmas and this was the first time that we were able to play it.  It is a really fun game where you throw the frisbees towards the bin and your partner can deflect it in the bin for more points.

We played lots of different teams, but you have to be careful not to bruise your hand :)