The rest of the story . . .

This, again, is Cliff Palace. Sorry for posting so many pictures of this one place, but I just really like it. These three fruitcakes are our guides from the three tours we went on. This first guy was the guide who took us through Cliff Palace, and he was the biggest "Eco Freako" I've met yet. He kept saying things like "square-circle, black-white, light-dark. Opposites, harmony, balance." If you say those with a lot of silly hand gestures then you maybe can understand the silliness.

This second guy, well just look at that poor kid. The braces just kind of completed the package. He at least had a sense of humor though, but when we didn't laugh loud enough at his jokes he would say "Just so you know, that was a JOKE folks!" (By the way, I'm not judging these people, I'm just pointing out why we thought they were so funny.) This last guy was funny too. He reminds me of a perfect cross between Shane and Mr Bean.
I'm pretty sure these were Sego Lilies. I don't see them very often here in Utah, but in Mesa Verde they were everywhere.

We saw all kinds of wildlife, there was this lizard who posed for me.

And this kestrel that hung around for most of our tour through Long House.

We were looking down from the top of the mesa down into the canyon at ruins when we this little fella just walking around. At first we had decided it was a coyote, but we kept going back and forth because it looks like both a coyote and a fox. Then, I decided maybe a coyote and a fox could breed and make a foyote. Then Kenny's dad ruined my fun and told us that no, it is not a foyote, it is a grey fox.This is a big cow Kenny saw in Cortez and just HAD to pull over so he could have his picture taken with it. I've never felt like more of a tourist!This is balcony house, one of the tours we went on. It was one of the coolest ones because it was built right into the side of the canyon, and we had to climb in and out of it. On the way out was the scariest because there was a big ladder, and then some makeshift foot holes cut right into the rock on the way up and out, and then another big ladder. I would have thought to take some pictures of that to show just how scary it was, but I was too busy hanging onto the rusty, shaky fence so that I didn't fall into the canyon.This is Spruce Tree House. Mom, this is the one you went to. we could go down to it without a guide or a ticket, so that was nice. I'm impressed with this one, because it appears that they had a multi level house here. See the wall with lots of windows? Right in front is a hole with two stick coming out. That is a little Kiva that we could climb down into and see what it was like.
And this is the inside of a Kiva. Kiva's were spiritual and served as a place to pray and worship. The men also weaved blankets in there sometimes (that's right, the men weaved the blankets) and then in the winter time they would get down into there and light fires to stay warm. Kiva's used to have a roof over them with a hole in the top to let the smoke out. There were Kiva's everywhere, and there were several in each community.

These, of course, are mano and metates. They were everywhere too, and I couldn't help but take pictures of them. I think they are so cool. Kenny thinks that I was drawn to them because that would have been my role, grinding the corn with the mano and metates.
And this is a swirly rock! It was used as a brick in one of the ruins on top of the mesa.

Kenny and I in front of Spruce Tree House. This was our last stop of the day, we had been hiking in the hot sun all day long, and we were both exhausted by this point. That's why I'm all shiny and red.
Kenny walking through the ruin at Far View. This one was very cool, because we got to walk through the structure and see what is was like inside the walls. There were lots of little TINY doors, as you will see coming up.We had to go through this little door. It was awkward to say the least. Is that how you spell awkward? It looks funny.
My cute husband.
This is my cute husband's other end. If you don't like it, don't look. This is the tiny tunnel we had to go through to get out of Balcony house (the one with the scary climb). It was quite tight, and it went on for a couple of feet
This is a big ladder that we climbed to get into the Balcony house. They called it a "double wide". And no, they weren't talking about my bum, or at least they said they weren't.

And no, they weren't talking about Kenny's bum either.

One the way home from Mesa Verde we stopped at Newspaper Rock.

And this is what Aiden did while we were gone. He stayed at each of his Grandma's houses for one day and night and spent the whole weekend swimming and sliding. He didn't miss us at all.