BACK TO SCHOOL

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Tradition, remember, dictates that we take a photo in front of the house on the first day of school. Today was a little different as we took our photo without Mitchell this time.

Catherine and good friend, Nicole, hook up first hour in Bible class.

Stephanie strikes a pose! She's ready to rule the school.

WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

We have made it home safely with lots of wonderful memories.

It was great to travel with family and friends and God as our guide!

WYATT

MABRIE

LILY

THE MALDONADO FAMILY

ZION

This is the view we were treated to as we drove from Kanab, UT, into Zion National Park.

Checkerboard Mesa was one of the first structures to catch our attention.

The Maldonado foursome poses at the base of Checkerboard Mesa.

Along the journey somewhere in New Mexico, we talked Brice into buying a cowboy hat. Pretty cool cowboy with his little girl.

Weeping Rock is a solution niche in Zion National Park. A strata of red sandstone sits above and has absorbed water from rain and snow throughout the ages. As the absorbed water trickles down through the porous rock, it meets an impermeable layer of slate and moves horizontally to the edge of the cliff. The solution running down the side of the cliff finds a crack to enter and after a great deal of time causes the crack to increase. Gravity then helps the rock fall, leaving a chunk missing from the side of the cliff…this is the niche. Here at Weeping Rock, water continuously flows down the cliff and trickles past the niche opening.

Steve pantomimes his location.

The water flowing over the red sandstone leaves it moist enough for us to paint our faces. Wyatt takes it as war paint!

Wyatt continues his war cry long after we left Weeping Rock.

There is a great amount of vegetation in this section of the desert area of Utah. Brice and Lily lead the hike to the Emerald Pools.

A critter posed for us along our hike to the Emerald Ponds.

At the lower pool, this structure caught my attention. A piece of red sandstone stands vertically.
What happened here? It looks as if roots of a fallen tree hold the rock upright.




At the hotel in Springdale, the Gateway to Zion. Temps ran over 100 degrees and the view was beyond beautiful.

Catherine applauds as Stephanie successfully floats on her back. Steph loves the water but like her mother is unable to swim. After some coaching and encouraging from her dad, Stephanie floats on her own. A proud moment!!








Steve leads Lily on a cruise around the pool.

Moving with turbo power through the shallow end of the pool.

Catherine captures the waterbaby for a few minutes.

Steve and Brice served as sea monsters taking kids forth and back through the pool.

Lily has developed into a waterbaby.

The sea monster surfaces to surprise Mandy and Lily. Frightening? I think not!

IT'S SATURDAY

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Yep, it's Saturday and I am pooped! Right now Steve and Brice are somewhere in Zion National Park with the little ones, Wyatt and Mabrie. The rest of us (Mandy, Lily, Catherine, Stephanie and me) are resting in an air-conditioned hotel room.

Women leaving Cedarosa
From left to right:
Mandy & Lily with Mabrie below, Diana & Abby, Catherine & Meeko, Cindy, Stephanie, Mom (Helen) & Reno the stud, and Linda.

The Richards get one last shot at Cedarosa.

Thursday was a big day for us as we packed up our things at the ranch and got ready to move west and eventually back to the Northwest.

The Three Amigos at the ranch.

Steve had to pick up the car from Albuquerque first and then we traveled I-40 towards Flagstaff, Arizona. Along the way is one of my favorite places, Meteor Crater. It's just 5 miles off the highway and a must-see.

It may look like a big hole in the

ground, but it's a unique hole

formed by the impact of a meteorite.

Long ago a huge iron-nickel meteorite estimated to have been about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, struck the plain of northern Arizona with an explosive force greater than twenty million tons of TNT. As a result of the impact, the crater was formed with the floor 700 feet deep; it is now approximately 550. The crater is over 4,000 feet across and 2.4 miles in circumference.

Mitchell loves to hang with the little ladies! Here he is with Lily at the Crater.>

Lily, Mabrie and Wyatt pose after hiking to the bottom of the Crater.

Gotcha! (as Wyatt says) they're posing in front of a mural of the bottom of the crater.

We spent time gawking at the crater and mugging for pictures before scurrying to the car as a lightning storm rolled through. Then we made our way to Flagstaff, AZ, for the night.

Friday was even a bigger day as the entire gang took off from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon.

The Washington Maldonados

Mom and Steve

Wyatt and Mabrie up a tree at the Canyon.

The Richards on the rim.

The Washington Maldonados, the Richards, Mom (Helen), Linda, and the Three Amigos (Alfredo, Danny & Mitchell) headed together to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and it was there that we parted ways with our college-bound son. Mitchell took off with his grandmother, et. al. towards Laughlin, Nevada, while the rest of our family drove off with the Richards to Page, AZ, and the Glenn Canyon Dam.

Behind the dam is the beautiful Lake Powell.

Twenty years ago while attending Northern

Arizona University I took an 8-hour tour of Glenn Canyon Dam and this day was so happy to share this place with those I love.

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

It’s so nice to be on vacation without any hard-and-fast schedule. This morning we woke in Albuquerque with plans to go hiking at El Morro, or ride up to Sante Fe to check out Mitchell’s new college, or check out Chaco Canyon…we didn’t do any of these! Our car needed some attention so Steve was at the dealership by 7:oo am. When he returned for the rest of us, we took off for brunch at The Frontier, one of our favorites! Breakfast burritos with green chili! The Frontier is conveniently located across the street from the University of New Mexico where four of my nephews attend!! Danny and Alfredo started last year, Johnny (eldest son of my bro, John) will be a senior this year, and Sammy (John’s other son) just moved into the dorms as a freshman. I’m so proud of my nephews…Go Lobos!

While at The Frontier, we tried to hook up with John, the nephew, but he was tied up in orientation for his job at the university. We ended up hooking up with my brother John, sister-in-law Carolyn, and their daughter, Anna. What a treat! What a treat! What a TREAT! After visiting for a bit we started back to the ranch but ended up back at the car dealership for another look at our vehicle. We left it overnight as the compressor had bombed out on us and without a compressor…no air conditioning! For the next three days we will be in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah where air conditioning is a “must” during this time of the year.

The dealership loaned us a car and we headed back to the ranch where we fed the horses, rode the four-wheeler and did a little more exploring. This time Wyatt, Mabrie and I shared our adventures with their folks, Mandy and Brice.

Lily and Catherine stay cool in the house together.

It took a few days, but Lily has warmed up to all of us!

ON CEDAROSA

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A little lizard friend we found along the way.

Today we took time to hike around the ranch. Wyatt and Mabrie were anxious to see the horses so Catherine and I took them to the corral after we fed the ducks.
It’s so fun to experience the ranch again with little ones.

After Catherine returned to the house, Wyatt, Mabrie and I went on a hike to explore Indian ruins. Just south of the corral, over a little hill are the remains of an Indian dwelling. The foundation is discernable, and as we explored, both Wyatt and Mabrie found pottery shards and very, very cool rocks. My big find was a chunk of petrified wood.

After returning to the house for water and a potty break, we got the rest of the gang to go on another hike. This time Mitchell drove us up the hill behind the house to where my father-in-law is buried. As we all took a few minutes to honor him, Mabrie said, “Hey, I’m going to meet him because I’m going to heaven too!” (Don’t ya love three-year-olds?) Mitchell drove back to the house and the rest of us hiked to the top of the mesa and then back around behind the house where there are more Indian ruins. (No pottery was found this time.) We saw a jack rabbit, a very small but round lizard and many, many cool rocks. We managed to avoid the snakes and they avoided us!

Brice, Mandy and Steve (and Lily) pose behind the main house. The ranch extends to the mesa in the background.











Above and behind the main house sits a circular structure...either a kiva or a lookout. Due to the size and location, this is probably a lookout. We used our imaginations pretending to be Native Americans looking for the bad guys and then modern-day Anglos waiting for a Fed Ex delievery truck.







Three-year-old Mabrie is a great hiker and adventurer.
(And she's so cute!)


The day was a beautiful and very warm, so sunscreen and hats were good ideas.

Wyatt has become my explorer buddy!

He and Mabrie are always up for an adventure with me so I picked up some walking sticks for them at the local Dairy Queen/gas station/ tourist shop.

Lily joins the hike.

On this hike Lily wore little white shoes with built-in squeakers. (Yes, sneakers with squeakers.) Every time she stepped there was a "squeak squeak" to announce her progress. How fun!

After an afternoon of hiking, Wyatt and Mabrie nap on the livingroom floor.

I think that all of us ended up napping for at least a little bit.

The day concluded as we are drove into Albuquerque to watch the Isotopes (Triple-A affiliate of the Florida Marlins) play baseball. Yahoo!!

Although the 'Topes lost the game (terribly), we left the park with a dozen loaves of bread. Ain't baseball a blast?!