Home Sweet Midway

Durango/Mesa Verde National Park

16 March 2009

Jake had a business trip to Durango, Colorado and since he was driving, Dash and I decided to tag along. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive through the San Juan River Valley, thru Pagosa Springs and on into Durango. Before we headed back we stopped by Mesa Verde National Park for a couple hours to see the cave dwellings built in 1200 A.D. It was amazing!

San Juan River Valley, nearing Pagosa Springs, CO.

It was about a 6 hour drive from Castle Rock to Durango, and another 1.5 hours to Mesa Verde.

Durango, CO.

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK Mesa Verde 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.

Spurce Tree House, looking down from the Museum

Panoramic pic of the cliff dwellings

Dash at the Spruce Tree House

A ladder that leads down to a ceremonial room.

The "Cliff Palace" is the largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde. It has 150 rooms and 75 open areas. Twenty-one of the rooms are kivas, and 25 to 30 rooms have residential features. The number of Ancestral Puebloans living in Cliff Palace at any one time was 100 to 120.

The Cliff Palace

On the long ride home... chewing on his favorite parrot

Treasure Falls

Ice Climbing

Jake met up with some of his good friends for an ice climbing festival near Gunnison, CO.

Jake's friend Derek climbing. I guess this climb took almost 4 hours.

This is Jake doing his first ice climb ever!

Just another day at the office

Ever since we got this thing, Dash hasn't stopped bouncing... and I don't mean just while he's in it either. He bounces while he's eating, he bounces in church, he bounces ALL DAY LONG. And he's so focused on his bouncing that he doesn't like to be interrupted-especially by a pesky photographer. We say "don't bother Dash, he's in his office."

Fearless

There's a pasture by our church where there are horses grazing so we took Dash for a walk to see if Jake and I genetically passed on our fear of horses. Apparently not.

Turn your volume all the way up for the video.. his laughs are the best!

Don't call CPS..

Dash has a thing with burying his face in stuffed animals while he sleeps. I swear I don't encourage this type of behavior. I just give him something to play with and next thing I know he's doing this!

Wendy Turns Old in Steamboat

15 March 2009

For my birthday, Jake's family reserved their timeshare for us at Steamboat Springs for 5 days. Steamboat is a resort town about 3.5 hours drive from where we live. We invited our friends Desi and her kids and up for a couple days and our friends Shauna & Doug and their kids for the weekend. We took turns watching kids so we could get a day of snowboard in and it was soo fun!

This is the resort, there were sooo many runs.

It's about 3.5 hours Northwest from Castle Rock to Steamboat.

Bradli, Jayden, Jake and Dash... watching cartoons

Jayden and Dash are buddies.

Barrett is 2 weeks older than Dash.

Rogan kept on eye on his little bro' and Dash.. he gave Dash a big kiss right on the forehead.

Dash's first swim lesson.

New Years Reunion

10 January 2009

We spent the last two days of our Holiday vacation in Las Vegas. We needed to check on our house but we also wanted to introduce Dash to all his cousins and also catch up with some friends we miss so much! We didn't get too many pictures but here's a couple!

Jamie, Me & Dashy

Amy, Me & Dashy

Amanda, Katie, Amy, Julie, Me, Jamie (holding Dash), and Janie

We also got to have dinner with some of our favorite friends but we're so dumb for forgetting to take pictures!

Christmas Blessing

We flew out to California to spend the Holidays with Jake's Grandparents in Valencia. The rest of his family drove down from Utah so we could bless Dash on Christmas Eve.

4 generations of Reni boys. Jake, his Grandfather Dario, his Father Daniele, and Dash... it was really neat to have all of them participating in Dash's blessing.

Great-Grandpa (Nono) and Dash

Our lil' fam.

Jake gave Dash a beautiful blessing and Dash's Uncle Jared (in Argentina on his mission) and his Uncle Joe (in Florida) were on the phone to listen in.