Sister Albertson brought some window markers with her and the kids used them to decorate our van and their truck. So they crossed Moab off the window and changed it to “Colorado or bust.” We go to the hotel and ended up eating up most of our leftovers for dinner that night on account of the crockpot beef stew meal we had cooking in the car on the drive to Colorado still had crisp carrots in it. But that’s ok. It all needed to be eaten, anyway. Then Ken entertained the kids in the pool while Isaac and I sat and watched.
The most glorious thing about this hotel was that we got a suite with two queen beds and a king. And that night Isaac ended up in the king-size bed with us and no one was clinging to the edge of the bed that night. You could hardly tell he was there! And now I keep asking myself why on earth we didn’t get a king-size bed when we moved into our house and couldn’t get the queen box springs up the stairs…..oh well, memories to tell the kids about, I guess.
Our second leg of the trip was Colorado National Monument. In case you ever think of going there…..think barren wasteland!! We checked in at the visitor center first and watched one cool movie and one boring movie. The little kids were going crazy through the second movie. Then we headed out back to a picnic table to eat our stew that had cooked all night. The kids were totally entertained by the birds that wanted to join in on our meal.
It was still really hot out!! and our first trail, Otto’s trail, seemed way longer than the sign said…..and it was just a trail through barren wasteland…nothing to see….nothing to get to…..but the kids that went were real troopers.
So most of the rest of our tour through Colorado National Monument was from the car and a few lookout points. Independence Monument is the small tower of rocks in the middle right under Ken and Spencer’s hands. Every fourth of July people climb to the top and post the American flag….to bad we were there on July 3rd. 
Some more lookout points.
The only other hike we did that day was to “The Devil’s Kitchen.” Abbie stayed with Brother Albertson and Quinn, who was sleeping. This was actually a pretty cool hike at the end, if you could find the trail. We were lucky enough to have some other hikers in front of us and we followed them…otherwise we might not have found it at all! So the devil’s kitchen is a big room behind the tall rocks at the top of this picture.
And this is the opening you go through to get to it.
It’s got some fun rocks to climb on and in, like this heart shaped crevice…and one huge boulder! And this lonely tree growing out of the rock was amazing! Isaac was on Sister Albertson’s back this time and he crashed….so sweet!!
The last 100 yards or so back to the cars Neil wanted to carry the backpack he had been riding in. It nearly knocked him over, so Ken held up the back while he waddled along…that desire didn’t last too long… :-). 
So here we are on our way out. Ken took this picture and then I took one of him, so I can cut him out and Photoshop him into the group picture. I wonder when I’ll get around to that.
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