The Great Sand Dunes and Beyond!

SO I am going to try my best to get got up on this blog thing.
THe photo above is of a beautiful sunset in Cortez as we were headed out of the national park one night.
After Cortez and Mesa Verda, Colorado we headed over to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. It is really a thing to see. You are at the foot of the Rocky Mountians and there is this huge section of sand dunes. They are masive. Looking at them from afar they look big but not all that big. But then you get up to them and start walking up them and they go on forever and are HUGE!! Just masive! It is great soft sand perfect for running and playing in. We all had a blast walking up on hill then having a race to the bottom. Keeley really enjoyed rolling down them. When we got there we knew that the camp ground in the park was probably going to be full. So there is a state park that is about 15 miles from the national park that we decided to stop and get a place at. When we pulled in to that camp ground the ranger said he has about 6 sites left. He gave us the numbers and we deove around and picked one. By the time that we had un hooked and set up the trailer the others were all taken. I am glad that we got there when we did. The bad thing about it was it was completly bug infested. not the dunes thankfully but the campground that we stayed at. We did not spend much time there, thankfully. Or we would not have had much blood left. We went to the dunes as fast as we could but unfortunally by the time that we got there a big thunder storm had rolled in. We went to the visitor center for a while to see if it would roll by. It took a while but we decided to venture out. It was still raining but it was warm and we had fun! Not many people were out on the dunes. But it was not long and the lightning started again so we had to head back to the trailer for the night.
Also because the place was all about sand, I did not take the camera out. So I do not have any great photos of Keeley rolling or Al anf Kait running down the huge mountians of sand. But I do have this. Sadly we only took about 5 photos of this place.

We headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a few days of resting and sight seeing. Since we ended our Grand Canyon stop a day early we stayed an extra day in Santa Fe. Several months ago I had seen some travel magazine with photos of Santa Fe and these beautifull colorful houses I so wanted to go there to photograph them for myself. We were unable to find places that were as colorfull as the photos I has seen but I did have fun taking photos around town anyway! We took a whole day and walked around old town Santa Fe so that I could take photos! It was a ton of fun for me and tolorable for everybody els. We did stop to have lunch at a cool little place called Blue Corn Cafe. It was good mexican food! Here are a few of my favorite photos from that day!
This is the girls standing by the oldest house in the U.S. It was built in 1625. It is right behind that oldest church in the U.S., the San Miguel Mission, built in 1619.

Of corse I like the detail shots better than the others but I guess it is good to be able to see it all too.
Heres some more.




I have to give props to Al, He took the last photo.
Let me know what you think about the photos.
I will have to continue tomorrow.
So until then...