Adams' Adventures

Noel July '12 - Dec '14

2016-06-23T12:08:00.001-07:00

I thought that I'd update the family blog with some events and thoughts about the children while we lived in Gilbert. We loved living there and miss the conveniences of a highly populated area and the strong presence of the church. I was thinking about how much the kids have grown over the past couple of years. I thought I'd take a few blog posts to an update on the children. So first up is Noel.

2012 - 2014 was a big growing time for Noel - he was 4 when we moved there and went to preschool kindergarten and started first grade. Noel is a sweet, sensitive boy, but definitely always knew what he wanted. My boys are a lot a like. Both silly - though Noel is more serious of the two. Noel is so inquisitive and smart. He is always asking questions about why things happen and how things work. His favorite show to watch on TV was Mighty Machines. He loves music and he was really great in a program called Let's Play Music that he participated in for a year. He actually really likes Classical music and I think someday he could be an awesome musician.

He was in morning preschool in Chandler, but since we moved in October to a new city, there didn't seem to be anyone that was taking new students. He ended up going to a little preschool class through the parks and rec program at the library. The library was neat the Riparian Preserve and we liked to go walk around afterwards.

Here's a picture of Noel at the park at the Riparian Preserve when he was 4.

He played basketball with the YMCA preschool team. He really enjoyed it for the most part. When Noel got excited he would jump up and down really quickly, he still does sometimes.

Noel was interested in reading from an early age. He really enjoyed learning to figure out words and knew how to do it before going to kindergarten.

Noel had a Star Wars birthday party when he turned 5.

Noel loved Star Wars - anything Star Wars.

Noel went to kindergarten at Carol Rae Ranch Elementary with Mrs. Jacobsen as his teacher. He loved most subjects except art and handwriting. He loved especially reading and math and gym.

Here is a picture of my boy - his serious side is showing this day - he wasn't too excited about Halloween and dressing as a race car driver - I think he would have been more happy being Spider-man...again. Look at those big brown eyes!!!

I love Noel. He is my sensitive, thoughtful, inquisitive, sometimes goofy, funny boy. Aaron and I see both of us in him. I'm so proud to be his momma.

Some Gilbert Highlights

2016-06-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

Living in Gilbert Highlights:

Our family was young! Look at those babies!

Desert Hikes

The Gilbert temple open house and dedication

The trip to Albuquerque to see the balloon fiesta

Aaron's entire family came to visit for Thanksgiving 2014.

I'll post more as I find more pictures. Sadly our computer died. So I have a lot of compiling to do, but my goal is to do a blog post of each child during our time in Gilbert.

2013-09-24T14:41:00.001-07:00

It has been such a long time since I posted anything on here. I was having trouble getting pictures to upload to this computer. And who wants to read a family blog without pictures?! Not I... So here is a family sprinkler picture with a naked baby in it, circa May 2013...

Claire and Noel were involved in a program called Let's Play Music last year when we lived in Chandler. Getting back to Chandler was tough after moving to Gilbert, but we stuck with it until the end of the year. I loved the program and the kids learned a lot about music and even music theory. They are ready for piano instruction. Except our pocketbook is not so ready. This program inspired me to start my own business with Kindermusik.

What I like about Kindermusik as opposed to Let's Play Music is that it is even more child centered and not performance based. It is more fun and uses more of a variety of music and activities. It also prepares children for more instruments than piano. I got my license to teach Kindermusik in August and my classes start on Friday! Wish me luck! My Kindermusik blog is here - and I'm on facebook as Kindermusik with Miss Sarah. Add my new blog to your readers and leave a comment, please!

Noel turned 5 and had a Star Wars Party. Claire turned 7 and had a Barbie party. Alex turned 2 and didn't have a party.

Here are the Adams munchkins. Getting taller everyday. Claire is still wearing the patch. She is up to 4 hours a day now. We will see the doctor on Friday to see if she still needs it. We are crossing our fingers!

Thanksgiving

2012-11-30T12:08:00.003-08:00

To start things off, Claire lost a front tooth. Now she is a true first grader.

Grandpa and Grandpa Adams, plus Uncle Dan cam to visit for Thanksgiving. We had a nice dinner and invited some of Aaron's friends from work. It was a nice time. Here we are at the Mesa Temple lights.

These funny kids of ours.

On Saturday we said good-bye to Uncle Dan who had to go back to California to play the violin in concerts or something and we took a trip to Prescott, AZ. Claire posed at the Gingerbread house exhibit.

This was Alex's first trip. He loved the train.

There was also a light parade to enjoy. Here Aaron saves Capt. Smooshy from being smooshed by the parade.

He finally decided it was better to enjoy from the side lines.

Sadly, Baby Spide smooshed his nose at the new play ground near our house. It may be broken. So we made a trip to the emergency room to have it looked at. The doctor there said that it could be broken and that after the swelling goes down we will need to take him to an ENT to examine.

The Gilbert temple is almost complete. It was nice to visit the site and the kids got a little piece of the temple walls to take home. We are thrilled to be able to be so close to two temples. They are so beautiful and more importantly the work that happens in them is so wonderful. We know that we are a forever family because of the blessings of the temple.

October Craziness

2012-11-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

Noel loved his Halloween costumer this year. He wore it for days at a time... to bed... to the store...

This was our house in Chandler that we said goodbye to.

Halloween at the new house. Alex made a very cute Hulk.

At our Chandler ward's trunk or treat.

Claire wanted to be Merida from Brave. She wore curlers in her hair to bed the nght before and we sprayed her hair with Orange hairspray. We were able to all go to the school's halloween parade. Claire is loving her new school. That makes everyone very happy.

Alex loves to help me do the dishes in our new kitchen. So far so good. It was a wild month of packing, moving, unpacking, putting up fans and painting, finding everything around town. But we love our new place and are excited to be homeowners. Everyone has been very welcoming and we are looking forward to settling down finally!

Water Fun

2012-09-25T09:43:00.002-07:00

One thing we missed when we were living in northern Arizona were modern parks. It's nice to have access to parks like this one, when it gets so hot. You can cool off in one of the many splash pads or pools.

This guy loves the water. Forgot his swimsuit this day...

Most people may not realize that Arizona has a monsoon season. It is super dry most of the time, but when it rains - it rains and rains. This is the flooded park across the street from our house. The kids loved splashing in the super sized puddles.They soaked each other.

Gotta teach Alex that it isn't okay to drink this water, however...

We are closing on our new house this week. Stay tuned!

Summer 2012

2012-09-03T11:25:00.001-07:00

It's been two months already. I can't believe how fast time flies. Here is an update:

We made it to Chandler all together with no complications. Things went really fast unpacking since we only unpacked about half of our things. Our garage is full of boxes staying nice and warm...

The kids started school about two weeks after we moved here. It was a crazy two weeks trying to figure out where to send them. Chandler is on a modified all year school schedule. And they have school of choice and there is a school every square mile just about. So, not having a choice for the past year, I went a little crazy visiting about 5 schools before I made a decision. Claire goes to a great school and we found a loving and patient teacher for her, which is exactly what she needs. She is doing so well! I was worried that with her only having gone to half day kindergarten, that she would be really behind, but her teacher was confident that she would do fine when she had Claire in her class and saw that she was reading above grade level. "She is too smart for kindergarten, she knows way too much!" she told me.

This little guy is loving having some time alone with mommy in the mornings. He also adapted well to the move by learning to sleep through the night - in a pack n play no less. We will upgrade him to a real crib once we get into our more permanent home.

These boys are too much fun. Noel is doing really well in preschool. His teacher says that he is friendly and listens and follows directions well and understands everything easily. He seems happy there and she loves watching his hair bounce when he runs and plays! So do we. Love that muppet hair!

Alex loves Claire's baby doll, "Baby Baby". She has had her since she was his age and it's still her favorite toy. This has caused a little bit of contention between them. But it is so cute to watch him hold and cuddle that baby doll. Love that sweet boy.

Claire's patch therapy wasn't working, so her ophthalmologist advised us to go ahead with her eye muscle surgery. This picture was taken about a week later. She is doing remarkably well. The day of the surgery was uneventful. The boys went to a neighbors house to be watched and Claire and I went to Scottsdale for the procedure. I think her favorite part was the little TV she got to watch while waiting to go in. They made her smell gas that was like, "stinky feet". Then she went to sleep and about 45 minutes later they called me back to see her and help her home.

She had big huge pupils and her eyes were bright blood red on the sides. She wanted to scratch them because they were itchy and her nose itched. But the nurse said no itching. That was hard. But the surgeon said that itching wouldn't hurt the sutures and to not worry too much about it. Anyway, Claire slept all the way home and into the late afternoon. We had ointment to put on her eyes every few hours. Ladies from the ward brought us some meals for a couple of days which was totally unnecessary, but appreciated.

Claire's handwriting has improved DRAMATICALLY since the surgery. And it hasn't even been two weeks yet.

Saturday we took the kids to a park in Gilbert where they have a pit with dinosaur bones in it. The sun got too hot so we decided to walk around instead.

Claire on one of the trails.

Happy kids on the bridge walk. So hot that Noel wanted to wear Claire's hat...

The view from the other side. The water here is all reclaimed. The park is a creative stop for icky water in the water treatment process.

So we are happy to have made this move. Aaron is very happy with his job and is doing well. I am happy with being in civilization again and being able to shop around and I TREASURE my membership at the YMCA. The kids are doing well. So far so good.

We put an offer in on our first home last week. The home is in Gilbert and it is in a nice neighborhood with a good school. It is a short sale, so we may have to wait a while before we know for sure if the deal will go through. We sure are hoping and praying it will. Our lease here ends at the end of October. There also is not a whole lot to choose from in our price range in 4 bedrooms. But we are confident that we will be o.k. There you have it! Adams Fam over and out.

Good-bye to Snowflake

2012-07-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Right before we drove away from the house I had all the kids stand by the front door so I could get a picture of them. I wish I would have done this at all the other places we have lived, so they could remember where they lived and what they looked like then. This move was by far the easiest one yet. Maybe it's because we do it so much. We also had so much help. I think I will miss it the most. We made the best friends in that little town of Snowflake. We will be back to visit soon!

Claire turns six

2012-07-10T16:38:00.002-07:00

Our little girl turned six a couple of weeks ago. Amid change again. Last year when she turned five we had just moved to Snowflake a couple weeks before. She did so well adapting to a new place and a brand new school experience and made lots of new friends.

Aaron got a call from the city of Mesa inviting him to interview for a position in their budget department and ended up getting the job. (We found out when Aaron's parents were visiting). They wanted him to start fast, so we took the next week-end to go down to "the valley" (we now call it, just like all the other northern Arizonans).

Luckily we found that the resort we stayed at back when our van broke down, were advertising a special $60 a night for two nights that very week-end, so we took advantage. We all loved the pool!
We also met with our realtor and found a short term rental until we can zero in on a house we'd like to buy.

This little girl had been so patient with us and all of our moving. This is the sixth house she has lived in in her six years of life. We love you, baby girl. We love your sweetness, your kindness, your courage, your creativity, and your spunk!

Happy Birthday to Claire!

Strawberry

2012-07-10T16:20:00.002-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Adams were able to visit us mid June and we took a trip to Strawberry, AZ together. Here we are on a hike to the waterfalls at the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.

Claire under one of the falls. It's kind of like a drip, since Arizona is in a constant drought. But it was cool water on a hot day.

The Tonto Natural Bridge.

We stayed the night in a little one bedroom cabin in Strawberry. A friend I met at the kid's swimming lessons rents it out to tourists for just $60 a night. A great deal and it was just right for our crew. We ate at the Strawberry Lodge where we all had all you can eat fish and chips and awesome pie for dessert. They had live music and the kids danced and we all had a great time.

The next day we went out to the Fossil Creek Llama farm. The kids were able to pet, feed, and brush the goats and llamas. Then we washed up and sampled goat cheeses, yogurts, and fudge.

Alex was a little nervous around the goats, but has picked up their language. He went around the house for a couple weeks shouted "Maa!" at the top of his lungs. This little guy is an expert walker now too.

Summer Begins

2012-05-30T13:36:00.004-07:00

Claire is faithfully wearing her patch everyday... it was rough at first. She hated it. But now she tolerates it because I let her play on the computer for a while when its time to wear it. It seems to help her. She has been doing very well in school since she started wearing it.

Here is big brother. Having some fun in the sun.

Little brother in the splash pool.

Enjoying the sunshine.

baby on the porch...

Visiting Claire at her track and field day at school...

Claire tries to hit a kid in the face with a sponge. What kind of track and field event is this?

Alex playing with dandelions while kindergartners do the limbo...

Spring Dance Recital

2012-05-23T13:55:00.003-07:00

Dance recital time. The kids and I had a lot of fun. Here Claire does her tap routine, "Ooh La La".

Noely really got a kick out of his tumbling routine. Check out that smile!

Claire is top right.

Noely shakes his tushy to "La Bamba"...

Tooth Fairy Comes to the Adams' house

2012-05-10T13:55:00.003-07:00

Claire lost her first tooth. It seemed to take forever for it to fall out. She was so proud!

2012-05-01T18:36:00.001-07:00

This is the Birthday Boy - April 21st

This is the birthday boy in his birthday suit

Because he is about to eat this

and get his cake on

Happy Birthday little buddy - aka Cap'n Smoosh

Our Vain Van

2012-04-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Phoenix Easter week-end to see Claire's eye doctor again. She has Exotropia, which means that her eyes turn outwards. She is having trouble with depth perception and biocularity (which means eyes seeing together). This may be a reason for her difficulty at school. Claire can read very well and is so much fun, but she often has difficulty focusing and carrying out instructions. Most people with this condition need corrective surgery. Claire will most likely too. But right now, we patch the better eye, to try and strengthen the eye that turns out the most, for a couple hours a day. We'll go back in three months.

Our trip was a little adventure. Our van decided that it didn't like it's water pump anymore and that it wanted a brand new one. Oh the vanity. It decided this 10 miles north of Fountain Hills on the Beeline highway (in the desert). It almost overheated and we lost a lot of fluid when we opened up the radiator. After a prayer and adding what seemed like a ton of water, we decided to risk driving the 10 miles to civilization. We made it to a Jiffy Lube (not exactly a mechanic) but they were able to give us a temporary fix and Claire, Alex and I took a taxi to the doctor's appointment.

We were able to get the car towed to a mechanic, find a rental car and a hotel for good prices thanks to AAA and Aaron's smart phone. After all was said and done, a trip that was supposed to cost a tank of gas, a dinner, and a copay turned into $1000. Thank goodness for tax refunds.

But the hotel was a nice end to a stressful day. We found a 3 1/2 star hotel on hotwire for $66 for the night. So after taxes we paid about $80. It was lovely and comfortable even though we all had to sleep in the clothes we'd been in all day. I highly recommend the Orange Tree Golf Resort (even for non golfers). The concierge was so helpful and their were robes in the room to lounge in.

The next day we went to the train park and played games at Peter Piper Pizza until the van was fixed. Thank goodness it was fixed and it is doing fine. I guess a guy came in right after Aaron and had overheated his car with the same problem - needed a new head gasket. We feel very lucky and blessed. What was a very stressful experience turned into a kind of fun week-end.

Spring Break 2012

2012-04-15T07:36:00.002-07:00

These aren't in any real order. That is kind of the state of our lives over the past year - not in order whatsoever... but we are happy and we love each other and life is good.

Alex and Claire and I at the Phoenix zoo

In Scottsdale at the train park - a nice fellow passenger took this for us

We took this one ourselves...

Noel and Claire in the kangaroos pouch at the zoo

Alex at the Phoenix Children's museum. We stayed there from open to close. The kids had a blast.

In front of the carousel in Scottsdale

Noely's 4th birthday cake. He wanted a Mighty Machines cake. We had a few families over to the house to enjoy it with us.

Alex in the tub/sink

Claire in the amazing three story climber at the Phoenix Children's museum.

Aaron had to go to Phoenix for his certified public manager class, so we tagged along with him since it was Claire's spring break. We also needed to see a pediatric ophthalmologist for her eyes. She has exatropia (sp). Anyway, we had so much fun. The kids loved the children's museum, and we stayed there all day from 9 to 4 with a break for lunch with daddy. The next day we had Claire's doctor's appointment and went to Scottsdale to the train park. Noel got lost for about 10 minutes... not fun... but we found each other and went on the carousel and the train ride. Daddy met up with us after his class and we went to visit Claire's preschool teacher and her new baby. Then out to dinner, and to a frozen yogurt place, then checked into a hotel in Phoenix with a police helicopter circling above us telling someone to give themselves up. Yikes... We used to live less then a mile from there. Our last day we all took a trip to the Phoenix zoo. A nice couple in the parking lot gave us free children's tickets. Then we walked around that zoo with the kids until they were exhausted (us too). Then we drove the three hours home. It was so nice to have a vacation and be in a place were there were so many choices of fun things to do. Even though it was familiar, it was so much fun. March is such a beautiful time of year there. I almost wouldn't mind moving back, but the police helicopter and thinking about the heat in the summer reminded me of how good we have it where we are.

skating fiasco and local hike

2012-02-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

Claire had been asking to go ice skating since there has been so much ice around lately. We finally found a rink - in Flagstaff - a two hour drive. We decided to make a day trip out of it. I would stay with the baby and Aaron would skate with the kids. When we got there, it was super crowded, no walkers were available for the kids and they both freaked.

Each kid made it around the rink once. Then

they were done.

Luckily there was a park outside that we could all play at. We did some much needed shopping and went out to eat after. All in all it was a fun trip. I just wish that we had things like that closer by.

We've been trying to go on a hike in Snowflake for a while. After registering Claire at her dance school, we all got together and hopped a fence (yes, we had to be a little sneaky) and went for a hike in Silver Creek Canyon. The horses had been there recently as well so we had to watch our steps, but it was a lot of fun and not too cold. Aaron looked up to the top of the canyon after he heard something move. We saw these goats. I'm pretty sure they were domesticated because they came right down to see us. We are trying to find other things to do around here. There isn't much... but we are loving the people here and the climate.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

It's nice to have Claire out of school for two weeks so that we can all be together for Christmas and New Years. We've had fun decorating the house, making crafts, and making treats for neighbors and friends.

Aaron wasn't feeling well, so it was a real bummer to only get a week-end with him home sick. But we tried to have fun. We made a puppet theatre and acted out the nativity. We were going to make Christmas cookies, but we ended up with too big of a supply from our neighbors.

the kids on their trip to Bethlehem...

happy girl on Christmas morning

happy baby on Christmas morning

It actually took a few hours to open all the presents... not because their were a ton of them, but because they played as they went. Here Noel opens the last present of the morning.

Can't have Christmas without treats... here Alex tears into his. His favorite food seems to be carrots so far.

Bath after the carrots...

Claire enjoying her new big girl bed.

Merry Christmas to you. So glad that Jesus was born.

I have been pondering this over the past week:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. … You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. … But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”^{(C.S. Lewis)}

mischief

2011-12-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Claire and Noel decided it would be funny to give each other tattoos...

luckily it was with washable markers

Catching up

2011-12-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

Noel as Buzz Lightyear and Claire as Rapunzel from Tangled at Halloween. We made Noely's wings out of cardboard and I made Claire's dress out of an old one we had handed done from Aunt Hiromi. I added lace at the bottom and eyelets in the front to tie ribbon through. They both looked so cute! They had a blast at the ward party and trick or treating in our neighborhood.

I spent so much time on costumes for the big kids, this guy kind of got left out to dry so to speak... but he actually really likes it when I put him in a fresh basket full of warm clean laundry... who wouldn't?!

This baby is so wonderful! We love him so much! He's easy going and happy most of the time. Night times are still a challenge, but he makes up for it with his sweetness.

Today, I turned in my final project for my Masters Degree. I am done. It's kind of surreal... am I really finished with school? Could it be true?

So catching up... we haven't posted for a while... the kids... school work... lack of sleep... no camera (Noel thought that our old one needed a bath)... the list of excuses goes on...

But we are still here...hanging in there.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving brought us a wonderful visit from Grandpa and Grandma Adams

Claire danced in her first recital. She is second from the left. Adorable.

This guy is growing like crazy and cut four... that's right FOUR teeth!

We took a trip up to the Snowflake temple... this is the view from the grounds at the top of the hill.

We loved having Aaron's parents come visit us. Being so isolated from everyone really makes us homesick for family. We miss everyone!

Why do they call it Snowflake?

2011-12-09T11:23:00.000-08:00

Getting to Know Our Neighbors

2011-08-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Aaron found this big guy hanging out in front of our garage the other day.

I hung a feeder on our front porch and the hummingbirds were at it right away. They drank down the feeder in just two days! I have filled it twice so far. It's empty right now and I need to get more in there. The syrup is easy to make, its just 1 part sugar 4 parts water, boiled for two minutes, then cooled. They love it. We love watching them. At some points in the day there wil be 5 or 6 on the feeder at a time!

There is no shortage of bugs or spiders out here either. We found this hive that paper wasps had made in our tree in the backyard. The exterminator came and took it away. I think he thought I was a little crazy for calling him, like I could have done it myself. No way...

But we have some great views out here. What does it mean? "double rainbow all the way"... (Warning: the crazy guy in this video link breaks the 3rd commandment quite a bit).

Kindergarten Claire

2011-08-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

Our Claire started her first day of kindergarten. I think that I was more stressed than she was about it. She rides the bus to and from school. In the morning, all the kids from high school on down ride the bus. I was a little worried about her riding with such big kids, but it seems like she likes it and she did very well on her adventure.

She posed for a picture with her teacher, Mrs. Tanner. We hear that Mrs. Tanner is nice and strict so it will be great for Claire to have a teacher that will keep her focused.

In Arizona, half day kindergarten is still the norm. The state pulled funding a couple years ago because the majority of state legislators felt that full day kindergarten was too expensive for our state and a few actually called it "tax-payer funded all day babysitting". I did a research paper on the subject of full-day kindergarten recently. Before I did the paper I felt that half day was better because it allowed the children to ease into school and that it was more developmentally appropriate rather than to have the children working on academics at such an early age. I felt that the majority of people who wanted to have their children in full-day kindergarten, were parents who worked full-time who wanted to save on child care costs. Also with so much riding on standardized tests, schools wanted to get the children started early on academic excellence.

After my research, I feel quite differently. Did you know that historically the first kindergartens were full day? Kindergartens didn't go to half days until the 1940's when World War II took women teachers away from the classrooms to work with the war effort at home and the baby boom perpetuated the teacher shortage.

So, that is a little history lesson... Gradually, kindergarten has become increasingly academic as results of standardized testing have become more important in determining funding for public schools. These test results even determine whether or not a school will remain open and whether or not teachers will have jobs. So much is riding on them that preparation for the tests begins earlier and earlier. With only 2 hours and 45 minutes of classroom time, guess what kindergarten teachers are going to teach? Are they going to have music and art time? Are the kids going to be able to have adequate time for dramatic play which is so important for this age?

Full day kindergarten gives children time for play, for music and art, for outside play, time to be kids and time for instruction. The teachers can mix it up a bit more. Full day kindergarten doesn't mean more instruction necessarily, it usually means more time for developmentally appropriate activities, a more relaxed atmosphere, and more time for the arts and physical activity. So, that's why I think that it is better....

Claire is enjoying her time at school, however short the school day may be. She comes home singing songs and happy. And that makes me happy.

Petrified Forest National Park

2011-08-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a trip to Petrified Forest National Park. We live only about 35 miles away. We learned that petrified wood was made from fallen trees that were covered in volcanic ash, water, and silt (dirt) and they soaked for millions of years.

All kinds of mineral deposits from the dirt soaked into the wood and made colorful crystals.

The landscape here is far from what you would expect of a forest, the trees are fallen and scattered. For miles you don't see any. For a while I was joking that the most petrified wood we were going to see on the trip was at a rock shop in Holbrook, AZ. There are a ridiculous amount of rock shops just outside of the park with a ridiculous amount of petrified logs just stockpiled everywhere. (It kind of made me wonder how they got it all, with a national protected area just miles away).

Then all of the sudden - there are pieces of it everywhere.

We also saw some ruins and some petroglyphs that have been carved into these rocks over time.

We think that even Alex enjoyed this park. Here he poses with a petrified log.