Day 3 of our Labor Day trip

This morning (Sunday) we were planning on finding a local ward and attending church, but neither Kenna or I felt that great and didn't feel like getting "ready". We decided to get a little extra sleep and started out from Cortez and headed to Four Corners...

 Courtney loved putting a hand and foot into 4 different states at the same time... I remember doing this when I was about 15. Now Courtney and Kenna can add New Mexico to the list of states they have been to. (Kenna US States: 19 Countries: 5 / Courtney US States:19/ Countries: 4)

 Our family feet....

 Welcome to Utah! I love the sparkly snow on the sign...

 The Monticello Temple... Our FINAL temple in our ward temple challenge!

 After leaving Monticello we headed North and had lunch in Moab. This arch was just outside of town... Dan and Courtney climbed up. Kenna and I weren't feeling very good so we waited in the car.

 We then headed into Arches National Park... it was beautiful!

 The entire trip Dan had Courtney looking for deer. He told her he would give her $5 for the first one and 50 cents for each additional deer. This was an attempt to get her to put down her DS and look at the scenery. It would work for a while... but eventually she would give up. Whenever he would see a "deer crossing" sign he would say... "Courtney! There's a deer.... sign." She would get so mad!

 Courtney found me this heart shaped rock....

 This was my favorite... the double arch.

 We had thought about staying in Price tonight... but it was only 6:00 when we got there and we decided to go ahead and drive home. It was a long day... but we sure saw some amazing things...

The great thing about getting home on Sunday was that we could sleep in on Monday and have a day at home before the craziness of the week began. We had such a fun road trip and most of all loved being together as a family.... Here's to spontaneous family vacations!

Day 2 of our Labor Day Trip

Saturday morning before heading out from Grand Junction, we grabbed the map again and looked over our planned route. We were thinking about heading West on I-70 towards Green River and then down to Monticello... but after looking things over decided we would rather go down through Durango, Colorado and then across through Cortez so we could go to "Four Corners" and then up through Monticello. Like I said... we are spontaneous!!! We were excited to head out... Courtney doesn't really look that excited in the back seat!

We headed out of Grand Junction for Montrose, Colorado and then up over the mountains to Ouray. It was GORGEOUS from this point on. We are huge fans of the mountains....

                                     

When we got up above Ouray, which was a darling little town that we should have spent some time in... (but it was so busy with holiday weekend visitors...) we stopped for a few pictures... 

 Dan has been to the Swiss Alps and he said this sign was pretty accurate. It did remind him of Switzerland a little bit when we got up in these mountains... They were really jagged and beautiful!

 This ride was so beautiful...

 We decided to stop in Silverton and eat some lunch and ride the train. Dan remembered riding the "Silverton Train" when he was a little kid. We went and checked it out and found out that you have to start in Durango and ride round-trip. It would take an entire day and would cost about $400 for the cheap seats... and up to almost $800 for the nice ones. NO thank you.

 Instead we went and had some lunch and bought a Christmas ornament (our tradition when traveling) and a few sweatshirts....

 We found this great little Mexican restaurant... and found out that we had found ourselves in the middle of the "Harley 4-Corners Ride"... this town was PACKED with motorcycles. We had seen a lot coming over the mountain... but we had no idea why.

 Wow.... impressive. Our waitress was very proud of our creativity....

 Headed out of Silverton we had some wet weather... but it felt so good!!!!!! This road over from Ouray reminded us so much of one called "road to the sun" up at Glacier National Park....

 This is now one of our very favorite places EVER. It is the Durango mountain resort. We should have stayed here for the night... but it was still early and we wanted to get to Durango to get a room.

 After arriving in Durango and finding there was no room for us in any of the "inn's" Dan saw these bikes and had to get his picture with them. The nice people at the Hampton Inn (not the motel in this picture) called ahead to Cortez for us and found us a room at the Holiday Inn. While in their lobby the manager pointed out some pictures of MESA VERDE to us. He told us that we should definitely stop and check out the "cliff dwellings" on our way to Cortez....

 Headed into the Mesa Verde park....

 Looking out over Cortez... and the rain!

 We had to get a little wet to see the sights... but none of us minded! The family fish especially!!!!

 This place was unbelievable! I wish we had known and could have spent more time here. They have tours where you can climb down into the ruins. Kenna and I hadn't packed tennis/hiking shoes and I was wearing a skirt... and we got there late enough that the last tour was full. Darn.

 This was a temple...

 This is the biggest one... they called it the "palace".... would have loved to have gotten to go in there!!!

 Our room was really nice and big...

 And the kids LOVED there "Holiday Fort" with bunk beds and their own T.V. and video games...

 Courtney loved being able to climb up and look over at us...

 Another fun and spontaneous day for the Floyd's... time for a good nights sleep and a full day tomorrow!

Day 1 of our Labor Day Trip...

We were planning on going camping for Labor Day... so on Thursday I headed out on a 4 hour round-trip to our favorite camp ground above Oakley so I could pay for our favorite "non-reserved" camp site. When I got there I was informed that they had changed things and that there were only 2 non-reserved sites now, and that they were already taken. I was so bummed! We haven't been camping for 2 YEARS with all of the craziness that defines our lives... and we were really looking forward to getting away. We could go anywhere... we have generators... but with the high probability of rain in the forecast we decided we didn't want to be sitting in mud all weekend.

That night during dinner we made a spontaneous decision that we would instead finish the "Temple Challenge" that Dan had given our ward and go to the Vernal Temple and then if we felt like it, we would also head down to the Monticello Temple. (Kenna and I were both starting to fight colds so we weren't sure we would be up for both, but we would see how we felt.) The kids both needed to go to school for at least the first hour in the morning, so while they were at school we packed a bag with a few things in it for everyone and grabbed the map and our sunglasses. Dan ran to both schools while I finished getting ready and then we headed out.

We stopped for lunch at Daniels Summit Lodge and continued on to Vernal. We met the funniest old man out front of the Temple (Al Funk) and visited with him for a while. He had some great stories and was waiting for his wife to finish. (They are both temple workers)  

 After leaving the temple we decided that we should take the girls to the Dinosaur museum. We had never taken them there before.... and we had both been there as kids. They both thought it was okay... but then again they are 16 and 11 year old girls... so we moved on! Doesn't Courtney looked thrilled?

 Before we left Vernal we decided that we definitely wanted to go to Monticello so we started looking at the map and the route we would take to get there. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the lower corner of the state, and from inside Utah there is really only 1 way down and back... but wouldn't it be boring to have to go back through Duchesne and down through Price and take the same roads to Monticello that we would take coming home? We decided instead to make it more exciting and see some new scenery by going over through Dinosaur, Colorado and down to Grand Junction. It would be a much prettier ride...

We were right! It was much more fun. Friday night after arriving in Grand Junction we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then headed to our hotel. We love "flying by the seat of our pants"... I know those in my family with a tendency for being a little OCD cringe whenever we tell them stories like this... but it's how we roll!

 Dan pushing his luck while balancing his nearly full Pepsi on paper coasters....

Day 1 was a blast... can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!!! With us, you never know!!!!!