Arizona & Thanksgiving 2025

 Took a trip to the Grand Canyon

Afterwards, we visited Walnut Canyon and Winslow, Arizona to stand on a corner!

Colin had a blast taking his little speed boat on the lake

Everyone minus Conor and Jennette

Jordan exploring Tonto National Monument

Fall 2025

 First day of school with Colin as a freshman and Kayla a junior!

It was a busy soccer season with Kayla in club soccer...

...while Colin was on the JV high school team!

Kayla and Remi

Homecoming with Kayla/Jayven and Colin/Khloe

Colin and his friends all dressed up as the same inflatable alien for Halloween!

Kayla and Jayven dressed up as Kat and Patrick from 10 Things I Hate About You.

We all went to a Halloween party too.   Lots of dressing up this year.

Happy 17th birthday Kayla!

Colorado/Utah 2025, Part 2

 Our time in Ouray, CO started with a horseback ride into the mountains.

In the afternoon, we drove the million dollar highway to Silverton and then started making our way to a ghost town up in the mountains.  We realized pretty quickly that our pick up truck was not fit for the road so rented a 4x4 to take us the rest of the way.  Saw a moose and bear on the drive and then explored Aminas Forks at 11,000+ ft.

The next morning, Jordan got up early to hike the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway, a 2+ mile hike with 1600 ft elevation gain to see the world's longest set of dinosaur tracks.  It was a tough hike but well worth seeing these amazing footprints.

Views on the way to the Mesa Verde campground

Mesa Verde National Park

The next day we drove around looking at Canyon of the Ancients and Monument Valley.  Lots of good wildlife in the morning including a horned lizard, jackrabbit, and golden eagle!

That evening, we went back to Mesa Verde to take night pictures.  It was so quiet and so much fun.  I even caught a shooting star!

After lunch the next day, Jordan went driving around the Navajo Reservation to see more sites.

The past few days at Mesa Verde were spent with Dad and Linda.  We enjoyed spending the evenings with them and going out for meals.

The next day we drove to Great Sand Dune National Park.  We all went sledding for a bit but it was quite windy and the sand hurt plus there were storms in the area so went back.  Jordan and Colin went back later and it was perfect weather and had a blast.

Started our drive home and stopped at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve before stopping in eastern Kansas for the night.

Then drove home and enjoyed our post-vacation dinner back in Wisconsin.