Vacation for the Melbans!!

Saturday we left for Albuquerque, NM and got there about 2:00. It was HOTTER THAN BLUE BLAZES!!!! WOWZERS! We went straight to the zoo and although it was a pretty good zoo I am thankful it was so cheap because we were there maybe a hour. It was so hot and the kids were really miserable. The walk through the zoo went pretty much like this. "Hey kids look over there it's the giraffes. Look over there at the sea lions. Ohhhh the snakes..." All the while we kept walking. Now I did make the stop at the polar bears because I love those things! They were really hot and tired looking.

We were staying at a hotel with a pretty good pool so as soon as the kids (my nephew Tyler went with us) found out there was a pool they didn't want to do anything else besides swim. A funny story that happened is that when we all got to the pool Cameron went back into the lobby to get towels. Tyler was on Cannon watch and doing a great job I might add. I was holding Mason and Gracelyn had her kick board under her and paddling around the shallow part of the pool. She didn't realize she got in the deeper part but I was watching her and thought if I make a big deal about it she will get scared. Right that very second her board went out from under her and she screamed. Literally in 2 seconds I put Mason on the concrete by the flower bed and jumped in to get Gracelyn. She wasn't upset or anything and thought the story was exciting. As I am getting out of the pool to get Mason (SCREAMING HIS HEAD OFF) Cameron walks through the door. Of course the excitement is over and he shows up... Mommy to save the day. She calls it her drowning story or the day she drowned. I am not making light of the fact that she was in the deep part without a proper flotation device or that I didn't step in and make her turn back BUT the fact that of course while Cameron is getting towels and I have 4 kids to watch I have to jump in and get Gracelyn. Typical huh moms???

Sunday morning we got up and headed north to Durango and enjoyed the scenery change. We also watched the temperature drop and got really excited about being able to enjoy the cooler weather. The kids traveled well as you can see they were all asleep for the most part.

Monday and Tuesday we had fun hanging out at the village outside our lodge. It is called Purgatory village. There were about 5-6 gift shops and a few eating joints along with the fun activites. They had a bounce house, Alpine slide, ski lift, bungee tramp, rock wall and miniature golf course.

Gracelyn burned her arm on the slide and we heard her the ENTIRE way down screaming. I was prepared to take a picture of a happy little girl. No such luck.

On Tuesday night we were able to locate the indoor pool and have some fun swimming. Mason was asleep so we just took pictures of everyone else!!

Check out Cam's tan!! Sexy!

One day we went to a place called Honeyville. They have a tube that runs into the store and there are bees inside trying to get to the queen bee. It is really cool and the kids watched them for a long time. It was a cute store with very over priced stuff except for the honey. It was all made right there so it was cheap... I like cheap!On our way out of town yesterday we stopped at a roadside hot spring and took pictures. It was bubbling out the top and flowed down the side of the mountain. I wish we could have taken dip because it was so warm. The kids had a great time climbing on it and playing in the water.
As usual we have video of things I wish we had pictures of and we have pictures of things I wish we had video of. I have no scenery shots but lots of video of the mountains. THEY WERE GORGEOUS! I have pictures of Gracelyn on the bungee tramp but no video. Then of course it wouldn't be a mountain adventure without a bear sighting in there. On our last night Cameron was on the balcony with Mason and he looked down and saw a bear digging in the trash. No video or pictures taken. Bear stories are a lot like fish stories. The bear keeps getting bigger and bigger each time I tell the story...but no proof to show you just how humongous a bear he really was!