Bandelier

We went to Bandelier National Monument yesterday to take some pictures of Kate with Flat Sadie for her friend Sadie's school picture.  We've been to Bandelier lots of times in the last couple of years, but the kids don't seem to get tired of it.  

They love climbing the ladders to get into the caves.  Ty walked a lot on this hike and had to go up every ladder.  Dave carried him up the ladders since this is how high he can climb.

Ty inside a cave

Kate with Flat Sadie

 It was fun watching Ty walk by himself on the hike.  He would stop to look at random pieces of grass or to sit down on a little "seat".

 Ty had to be up on the big rock with the other kids.

 Since Ty walks slow, the kids ran ahead to hide behind something so they could scare us when we caught up to them.  Jack picked this great burned log to hide behind.  This is him jumping out and scaring us.  A few seconds later he started crying because we were laughing at how black he was.  

 Jack told me later when I was giving him a shower, that he looked like a man (because of his ash beard).

 I didn't have enough wipes to clean up the blackness (on his face, arms and legs), so Dave helped him do a quick wash in the creek.

Then Jack had to try to cross the creek which ended up with him having some really wet shoes.  Boys will be boys, I guess.