Welcome to Conlin Chaos

Welcome to the family journal that captures the chaos that is the world of Colleen, Adam, Zach, Ben, Josh, Luke, Tommy, and Ruby. Here you will see small snippets of what we see every day.

Come. Enjoy! You know we do!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Manitou Cliff Dwellings Adventure

Today we found ourselves with a couple extra hours...well, we really didn't have a couple extra hours, since we were supposed to be at a birthday party that for some reason got stuck in my head as being tomorrow, so we completely missed it, bad mommy! However, when I was in the blissful moments of thinking we had some extra time, we decided to hit the Manitou (pronounced Man-it-oooo) Cliff Dwellings. These cliff dwellings were home to some of the Anasazi Indians from 1100 to 1300. The boys' favorite parts were watching the Native American dancers, who were VERY cool, and leaping and exploring these rocky homes (boys and rocks, I tell you!). My favorite part was just standing in them and realizing that I was standing where a group of pre-Columbian Americans had laughed and cried, told stories, toiled for their livelihood, birthed babies, cooked meals, defended their families, farmed, fell in love, lost love, lived and died. Real people had actually built these amazing homes in the cliff face close to 1000 years ago, it wasn't just some staged exhibit! Ahhh, I am such a history geek! But I loved it!




This one is for you, Mom!! Does anyone else think there is too much Kokopelli out there?!
Watching the dancers; they were amazing!
The boys got to do a Native American friendship dance at the end. Mostly just stomping in a circle, but they really liked it.

3 comments:

Andrea said...

What a fun place to visit. I wish I were there to go on some of your adventures--you've been busy!

Jones said...

you guys have some exciting adventures right there!! you make me want to pack up and move!!

just gorgeous!

Kedra Simpson said...

wow, that looks so amazing! I was asking Chad the other day if he had looked at all the beautiful and fun things you have been able to do. We have always thought about moving to Colorado.