Montezuma Castle National Monument

Well like all good things our fun trip to Phoenix had to come to an end. We began our journey north and drove about twenty minutes when I asked Ty if he had his hat. Nope and he didn't know where it was. We thought it was in the car, but it was no where to be found. So I called the hotel and asked if they had a little boy's straw hat and sure enough the front desk lady had it right there. He must have left it at breakfast. (Ty has a thing with losing hats: this would have made #3) So we turned our car right around and went to pick it up!

We made a few scenic stops along the way home. The first one was called Montezuma Castle National Monument. It was this incredible Indian ruin built up inside the cliff. The kids loved walking around and stretching their legs and playing with rocks and sticks! (Sometimes it doesn't take much to keep kids happy!)

My three favorite boys in the world!

This kid cracks me up! Look how happy he is--he loves being outside!

Here is the famous ruin inside the cliff.

Soak up the last bit of sunshine while we can!

Pretty amazing!

I love this sweet little daughter! And yes I see some resemblance!

Whose kid is that? Can he not see the sign?

AKA Tarzan!

We finally get Caleb to look at the camera and the other two don't! It's a joke trying to get three kids to cooperate with the camera!

Look no fingers in the mouth! What a sweet picture!

The next potty stop (literally) was the Walnut Canyon National Monument. When we arrived the lady told us we had five minutes to get to the visitor center if we wanted to make it on the Island Trail which was about to close. So we hurried to the restroom ran to the visitors center and made it.....but in our haste we left the camera in the car! Bummer! So I borrowed a few pictures off the internet to show some of the highlights of the hike.

Along the trail you are able to see and go inside Indian cliff dwellings.

I can barely imagine living in something like this.
It makes my tiny apartment seem like a mansion!

You can also view a dozen more across the canyon.

Such interesting dwellings.

We wondered what it would be like to live here long ago. Would the Indians living across the canyon have been your friends or enemies? Would you meet down at the stream to talk and play or just yell across the canyon when you needed to communicate!

Sure glad we were able to make it on the hike! It was a really awesome adventure.