Last night we stayed in Cortez, Colorado. We stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool in the courtyard - it was about 20 feet from our door - it was great!!

This morning we got up and headed into Mesa Verde. We went through a few of the sites that were on regular ground and then went on the tours for the Cliff Palace and the Balcony house that were built into the cliffs by the Ancestral Pueblo.

Cliff Palace was so beautiful!! They have done a lot of work to restore it, but it is still absolutely amazing.

Balcony House was a little nerve wracking, but amazing all the same. We had to split from the other Deschamps so we could all use the one backpack that Gus and Lara had brought. Glad we did, I really wouldn't want Preston walking up these ladders and stone steps without being attached to Dave - they were pretty steep.

The last set of stairs and ladders were what really freaked us out - there was a very steep cliff right beneath us. We couldn't wait to get up to the top safely. (They boys didn't seem to even notice that it might be slightly scary - except for their cousin Bethany who was crying becuase she thought she was going to die. )