Megan’s Take
Thank God our children slept in! Based on her attitude, I suspect Emilia was up earlier, but Phil, Emmett and I slept until closer to 7:30 am. We really needed that rest.
This morning, we went to Great Sand Dunes National Park to say goodbye. We hiked the 0.5 mile Montville nature trail, which was really beautiful – wish it had been longer – and then we had a life lesson for Emilia.
She really wanted to keep a stick she found, but we are starting to teach her about keeping the parks as is and leaving the sticks, rocks, other natural things in the park. The easy thing would have been to ignore the stick and turn a blind eye – to just let it go. But a small stick becomes a big stick or a rock or a fossil etc. So in the moment, I had to set a boundary, and that was hard. After I told Emilia she had to leave the stick, we talked about it for 5-10 minutes, took a picture of it, and found a special place to put it. Then later, back at the campground, she and I went to find a replacement stick that was the same. We found a pretty good replacement – same thickness – but too long, according to Emilia, so she needs her Daddy to cut it down to size.
Before we left the national park, we visited the dune field to bid farewell to the sand dunes. The kids made small castles with rocks found near Medano Creek.
The rest of the day after that was travel and life logistics. We drove for about 4 hours to Alpen Rose RV Park in Durango CO. Another blessing today – our campground had a LARGE laundry room, and there were 6 washers open for me to use when we arrived. I washed all the bedding, clothes, towels, and coats. Overall, it took a few hours to do the laundry and get things unpacked and settled again at our new campsite. The only bummer was that high heat in a commercial washer melted some of our blankets, stuffed animals, and coats, but I’m trying not to fret over our heat damages. There’s not much I can do about it, and I’m determined to be done with this (God-willing) by the time I do a follow-up treatment on Saturday. Emilia said she’s tired of me combing her hair, and I agree.
Phil’s Take
The drive to Durango was pretty. It reminded us a bit of our trip down the Salmon River Scenic Byway on the last sabbatical.
The road followed a beautiful creek most of the way just the same, though we didn’t get any pictures of it. We did manage to see this interesting mountain.
Once we started the laundry, it was my job to try to entertain the kids. The only concrete at this entire campground was right outside the laundry, so Mama couldn’t escape.
Enjoy the gallery from today, though it isn’t as much.
