Bringing a little bit of the Southwest home

I noticed that I never finished blogging our vacation from this summer. I got through the family reunion in Denver, and quit there. Which is a pity, because that was just three days of the two weeks.~the kids climbing on the fence, right by the "don't climb on this fence" sign~

But, I really wanted to post about this one little tidbit: While we were staying with our wonderful De Mille friends in southern Utah, we went to see Newspaper Rock (a national monument in eastern Utah featuring one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs) near Canyonlands National Park. ~Vernie and the De Mille kids (plus a bonus cousin)~

It's nice, because there in no hiking involved (just park your car and mosey over to the really big rock and pose for pictures). No one really knows the reason for such a large concentration of petroglyphs, or even what they're all supposed to mean, so it's a nice little archaeological mystery.~De Mille Kids and Galbraith Kids~

We took the kids to see it a couple of days after we went to Mesa Verde (which was awesome, but we needed another full day to enjoy it all). ~Our family at Newspaper Rock, except Yvette, who was asleep in the van~

Well, my Gabriella fell in love with the concept of petroglyphs, and particularly with the idea of kachinas and Kokopelli (pretty sure it was the book we were reading on the road, Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague (excellent series, by the way!), which features kachinas as real, live magical creatures. ~Gabba and her renderings of Kokopelli on the porch~

After that, she went into fits of happiness every time she saw Kokopelli or a kachina...which happened a lot, since we were in Southern Utah and Arizona. She wanted to buy every kitchy souvenir she saw with Kokopelli on it. I did not have the heart to tell her that Kokopelli is a fertility god, and the pop culture icon she was seeing everywhere had been tastefully neutered to be fit for tourist consumption.
~Hyrum and Yvette pose with the front porch petroglyphs~

When we got home, Gabriella regailed her friends with our adventures in geology and archaeology in the Southwest. She even invited Callie and Paige to help her recreate Newspaper rock on our front porch using sidewalk chalk. They really got into it. They even started painting kachinas and Kokopelli on little rocks they found around the yard and washed off just for the purpose.~Gabriella and one of the painted pebbles~

That was in June. It's September now. I keep meaning to wash it off, but I couldn't bring myself to do it unless I had some pictures. And now I feel compelled to post them for you to enjoy, as well..~Yvette and everyones' hand prints, in high Newspaper Rock style~