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Road Trip:: Mesa Verde, Colorado.

September 7, 2010 6
When I was a child my family took many camping trips throughout Utah and Wyoming. The lakes that we visited were a paradise for myself and my brother and sister. Our days were filled with swimming and exploring. My siblings and I have all grown up to be avid lovers of the outdoors and continue to share that love with our children. {except my little brother, who is still a yougling of 22 in age}

Twenty something years later, my husband Jayson and I started our own camping traditions with Eben. Each summer we plan a road trip that will immerse our family in the great outdoor activities. We just got back from a 3 day road trip through Southern Colorado and had a fab time checking out new places. Stick around for the ride.
Day 1

We left the foothills of Colorado and headed Southwest to our first destination, Ridgeway State Park. This is where we would be camping for our first night. The drive to Ridgeway State Park was beautiful and we soaked in the scenery as we traveled through Vail and Glenwood River Canyon. We arrived and hiked into our campsite and promptly pitched our tent and unpacked our gear. Then we ventured 15 miles down the road to Ouray. Ouray is known as America’s Little Switzerland and once we arrived, we could see why. The entire town is dwarfed by massive mountains from all sides and we could only imagine what it would look like covered in snow. (that’s another trip) It is a quaint little Victorian town with great waterfalls, a cute old town shopping area and hot springs. Our first stop was to hike The Box Canyon Falls. It was an easy hike to the top and the bottom of the falls and Eben loved the feeling of the mist on his face and the roaring sound. After our hike, we stopped at Ouray’s small old town checked out the Victorian homes, did some window shopping, visited a couple of cute shops and bought Eben an ice cream cone. Then we were off to Ouray’s Hot Springs. Jayson and I wanted to visit the smaller more intimate hot springs down the road, but when you are traveling with an eight year old, the hot springs with the water slides are an absolute. Once Eben was worn out, we returned to our campsite, enjoyed our campfire dinners and S’mores and an absolutely silence night in the wilderness.
Day 2

We woke up early, packed up our equipment and started our drive through the fabulous San Juan National Forest. This is a beautiful National Forest that is full of waterfalls and abandoned mine shafts. We counted over 30 spectacular waterfalls that were visible from the road and I was enamored with the decrepit mine shafts. Then we traveled through Durango to Mesa Verde {our master destination}. Our first stop once we were in The Mesa Verde National Park was the Far View Visitors Center, where we booked our tours of the Ancestral Puebloan Cliff Dwellings. The first cliff dwelling that we visited is known as Balcony House. Balcony House hangs 600 feet above solid ground. We hiked to the site and saw a wonderful multicolored lizard along the way and then came to the 32 foot ladder that we had to climb to get into the cliff dwelling. This would have been a horrible time to mention that I am terrified of heights. (They never mentioned how high we would have to climb) Eben was nervous as well, but we pushed through and made it together. Balcony House Cliff Dwelling is beautiful and it is amazing to see how people lived 800 years ago. Next, we visited Cliff Palace Cliff Dwelling and Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling that were equally amazing and we were able to see alot of the rooms and kivas. (sacred rooms) After a long day of hiking we settled back at The Morefield Camp Site where we enjoyed dinner, the silence and the stars.

Day 3
We awoke with the sun left for 1 1/2 hour drive to The Wetherill Mesa where we visited Long House Cliff Dwelling. During our hike to the dwelling site we were able to see all of the native plants (Yucca, Pinon and Juniper) and the beds that the Ancestral Puebloans used to plant their crops. (corn, squash and beans) Long House Cliff Dwelling is a huge cliff dwelling with 150 rooms and a beautiful view. It was a community gathering place for events such as Farmer’s Markets. I told Jayson, this is where I would have wanted to live. After our long hike, we decided to start the journey home. Our ten hour car ride home was filled with great conversation about the adventure that we had in Southern Colorado and what we would see in our upcoming road trips.
We really enjoyed our trip throughout Southern Colorado. We were enthralled by the size of Mesa Verde (over 52,000 acres, 4,500 archaeological sites including 600 cliff dwellings) and found a huge appreciation for the Ancestral Puebloan people and their heritage. It is a family vacation that I highly recommend and suggest.
Are you going on a road trip this summer?
Where are you going?

You can see more of the pics of our road trip here and you can upload your own road trip pictures to the Sweet Greens Facebook Fan Page and tell us about your road trip in the discussions tab.

Enjoy.

Looking for Love?

September 4, 2010 6
Are you single? Are you looking for that special someone who loves the Earth as much as you do? Visit Vegan Passions or Green Singles and check out some fabulous green singles.

How did you meet your special someone?

I worked with Jayson’s ex-girlfriend and she wanted to date his roommate so she invited me to go out dancing with them, to distract Jayson. Well….. I have been distracting him for 12 years now.

Photo Courtesy of My fabulous Father in law:: Jay Lyon

Have a Lovely Weekend + A Few Green Things

September 3, 2010 2

Hello Everyone,

How was your week? Are you looking forward to a 3 day weekend? Yay, for Labor Day! We are settling into the new school year schedule, are you? Are your children enjoying the school year? Are they ready for a break already? 

Today, I am having my lovely friend Cameron Mora and her son over for a Tea and Wii afternoon. It is as simple as it sounds – Eben gets to play Wii with a friend and I get to have tea and female conversation with a lovely gal. Perfect, no? The best part, when I came home yesterday, Mr. Sweet Greens said, “I prepared an organic cheese and cracker platter and picked up some organic cookies for your Tea and Wii tomorrow afternoon.” What a great guy!

Yesterday, morning when Eben came back from his morning walk with the dogs – he brought this home.

Tomorrow, as well as most of the weekend is going to be spent at the beach – of course! Last weekend we went to a beach that we had never been to before. The shoreline was covered in these fantastic rock formations – this is where Eben wants to go tomorrow. I will take my camera and get some shots to share with you next week. Other than that, we hope to spend time with family and friends, while soaking up the sun.

While I get my beach bag packed – here are a few green things that I wanted to share with you:

– I am definitley going to hide my craft supplies in plain sight.
– A sheep quilt? Yes, please.
– A sweet and sad animated 27 year romance.
– Oh my! Tube socks for babies.
– Love, love, love these “named” reusable sandwich and snack bags.
– Doesn’t your child want a DIY modern kitchen, that will rival your own!
– Isn’t the above photo beautiful, reminds me a lovely summer night.

I hope you have a lovely Labor Day weekend and enjoy the time with your family and friends. I will see you bright and early Tuesday morning.

xo,
Sweet Greens

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Sweet Greens Goodies Club – Alima Pure

September 3, 2010 2

In August members of Sweet Greens Goodies Club received a four pack of my fave richly pigmented eye shadows from Alima Pure. What will they receive in September? I couldn’t say, it’s a secret. Are you a member of the Sweet Greens Goodies Club? If not, you can sign up here.

** In case you aren’t familiar Sweet Greens Goodies Club members receive a surprise Eco friendly goodie in the mail each month. You never know what or when you will receive it, but rest assured it will be lovely, little and Eco. Past goodies include; One Soap, paper goodies, lip balms, earrings and much, much more.

Do you like what you have seen? If so, please share:

Day Tripper

September 2, 2010 3

Last Saturday afternoon we decided at the last minute to get away for the day and night. We drove two hours up the Poudre Canyon until we found a campsite that was well off the paved road and nestled in between the trees and the rushing Poudre River. We found a great little campsite, {there were only 3} and started to pitch our tent and collect fire wood. Eben took to this immediately and started to find sticks and large pieces of bark to collect.

Once we had our camp established, we ventured out to explore the beautiful river. It was so nice to sit back with the sun on our faces and hear nothing but the river and an occasion upset squirrel. (Apparently, we were enjoying the river in their favorite spot) It was so nice to watch Eben playing in the water, catching caterpillars, observing butterflies and just being a kid.

Later in the evening, we built a nice big fire and enjoyed our campfire dinners, courtesy of Jayson, and then we made the traditional S’mores. We snuggled down in our sleeping bags and enjoyed the quiet of the forest together. It was really nice to spend just 24 hours away from it all. There were no distractions, no agenda, just the outdoors and my family, You should definitely get away, even if it is only for 24 hours. It is totally worth it.

Where are you off to this weekend?
You can see more of the pics and upload your own at the Sweet Greens Facebook Fan Page.

photo credit

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