Memorable Memorial Day Weekend Part 1: Chinle

Hi everyone, I hope you had a fun holiday weekend - we sure did. We decided to take a road trip to Arizona and visit family members; we left early Saturday morning and returned home late last night. I've decided to post pics and details about our trip in three parts to avoid giving any of you readers Carpal Tunnel Syndrome :)
This first installment is about the time we spent in Chinle, AZ, visiting my parents.

It took us about 5 hours to drive to Chinle. This town is in the middle of the Navajo Reservation and is located in a very desolate area. Although small in size, Chinle had a few amenities that surprised us like some fast food restaurants, a large community center, and a full-sized LDS church. We arrived around 1:30 and had no trouble locating my parents' trailer, which sits in the LDS church parking lot. My kids were surprised to see Grandma and Grandpa living in a single wide trailer after being used to their big house and yard in LaVerkin :) We had to cross a cattle guard while driving into the parking lot; when Del asked my father about it, he said that it was to keep out wandering cows and horses. Del assumed my dad was teasing him until we started driving around and saw several wild cows and horses along the sides of the road!

After we ate lunch, my parents drove us to Canyon de Chelly National Monument. This is quite an extensive area that holds many Anasazi ruins. Because it is situated on Navajo lands, tourists are not allowed inside the canyon unless they pay for a guided tour given by Native Americans or are personally invited by a Navajo who farms property inside the canyon. However, there are several lookouts situated around the top of the canyon, and my parents drove us to three of these spots. We were able to look down into the canyon at the ruins; from our height, they almost looked like sand castles on the canyon floor:



Everyone seemed to have a good time, although it was a little chilly due to the wind.




My mother had prepared a pot roast dinner for us when we returned. We finished the evening by watching the Work and the Glory III with my parents, then somehow found a place for everyone to sleep in the tiny trailer!

The next morning, my mom got up early to fix us her traditional pancake breakfast. We left for church 20 minutes early; although my parents' trailer is in the church parking lot, that building is being renovated so the ward has to meet in Many Farms, a town about 15 minutes away. We attended the Many Farms Ward, and were quite impressed with the reverent feeling present. One of the talks was given in Navajo; although we couldn't understand the language, the spirit was quite strong. After sacrament meeting, one of the missionary Elders took this picture of us:

We then drove back to the trailer to pack up and head off to Phoenix. It was so nice seeing my parents again - especially in the mission field. Our family had a very nice time for the short period we were in Chinle!