If it's not Snow it's Sand!

Ian took a few days off school to come along. What was truly amazing were the mountains in the background - like the Sahara Desert in front of the Alps or something....

Walking over to the dunes....we weren't sure how to dress - the sand can get really hot, but the air is still cool...

I think this was right after Dan and Aaron decided to roll down the hill together holding on to each other's heels...I don't think they got very far...

The first day, Dan took all the kids over to the dunes. Lauren and Megan took them over to a little wet spot (off in the distance in the picture) and they stayed occupied for a VERY long time! :)

You could see for miles and miles

Jenna, who doesn't exactly enjoy walking long distances, was such a trooper climbing the dunes! :)

The students - throwing themselves down the dunes, cartwheeling and surfing and who knows what else!

Sweet little Julie-Joy - had SUCH a blast!

Jenna and Lauren, one of the many bibleschool students that our kids are going to miss when they graduate next week. Lauren and Megan were so sweet to take all the staff kids over to the sanddunes to play for a while!

All bundled up for the night - the kids are somewhere under there!! The stars at the camp were breathtaking - since you could see so far and there were no city lights in sight. No pictures though! :(

Jenna and Niah (Thomas) - they are precious together, telling each other stories and playing make-believe. We had fun listening to "The Magician's Nephew" by CS Lewis on the way home while Julie-Joy enjoyed traveling with Keelan for a little while. I wanted to get some pictures with the Hammonds and the rest of the Thomas family and staff but time got away from us. Hopefully graduation day will be a good time for pictures! :)

We managed to get it up!!! :) With a little help from Pete as the rainfly proved a little tricky! :)

So - all that to say, if you have a chance to visit the Sand Dunes near Alamosa - DO!! And yes, we're looking forward to going camping again! :)

I wrote the following and had it before the pictures - somehow it's popping up afterwards and I can't figure out how to copy and paste:

We just retured yesterday evening from our first (EVER!!!) camping trip. And when the Dales attempt to do something new they do it right! ;) It was in the 20's and 30's at night (that's below freezing for my European friends). But we had a truly wonderful time. The kids loved having some extended time with their friends, the Thomas and Hammond kids, and a bunch of students also blessed us by spending time playing with them and making our first camping experience a truly wonderful one.

The driv down to the Sand Dunes was breattaking - past some of the Rocky's highest mountains (the three collegiates, Mt. Princeton, Mt. Harvard, Mt. Yale eg. are over 14,000 feet). The sanddunes themselves made Reid and I think that God decide to do some sweeping and just swept up a "little" (30 square miles I think) sandpile over in a corner. It's a very unique National Park - and well worth the trip. The 5 hour drive passed so quickly as there was so much to see along the way and we stopped in Frisco (near Breckenridge) and several other places along the way to get to know our new homestate a little better. The pictures below don't do the trip justice - but I know grandparents and aunts and uncles will have fun seeing a little of what we got to experience along the way.