Yosemite National Park

We took a short vacation to Yosemite the week before school started.  It was the first time we've been there.  After living in CA for 9 years, it was about time that we saw Yosemite.  We didn't originally plan on a vacation the week before school, but that happened to be when we had free accommodations (using a timeshare that my parents have).  We were able to stay at a Wyndham Resort in Angels Camp for 4 nights.  It was really nice, but we didn't realize that it was still about 2 hours from Yosemite.  We spent 3 days in the park and 1 day swimming, playing tennis, and hanging out at the resort.  

We spent Monday packing, running errands, boarding the dog at a Petsmart along the way, and getting to our resort. 

On our first day in the park (Tuesday), it took a while to get there, find parking, and walk to the shuttles.  We stopped in the gift shop in Yosemite Valley and then had lunch.  Savannah said she wasn't feeling well, but we attempted to do a hike after lunch.  We got to see Lower Yosemite Falls as a family.  About halfway through, Savannah puked (she said she felt better after that).  But after playing in the water for a bit and starting to walk back, she said she still wasn't feeling well.  Alex said he would stay and walk slowly with her and take her to do something inside.  It was really hot that day.  

I took the boys on the Mist Trail hike to Vernal Falls.  We knew that was supposed to be a hike where we got wet, so we thought that would be a good hike for a warm day.  I didn't realize how strenuous it would be.  It was an uphill climb, with several stair steps near the falls.  Even if Savannah was feeling well, she wouldn't have been able to do that hike.  I wished I had let Alex do the hike, because I was struggling to get to the top.  And while usually a wet hike (most people wear rain jackets to avoid getting drenched), there was only a small amount of mist near the falls.  So we were sweating it out, but the falls were pretty rewarding.  

Those two hikes were all we had time for on the first day.  We caught some nice pictures of other parts of the park on our way out.  

The squirrels throughout the park were really friendly.  We didn't feed them (not supposed to), but you could tell they were used to being fed.  They weren't afraid to come up to your hand. 

 Near the top... almost there, with lots of steps... and then on the very top of the falls looking down. 

Much easier coming DOWN from the falls...

We spent the second day at the resort (Wednesday).  We're not sure why Savannah wasn't feeling well the day before, but we didn't want to try another day of hiking that very next day.  We played a little tennis, spent a lot of time in the pool, grilled hamburgers, ate ice cream, and watched movies.  We found, bought, and watched Avengers End Game, so it was pretty much the best day ever for the kids.  Savannah made a lot of progress on learning to swim - she swam from side to side of the pool a few times.   

From our balcony on Thursday morning, we watched 4 cats and several deer.  The deer were used to being fed as well.  People were feeding them from the lower rooms.

 On Thursday, we went back to Yosemite. We saw Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias.  It was cool to see the big trees, but probably not worth the time it took to do the hike.  If I had it to do over, we probably wouldn't have stopped there. 

 We headed on from the grove of trees over to the east part of the park, Tuolumne Meadows.  It was a nice day to dip our feet in the water of Tenaya Lake.  We planned on just getting our feet wet, but Owen did manage to fall down and get all wet.  He didn't seem to mind (I think he planned on falling down).  We wish we had had more time to relax at the beautiful lake. 

 Those were our main stops for the day.  We drove back the northern route by Mono Lake and had some expensive pizza for dinner. 

On Friday morning, we packed up and headed out of the resort.  We spent the day south of Yosemite Valley, exploring Glacier Point in the park.  We had a beautiful view of Half Dome from there, and we could just see Yosemite Falls from there as well. 

We then headed out through the southern end of Yosemite, seeing Mariposa Grove on the way out.  I really love the giant trees.  The kids are standing next to the "Grizzly Giant" in the picture on the right. 

I wish we had more time in the park - we barely scratched the surface, but enjoyed what we saw.  It was pretty warm the week we were there, but I think it was less crowded since it was the week before school started.  Many of the people there were foreigners - we heard several people speaking different languages. 

We still had a bit of a drive to get home on Friday, picking up Kai on the way.  These pictures were actually before we boarded her, on the way to Yosemite - she was so excited to be on the trip with us.  Little did she know we were dropping her off along the way. She did well with the other dogs at her "pet hotel". 

Camping with friends

We did one quick camping trip with friends before school started.  Camped just one night.  The kids (and Alex) enjoyed the swimming hole.  We saw a rattlesnake on our hike back from swimming.  We roasted hot dogs and s'mores and had a great time hanging out.

Summer activities

We had a good summer - shows at the library (Savannah), ice cream outing, biking and playing at the school, bowling, beach, museum, scout trips, swimming lessons, and daily routines.  

We did the Kids Bowl Free program - Alex bowled with us a few times too.  His goal was to beat me.  He finally did that at the end of the summer (beat me by a few points, although he got a free strike when the system was having problems...).  My highest bowl of the summer was 179.  I did that early on and then couldn't ever beat that score again.  Savannah doesn't need the ramp to roll the ball down anymore, so it was a little more enjoyable.  

This beach day was a birthday party for one of Jared's friends - a fun excuse to go to the beach!

Alex and Grandma Fay would be proud to know the kids aren't afraid of snakes.  They were very fascinated with this one at the museum.  I like snakes when someone is holding them and showing them off.  However, I don't like coming across one in the wild.

Alex, Nathan, Jared, and Owen went on a scout backpacking trip.  Owen wasn't technically old enough to go, but Alex asked if he could come.  He was very excited to go backpacking for the first time.  

This next scout trip was to Emerald Bay - Alex and Jared went on this one in August.  They left at about 4:30am (the picture in the dark).  He had one other early morning, choosing to go on a sunrise hike, reaching the summit at 4:30am (I think they had to get up at 2:00am).  

Weston and Savannah did swim lessons this year.  Owen probably needed to, but he didn't want to go.  Savannah made a little progress, but I'm not sure Weston did.  They were both recommended to repeat the same level.  They had fun though.  Watching Weston try to do backstroke was like watching a crab on its back in the water.  His knees were bent and he couldn't figure out how to get his arms to move correctly.    Weston overcame his fear of jumping off the diving board.

I made scones and faux clotted cream for an international night at church - pretty yummy and I finally got to use my tray from England.  

The apple tree picture was actually taken by Nathan when we had an earthquake this summer.  He thought it would be funny to joke about all the apples that fell off the tree during the earthquake.  I don't think any actually fell off then, but we had a massive number of apples that fell on the ground each day.  I spent quite a bit of time picking up rotten apples and peaches from our trees.  Alex made some apple pie when he was here, but he was gone quite a bit of the summer.  I didn't continue with his new pie making hobby.    

The kids went running with me 3 times a week during the summer.  They weren't too excited about it, but they got out there.  Jared ran too, but he did his own run.  Owen, Weston, Savannah, and sometimes the dog ran 1-2 miles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  They started out with just a half mile, but by the end of the summer, they were doing 2 miles.  Savannah is a good little runner.  Weston complained the most.  Owen loved when Kai ran with us.  The 3 youngest are still running before school at 6:30 on Tuesday and Friday mornings.  

The last picture is the cleanest you'll ever see the Lego room.  Before our friends came to stay with the kids during trek, I decided to clean it up.  It took a good 2 days to get it cleaned up.  Wish I had the before picture... We now have Lego boxes covering all of the empty wall space, which means we can't get any more Legos.  Right?

I thought our summer routine went well.  I introduced a new chart.  Weston despises "the LIST" (think of him saying that in an evil voice).  But the chart gave some structure to our days and kept them from being on their devices all day.  They got a lot of outside time in and a little bit of reading and writing. Here's what they had to do M-F:  Prayer, Make Bed, 15 minutes Exercise (MWF run), Eat breakfast/dishes, Shower, 15 minutes Scriptures, 15 minutes Reading, 10 minutes Writing, Clothes put away, Room Clean, Outside time (to earn screen time), Eat lunch/dishes.  They could earn a maximum of 3 hours screen time to be used between 12:30 and 5:30pm.   

Happy birthday Weston!

Weston's birthday was on the last day of the youth pioneer trek that Alex, Nathan, and I participated in.  He opened presents that evening after we got back, but we didn't do cake until his friend party, which was about a week later.  Weston was excited for his new Legos, although we almost had a problem with one of his requested gifts.  When I was wrapping his presents earlier in the week, Jared was helping me and noticed that the main Lego guy in one of his presents didn't have the right helmet.  Alex had found the Lego clone that he wanted in a set on Ebay and ordered it.  It wasn't until we were wrapping it that Jared noticed it wasn't the clone that Weston likes.  It had the right helmet in the Ebay ad, but arrived with a different helmet.  I didn't know Weston was so particular and didn't think it was a big deal, but Jared convinced us that Weston would be really disappointed.  Alex was able to order the correct clone trooper in a more expensive set on Amazon (which would arrive while we were on trek).  Jared said he would watch for it and wrap it up.  

Well, we decided to see how he would react with the wrong one first.  He was super excited opening the present, knowing what it was.  But...then he took a closer look, noticed it wasn't the right one, and put it aside in disappointment.  Jared was right!  We then let him open the right one, and he was SO happy.  Who knew that one little Lego guy could make someone so happy? 

Weston wanted a Star Wars birthday party and requested a clone trooper cake.  He picked out the picture online, and then I just had to try to make it.  Jared helped me draw the outline of the helmet on the cake, and then I did the frosting.  Weston liked it!   

We had pizza, goldfish, and strawberries for dinner.  I put together this Star Wars shooting target for nerf guns.  (The suction cup nerf bullets stuck to the laminated pictures.)  Of course, it was much more fun to run around and shoot each other with the nerf guns.  It was a little wild!  We also had popcorn and watched a Star Wars movie, although they only watched about 45 minutes of the movie and then took off for more nerf wars.  We invited 15 kids - luckily only 5 could come... that was much more manageable. 

The last picture is the gift favors - chocolate chip Wookiee cookies, Skittles, and mini nerf gun. 

4th of July and OK

Well, we had to split up for the 4th of July this year.  Nathan didn't want to miss summer league basketball, and this was the only time that we could go to OK this summer.  So Alex ended up flying with the 4 youngest and visiting his Aunt and parents for a week.  I stayed home with Nathan and carted him to his basketball practices and games.  I think we may have entered a new season of life with high school sports taking up our summers and holidays.  Nathan had practices and tournament games over Thanksgiving and Christmas break last year.  And although they are "optional" during the holidays, when he missed 2 days for a family camping trip, he lost playing time.  So he doesn't want to miss any more optional practices.  (He had basketball off for a month before school, but Alex and Jared had other things going on during Nathan's time off.  Maybe we can plan better next year on vacation...) 

Nathan and I had a fun time on the 4th at a BBQ with friends.  We got to watch the city fireworks, and it was the first time that Nathan got to watch the fireworks while swimming!  He could see them from the pool.  

Alex and the kids did their own sparklers and fireworks in OK.  They had a good week, making bullets and shooting guns, swimming in the creek, playing at the splash pad, eating Braum's ice cream, watching movies, and hanging out.  And Aunt Jane gave them some more toys and Legos!