Seqouia National Park

This is us at the Seqouia National Park. The trees are amazing!!!!







This was a pretty cool hike. It was a ways and the kids did spectacular. I was so impressed with Catherine. We made her hike a lot on these two weeks vacation and we hardly ever heard her complain or ask to be carried. She was amazing.

Vacations continued

If you ask Catherine what her favorite part of the whole two week vacation was, it was the swimming at the hotel. She tells us she is a mermaid and she thinks she can swim (which she can't). She stays in the shallow end, except when she's trying to hold onto the edge and go around the pool. I know, scary. But she's always been our go getter and it's hard to tell her that she can't do something, like swim.



Megan would only go near the water if she had the duckie ring with her (which is a good thing). She was also always in arms length because she can't swim either. Guess what we're spending our money on next year..... swimming lessons.
















Then the girls insisted on laying out for awhile. Is that instinctual?










Oh, before I forget. This pool was at the "haunted" bed n' breakfast we stayed in. There have, supposedly, been ghost sightings here. We didn't know that until the first morning when we read an article in their dining room. Ours wasn't an "active" room though. Oh darn!

Trains, stagecoaches, and gold

After Calaveras we drove to a town, which I can't remember the name off hand, and took a ride on a train. The girls loved it and Jonah was pretty entertained also







The train actually went by this stream/river where people still pan for gold. They said that only about 30% of the gold has been found, meaning there's still about 70% of the gold still out there! I think we should try a new career. I read there are company who will take you out for the day and teach you how to pan for gold and most people find enough to cover the cost of the lessons, about $250 or so for a family.



Here's Megan panning for gold. They found little gems and tiny specks of gold. They were more interested in the pretty rocks though then finding specks of gold.








I know it looks like Jonah's about to fall in. He's pretty secure.









Catherine, Megan and I got to ride the stagecoach. Boy, am I thankful for cars. We even got robbed while on the stagecoach. It was quite an adventure.

More Calaveras

I figured since we were camping in a place with the name "Big Tree State Park" I should add some pictures of the big trees. This one is the one they cut a hole in to walk through because Yosemite had cut a hole in one of their big trees so people could drive through it. Don't you love competition?




This is how Jonah spent most of the hikes. We borrowed this carrier from our friends and he'd stay back there. Except we discovered he gets motion sickness and we think the carrier didn't help that. He never got sick on us, just in the car. Thank goodness. As we would hike along, sometimes I'd sing to help keep the kids motivated and if he was on my back, he'd lean close to my ear and sing with us. "la,la,la,la,la" It was really cute.



This is me walking through a fallen seqouia. Pretty cool, huh! Gives you an idea of just how big these trees are.










And lastly (for Calaveras), here is Dan standing on a Seqouia that was cut down years and years ago. They actually used this as a stage for awhile. I have lots more to post on this trip and this summer, but if I post everything today, then what will I have to post tomorrow for Mel to read. ;-)

An Attempt for Mel to have things to read

I thought I'd update about our busy summer, though I probably have to do it in different post. Our busy summer started out with our annual family campout in Calveras Big Tree State Park where we had a wonderful time. This is the little river we went "rafting" on. It was perfect for the girls. Even though Catherine was shivering with cold and could hardly talk, she didn't want to leave. She is our mermaid, as she has named herself. Megan had lots of fun playing in the water also, though wasn't sure about going on the tubes. When we pulled out our little boat (a toddler boat which is for the pool), she was all excited. That was more her style, to have no hole in the bottom.

Jonah was not sure about the water at first. I have to admit, it was chilly. But, when I tried to take him out of the water he fussed and only wanted back in to play. Go figure.







Megan & Grace would hang out on Grandpa's lap when they were in their pj's and didn't have to go to bed yet. They weren't allowed to walk around and get dirty (their favorite thing to do).











I can't get the pictures where I want them, so oh well. These are my bat girls. I can't wait to get caught up on my scrapbooking to do this page. The junior ranger program was on bats and they had these cool wings.