Saturday, July 23, 2011

Yosemite!!

Packed and ready for fun!!  This picture reminds of my childhood cross country trips soooo much!!


It is starting to look like all we do is go on Vacation!! Well I would love for that to be so but we actually have gone lots this year. This was super fun.

Day One: Our whole family loves camping and this was a whole new adventure!! The boys had gotten little coughs the week before our trip but these had pretty much gone away by the time we headed off. The kids were travel pros and we stopped and got lunch at in & out and then headed out they slept, played and watched movies the whole way up. But the last 30 minutes

of our trip up to Yosemite Adam started complaining that his ear hurt. We thought that it might be due to the altitude changes since we were already in the park when he started crying. So we got to our camp and got out and found that if nothing else he really did have a fever. Luckily we had brought Tylenol for the kids and we dosed him up and went to the ranger station to see what we could do for the little guy.

Isaac and Daddy after we got everything set up!!
We were staying in Wawona which we had never done before and were really looking forward to checking out the area around there. This Ear problem had something else in store for us :D.

Day Two: The next morning we woke after a rough night with Adam being cold and hot and hot and cold and we headed to the valley where they had a clinic we could go to. They were awesome at the clinic and we got him some antibiotics and motrin there. (did I mention I took him and Isaac to the doctor before we left to check their ears and they DIDN'T have ear infections because usually if Adam and Isaac get colds they DO get them, uuuhhhhmmm anyway) So we decided to spend some time in the Valley and we went to see Yosemite Falls. Then we had a picnic and headed back up to our campsite which was about an hour away.

Yosemite falls is just a short walk in and we did this without much effort even little Adam made there and back with only minor issues (none of them revolving around ear aches, picture taking, yes)












lower falls at Yosemite falls, we got very wet taking this picture and it was very windy as well :D




Rock towers, hundreds of them!!



Night Two: Now we had Adam feeling pretty good and he was pretty tired from not sleeping well the night before and we put everyone down to bed and later we went to bed around 9:30. When we got into the tent we saw Adam stand up walk over to the suitcase and sit on it. We spoke to him but he didn't speak back so we went over to him. He wasn't awake, he was sleep walking. soooo, we got him back in bed then realized he had peed on the suitcase while sitting on it. So we salvaged what clothing we could and pulled the rest out and got him changed and back in his sleeping bag. Then a couple of hours later he woke us up to let us know he had peed in his sleeping bag now too. Poor thing was exhausted and so not waking to go to bathroom.

Day three: So the next morning we had to go back to the Valley to housekeeping to do laundry since we were down a sleeping bag now and it was very cold at night up there at 4000 feet. So we went back down and this time decided to hike to Mirror Lake which we had done once before a couple of years ago with our friends the Bartys and had been vastly disappointed to find that there was no water in Mirror Lake, but we heard there was now so we hiked it again. We decided to go the scenic horse trail instead of the road "trail" up to the lake. it was a beautiful hike but once again we were a little disappointed to find that we still could not see the reflection of anything in the lake from the side we hiked up and there was no way to cross without a boat. So we made the best of it and found a little place for the kids to play in the water and met another family doing the exact same thing from San Pedro (that is where Bryan works, such a small world) and the boys played with their boys and had a blast seeing out deep they dared go in the freezing cold water. We ran back to the bus stop because we thought we were going to miss the shuttles as it had gotten quite late on us. We got back to the car and drove about an hour to go one mile to housekeeping...we won't do that again. and did laundry and had a picnic dinner at the car while our clothes washed. We got back to camp quite late around 10 and transported the sleeping children to their sleeping bags and went to bed ourselves.


Water was seeping from everywhere while we were up there this time it was amazing to see




Meadows and cliff faces!!



on the horse trail to Mirror Lake!!


I had to add this pic of Adam with the big stick because I have so many of him with big sticks in his hands that it just felt necessary :D


Isaac and his blue eyes...


Adam found a fishing buddy at Mirror Lake and caught some "fish" or something :D
Daddy got a little wet trying to cross Mirror Lake to get to the "fun" side where there were sandy beaches and views but it was not going to happen for the whole family so we had "Fun" on our side!!



aahhh yes motorcycles ...



More water seeping from the tops of cliffs.  We had never seen this waterfall before on our Yosemite trips it was beautiful and fell right down towards the village.
Night Three: No Accidents No wakefulness!!!

Day Four: We had to go home :( We ate breakfast and started packing up the tent and everything then spent the rest of the morning throwing rocks in the GIANT river and playing Frisbee and such and I made cheeseburgers over the fire.


Here are some pics from at our campsite!!
it was a beautiful campground, we would definitely go back :D






rock throwing!!!








the very large, very deep, very fast river!!




Then we got in the car and headed back home and once again the kiddos were star travelers. We would take them anywhere!!!


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Palm Desert with Grandma and Grandpa

In May we ventured to Palm Desert and what was supposed to be 4 days turned into a whole week vacation because wouldn't you know it started raining over here in the coastal areas and I wanted no part in that so we just stayed in Palm Desert where it was wasn't hot but it was at least sunny :D. We drove over on Thursday and Bryan joined us on Friday he rode his motorcycle which he had been dying to try out on a longer journey and had lots of fun doing it when it wasn't freezing or so windy it was blowing him off the road. Here are about a 1,000 pictures to show you how much fun we had!!


It was 97 degrees when we rolled in and first on our list was ice cream for all. So we stopped at the Rite- Aid which did not have thrifty ice cream :( and bought an entire box of ice cream sandwhiches and ate them all :D



Day one we woke up early and did the timeshare thing. I took the two older boys to the kid center and they got to feed the fish their daily food. Lots of fun and the boys loved it!!
Once Bryan got there we headed over to the J.W. Marriot and hopped on a little boat and took a tour which ended at the restaurant we ate at!! YUM seafood buffet's are soooo my favorite!!







The seafood was awesome but what really stole the show was dessert!!


Saturday I got to go to the "Quiet" pool with my mom while the boys hung with Dad and Grandpa, by that I mean they all slept :D



Sunday we went hiking in Palm Canyon! It was a beautiful day to do it as it had cooled down substantially and there was a breeze!!



We did two miles and Kevin and Adam hiked on their own the whole way!





Rainbow on a cloud??




We could see the rain that our friends were getting but we didn't get any of it!!




The view of our place from the park!!



the Marriot playground was tons of fun!!





we brought the scooters knowing we were going to need wheels to get around town :D



Isaac after a bath...too funny not to add!!

Our unit was right in the front of this building!




Thanks for inviting us Grandma and Grandpa, or did we invite ourselves, can't remember but it was so much fun!!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Easter Recap!!

I know, I know so late but I am going with the better late than never idea.


Easter this year was interesting we had lots of big plans and they all fell through, probably for the better though because as the day got closer it ended up being a rainy like day and Isaac was pretty sick so He and I stayed home from church. We ended up having my parents over for dinner and were able to pull together the classic Easter Meal at least at out house. We had Ham, Mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. Here are some pics from the big day!!


Kevin had lots of Easter celebrations at school including parties and such so Adam and I had our own parties one of them was coloring eggs. Isaac sleeps during Kevin's school each day so it is just mom and Adam time.



The Easter Bunny didn't bring Candy this year but Grandma and Grandpa did!!!



The boys looked very handsome in thier Easter Best, (mommy too) even though Isaac and I didn't make it to church I dressed for the occasion.



Easter dinner was super yummy and super fun with family around!!


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Long awaited Kauai!!

We stayed on the East side of the Island for the first night and the water was pretty rough there, but not in this area :D

Waimea Canyon
roosters everywhere. The whole island is covered with them, apparently in the 90's the big hurricane that hit spread these guys from coast to coast (on the island) and now they are free roaming and there are TONS of them EVERYWHERE!!

Bryan looking at a cool valley below with a single house and farm in it :D

this was the pathway to anini beach it was soooo steep but the beach was fun and we later found out there is a parking lot down there and you can just drive, I suggest you do that when you go :D
in case you were wondering where the boys got their brilliantly blue eyes...(see below)
anini beach....there is a reef out there and it makes the ocean look like a lake very serene and quiet...almost too quiet and serene :D
The light house!!

on the catamaran on our tour of the na'pali coast
secret falls!! we hiked and kayaked in and it was worth the wear out :D
a storm a brewin'
Smith Family Luau!!
can you see the giant waterfall that was what we saw out front of our condo :D
farmer's market!!
Hanalei, oh I wish I could have flown the kids out and just stayed here forever :D
more secret falls!!