2009 Summer Vacation

Lets start off by conducting a little survey shall we?

List as many things as you can that would cause our camping trip to be less than ideal.

Got them? I'll give you 3 big hints - no bones were broken, no one was burned in the campfire and we didn't get attacked by bears!

Cold? Yep - The highs were in the mid 50s...in June. So crazy. There was even snow on the ground in some areas. That is much too cold for me to enjoy myself.

Rain? Yep - it rained every night and a little each day. Just enough so Brooklynn couldn't crawl around and enough to get our chairs all wet.

Sick? Yep - Brooklynn threw up for about 4 hours the first night and a few times the third night. We were not at all prepared for this...it used up all of our towels and most of our extra blankets.

Wet? Yep - Ellie wet the bed in her sleeping bag the second night. See above: no extra blankets.

Tired? Yep - When Brooke wasn't puking she was super cranky and would only sleep with me. Trying to sleep with a 1yr old in my sleeping bag is next to impossible. Trust me.

Loud? Yep - the smoke detector went off every time the heater turned on...finely Brian just unplugged the whole thing.

But...

there were some AMAZING hikes...and big girls had so much fun...and we enjoyed getting away

So...

we decided to leave a few days early and headed down to SoCal.

And...

we went to Disneyland to make up for such an awful camping trip! We also visited my parents, his parents, went to the movies, had family friends stop by to see the girls. It ended on a high note! The last few days have been filled with laundry and unpacking, but we are getting back to our normal schedule - whatever that is!

As usual, Blogger wont let me adjust the pictures, so they are all out of order...but here is a recap of the trip...

Ellie playing with the teddy bears at Grandma's house

trying to pull the sword out of the rock...it didn't happen

The only ride Ellie begged to go on was the merry-go-round....strange kid

Brian used his phone for all of the Disneyland pictures...so I am actually in a few photos for a change

Can you see the 2 deer?!

We didn't see any bears, but we saw signs of them...like this torn up log. They rip the logs apart looking for grubs

The girls wanted me to take a picture of this down tree...they thought it looked like an elephant :o)

The kids loved climbing on the huge granite slabs

The only bug she caught was a stink bug - yuck

At least we got some use out of their new rain coats

We listened in on a class about Mountain Lions

The tallest tree in the park

Alison looked at these 3 sequoias growing together and said "look, its me Ellie and Brooklynn!"

The star of the show - General Sherman

Its not the tallest tree in the world, and its not the thickest tree in the world, but it has the most sq ft of wood than any tree in the world. it. was. HUGE.

Each ring is 1 yr of life. The huge trees are over 2,000 yrs old.

They do not grow anywhere else in the world and only grow in patches in Sequoia Nat'l Park.

The soil has to be just right and they only grow at certain elevations

This is a slice of a tree that had fallen
A Sequoia 100 years old is only the diameter of a quarter...can you imagine how old this one was?!

waiting for the tram

Her look for most of the trip...she was not a happy baby

We had an amazing campsite right by the river - although there were no fish. I asked the Ranger if they stocked the river and he laughed at me...I guess they only do that on the east side of the Sierras?

If you decide to ever go here - call us and we will tell you what campsites are good! The girls had so much fun playing in nature...which made the 8 hr drive totally worth it for me!

Ellie gave Brooke her whole apple...it was so funny watching her try to eat it

Thank You so so so so much Aunt Debbie for letting us use the moterhome!!! I can't even begin to imagine what this trip would have been like if we were tent camping!

Thanks to my Mama too for watching Brooklynn while we went to Disneyland!!!
We had so much fun :o)