More camping fun

Just a cute video from our camping trip back in June.

Twin Lakes and Yosemite

In the summer our first camping trip was to Twin Lakes with a day trip to Yosemite. Here is one of the falls. The place was gorgious and we went early enough in the season that the falls were flowing full force. Unfortunately it was a very cloudy and occassionally rainy day. Fortunately on this hike it didn't really matter. We brought our ponchos for the rain but actually used them more just for this hike. You got soaked just from the mist from the waterfall . . . it was quite amazing but also made a difficult hike even more difficult. This is a picture at the bottom of the Falls. It was a much more difficult hike than we anticipated so I hiked back down with Tyler at this point and Tim took Little T. in the backpack with Big & Little J. all the way to the top. What a huge hike!
Much of the hike was full of these stone steps which looks easy but they were uneven, and very tall so you really had to step up on each one. Plus because of the rain and the mist, you had to dodge puddles all over those steps.

This picture is on the bridge at the beginning of the hike before it started getting difficult.

Look at my handsome husband with our handsome baby boy. Little T. is the only one who had was able to get to the top without any work.

Some of my cute boys with me.

This is at the top of the waterfall. Can you see their wet, matted hair from the rain and mist. The rain actually made it very humid and those ponchos were kind of hot. Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed our trip and the views were absolutely gorgious.

My beautiful boys!

How do you keep boys from climbing trees? I don't really know the answer but this branch was very low to the ground so it was ok with me and they looked so cute.

All my great boys. This picture was at the end of the day after another hike but this time the hike was less than 1/4 of a mile and we had already had lunch and ice cream so everyone was a little more refreshed than after our first really big hike.

Back at Twin Lakes. Since it was early in the season and we went when it was overcast, it was too cold to actually swim in the water. My boys were ok with that but they still wanted to go down to the lake. They made sand castles and threw rocks into the water and thought it was just great.

Remember to check out the blog post called "No lions, No tigers but there were Bears" since this is the same trip where our belongings had a run in with a bear. Luckily we weren't at the campsite; we were still at Yosemite.

No lions, no tigers, but there were bears

Last weekend we camped at Twin Lakes and made a trip into Yosemite. Bears go through the camp where we stayed (isn't that the case with everywhere we camp?) We are extremely careful about keeping any food things and smelly things in the car - even so much that we put the dirty laundry in the car (in case kids got sticky marshmallows on their shirt or anything). We even covered our ice chest in the car so a bear wouldn't see it and try to break into the car. The first night we heard the bear banging on the dumpster and pulling it to try to get it open. The second day we were in Yosemite and we were of course vigilant before we left but when we got back after dinner time we saw our bucket of pots, pans, paper products, and other kitchen supplies dumped over and spilled about in our camp. The bear had already been through and I guess our large plastic bin looked a little too much like an ice chest. The lid was ripped off and torn and our paper towels and paper plates had nice claw marks through several layers. While the kids stayed in the car (we told them we needed to get their sleeping bags and the tent ready so to just wait), Tim and I put all the stuff back. We didn't tell the kids about it until the next day - no need to freak them out. Although we were a little frustrated and mad that the bear wrecked our bucket and some of our paper things, we were very fortunate it was just some stuff. Oh, the joys of camping

More Camping & Hiking

This is our latest camping trip from Aug. 3 - 6. We went on a hike to Eagle Falls and it was quite steep and strenuous but the kids did great. At Eagle Lake, the kids got their feet wet (and Tyler accidentally got his whole body wet) and we had lunch. It was a good hike for all of us.

NO A/C

Our Air Conditioner is out so we are very HOT. Fortunately we had previously decided to go camping so we spent 3 days in Tahoe which kept us cool. Unfortunately we still have 1-4 more days until the part arrives to fix the A/C. Tomorrow maybe we'll hang out at Mom and Dad's house inbetween picking up some furniture for our house from a friend.