In May - all five of us went to
Canada. In June - Josh and I went to
Florida with the baby. In July - Josh took the two older kids to a camping family reunion (The Bundy), AND we all went up North to Ogden and then Wolfcreek, but Josh didn't go with us to Wolfcreek. Now to finish our vacations for the summer, in August - all five of us went to Eastern California. Our two bookend trips were our biggest ones with the most driving and all five of us going together. This last trip was our last one before Payman started Kindergarten, so it is a big possibility our trips might begin to slow down a bit now that he is in school... maybe! :)
Now about our latest trip! It was a lot of driving, we ran out of my 24 pack of water bottles that Josh made fun of me for bringing, we once again realized we need a bigger vehicle, we had a MAJOR blowout from the baby (details on that later in the blog), we (mostly just me) remembered why I don't like tent camping, and we had a lot of fun.
The point of the trip was to go to Josh's UAMPS conference which is very family friendly, meaning, the whole family gets to go to all the meals, they have a Monday excursion for the whole family, and they have activities for companions and activities for kids on Tuesday. Plus, our kids were given "goodie bags," with some really cool stuff. We went last year in Midway, but this year the conference was held at Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe. Both Josh and I were glad that Kindergarten started later than the rest of the school because the older grades started the week of the conference. The conference was officially only Sunday night dinner to Wednesday lunch, so Josh took Thursday and Friday off last week to extend our vacation.
Now for the actual adventures! We drove Friday, but stopped at Great Basin National Park for a break in the car, and to see Lehman Caves. These caves were awesome. I have seen a lot of caves throughout my adventures, and I think these are my favorite. The pictures really don't do the caves justice. If you want to see them, I recommend getting tickets online before hand if you go in the summer. They were all booked, but we bought our tickets ahead of time.
We stayed the night in Reno, and went to Lake Tahoe the next day. The beach was at one of the state parks, and to be honest it wasn't the best beach at Lake Tahoe. It was really dirty sand (look at Avenly's face in the picture), and there wasn't much of a slow dissent to the deeper water, but we still had a good time.
The conference was at the Squaw Valley Resort, and we stayed in one of the condos at the resort. It was a fun place to have the conference with lots of things to do, but in all honesty, I just enjoyed my time relaxing and eating meals I didn't have to cook. Josh enjoyed his conference, and the kids had fun, too. Payson got to go to an Adventure Day camp. He loved it, and said he got to paint monster rocks, ride the tram up the mountain, go swimming, rock climbing, and his favorite part build space ship legos.
For the family excursion we took a lake cruise on Lake Tahoe. It was a little boring for the kids, but I thought there was some really pretty views, and we got to see some pretty big cabin houses right on the lake.
So, here's a funny story for you. During Payman's adventure camp, the little ladies and I were going to do laundry, but there was not laundry in our unit, so I needed to use the facilities in the building, but they only took quarters. I didn't have any cash on me because we spent it for the state park on Saturday to go to the lake, Before doing laundry, we walked Payson to his drop off location, but I forgot the permission slip, so we had to go back to our condo to get it. Then, we walked him back to drop him off. Then, we go back to the condo to get a credit card to use at an ATM to get cash. Then, we leave the condo to get cash, but the machine only gave me a $20 bill. We went back to the condo to the laundry room to put the $20 bill in the coin machine to break it, but the machine only took $5 bills and $1 bills, so then we had to leave again to try and break the $20 bill. Meanwhile, Avenly had stolen something from the store that the ATM machine was in, so we had to go back to the store to return the item, which was bug spray of all things. Then, we walked around to try and find a place to break the $20, but nothing was open, yet, so we went back to the condo until lunch time. During this whole adventure there was a guy working in the lobby of our condo building, and he saw us going back and forth- back and forth. I am sure he thought we were crazy! ha ha Btw, I was finally able to break the $20 bill after lunch by buying frozen yogurt.
The last dinner of the conference was at the top of the mountain, so we got to ride the tram to the top.
When the conference was over we drove to Yosemite National Park, where we camped for two nights. I complained to Josh more than I should have. I was car sick the whole drive to Yosemite, and Zaylee does not sleep very good with me, but I didn't want her to get cold or suffocate, so she slept with me in the tent.
I almost forgot...on the way to Yosemite, we stopped at Big Tree State Park and saw the Sequoia trees. This was a welcomed break from the winding roads. I love Sequoia trees.
Yosemite was busy, but not as bad as it was the first time we went when we lived in California. We hiked to the Nevada Falls Bridge viewpoint, which was about 2.5 miles from our car round trip. It was a moderate/steep hike, with some definite elevation gain, but the kids did great. After coming off the main steep part at the end of the hike, a lady pointed out that Zaylee had lost her sock. I smiled at the lady, and said, "I'm not going back up there to get it!" She and everyone else around laughed because it was a pretty tiring hike. The end result was worth it, and the falls were beautiful!
After the hike and lunch we found a less than ideal spot on the river to play. It wasn't a horrible spot, it just wasn't a sandy beach like we were hoping. Even though it wasn't perfect, we still had fun until Payson lost his flip flop and Avenly decided she didn't need ANY clothes on.
The last stop of the day was at the top. We all took naps on the drive to the viewpoints, except Josh, who was driving. I was the only one who woke up for the first view point, so Josh and I attempted to get a selfie together with the mountains behind us. If you look closely to the picture without us, you can see two water falls.
We woke the kids up for the last view because it was a little hike.
On our way out of Yosemite National Park after camping one more night, we stopped at a meadow so we could "frolic!" It's a good thing we did because Zaylee had a massive blowout. In fact, I even threw the onsie away that she was wearing because the blowout was so bad. After giving her a sponge bath with wet-wipes we played around in the beautiful meadow. Payman's favorite thing to do was jump over the creek, and Ani-girl just wanted me to swing her around.
Our trip concluded with a stay in a little cabin at Red Meadows near Devil's Postpile. I don't like camping with a tent, but I don't mind camping in a cabin with electricity, even if it doesn't have a bathroom. The shower house was nice and clean, and I got to sleep in a bed in the cute little cabin.
We stopped at a earthquake fault line and Devil's Postpile on the way to the cabin. We also saw a few lakes. I had never seen a fault line before, and it made me think of the Land Before Time. Devil's Postpile was very neat and unique. It was formed when hot lava met freezing water. We met a nice old man during our hike back from Devil's Postpile. He gave us some floating pumice rocks he found, so the kids threw them in the river to see if they would float, and sure enough, they did.
The trip was another reminder that we need a bigger vehicle! ha ha The car was packed, and we were so ready to be done driving, but we cherish these special trips we get to take together! :)
