Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Sequoia National Park

My least favorite part of school has always been trying to be concise.
Having to summarize a book or article has always been torture.
Let's just say I never had a problem hitting the word count for a paper.
I'm wordy and detail oriented.
Just ask my husband.
He always makes fun of me when I tell a story
because I like to give random (but totally important) details.

Anyways, that's kind of what this blog post is like.
I took a zillion pictures from Sequoia
and as I was trying to be selective in which to share
they all seemed important.
All 40 of them.
Sorry if you are not into details.

Look on the bright side
after you look at all the pictures from my trip to Sequoia National Park
you will either want to go yourself
or feel like you have already been there and can check it off your list.

Here we go...

This was the first camping trip Aaron and I had ever taken with the kids.
Instead of roughing it we decided to take my parents tent trailer.
It ended up working out awesome.

The kids did great in the car.
thank.you.jesus.
I was a little worried we would have 6 hours of screaming.
Because if that ever happened
it would be on a road trip.

Mackenzie was so excited to finally be camping.
Every day for the past week she woke up asking
"Are we going camping today?"

She also loved that camping=dirt.
Lots and lots of dirt.
Like a giant sand pit.
A not so smart mom brought buckets and shovels for the kids to play with.
Bad idea.

I think Mackenzie was clean for about 1 minute the entire trip.
I had to keep telling myself to let her get as dirty as she wanted and I could clean her off before bed.

Wesley loved camping too.
He's pretty much happy doing anything
as long as there is food involved.

The weather in Sequoia was beautiful
except it got pretty chilly at night.

Poor Wesley was dressed like the Michelin man every night.
In pink no less.
Sorry son.

Good thing he's such a mama's boy.
I think he'll forgive me.

Camping is fun no matter what
but it's even more fun when you go with friends.
Mackenzie was so excited her friend Emmy was there with her.

We had bacon, eggs, potatoes and toast every morning for breakfast.
yum.yum.yum.
I think we ate better camping then we do at home.

There is just something so magical about being surrounding by God's beautiful creation.

Mackenzie was so funny.
When we were driving through the park to our campsite Mackenzie kept saying,
"Mommy/Daddy, the trees are dirty!".
We couldn't figure out what she was talking about
and then we noticed some of the trees had moss on them.

My silly girl.

Love her.

The boys.

It's so hard to even comprehend how big the trees really are.

Our little family.
My best attempt at a family picture.
At least no one's crying :)

buddies

Me and my love

Wesley loved any time he was able to get down and run around.

General Sherman is the world's largest living organism.
Crazy.

friends :)

My boy

pretty girl

beautiful

Most of the trip Wesley was in the backpack or Ergo.
Luckily he loves to be held
so he was in his element.

One day a deer came right into our campsite.
It was so cool!

My favorite part is camping is definitely hanging out around the campfire at night.
Oh and making smores.
Lots and lots of smores.

Love this picture of the kiddos.
They are so cute.

We also went to Hume Lake one day.

Mackenzie loved playing on a floating log with Daddy.

They were brave getting into the freezing cold water.

Wesley and I were not so brave.

We each put our feet in
and that was enough for us.

Family pic attempt number 2.

Looking at these pictures totally makes me want to go back.
There is nothing like being surrounded by trees and fresh mountain air.

beautiful

this tree had the brightest green leaves.

giant.

Love this pic of Aaron.
He's such a good Daddy and hubby.
I'm so blessed.

Mountain meadows.
gorgeous.

We found this really cool place a 1/2 mile or so hike in the forest from our campsite.
It had all these different pools to swim in.
If you like freezing cold water that is.

Aaron swam in them.
I stuck my feet in.

We had such an awesome camping adventure.
So much so that my hubby wants to go to Yellowstone next summer.
Drive to Yellowstone.
We live in California.
That's a long drive.
But I'm sure it is beautiful there.
My vote is for Yosemite.
We will see what happens.

How did you guys spend your Labor Day weekend?

Monday, September 6, 2010

Home sweet home

We just got back from a camping adventure
in the land of giant trees
(A.K.A Sequoia National Park).

Nature gives such an awesome glimpse of our mighty Creator.
I'm still in awe of God's wonder and majesty.
Those trees are so h.u.g.e. and beautiful.

We had such a fun filled weekend
full of dirt, hikes, friends, giant trees, lakes, etc.
but now that I'm home I realize how exhausting camping can be.
Totally fun and worth it but utterly exhausting.
Especially with two little ones.
So I'm off to bed for now.
More details and pictures to come...

Hope you guys had a great holiday weekend!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Hidden Message Paintings

The other day I was watching my friend's kids for the afternoon.
A few minutes before the kids were to come over I realized
I hadn't even thought of a craft to do!
Things always go easier when there is a craft.
I wanted something easy but fun.
Something the girls could do mostly on their own.

So I went online to a blog I knew had fun projects for kids.
When I came across this idea I knew it would be perfect.
Chrissie calls it watercolor crayon resist but I call them
Hidden Message Paintings!

All you do is draw a "hidden" message or picture on a piece of white paper with white crayon.

Then let your kids discover the "hidden" picture by painting the paper with water colors.

It was so fun for the girls to discover their special pictures.
They l.o.v.e.d. it.

They kept asking me to make more
and more
and more.

Always the true sign of a good project.

And the best part
the girls thought it was the coolest trick ever.
I would always go in the other room to make the "hidden" message so the girls never figured out how it worked.
They thought it was such a fun secret.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Four little words

sign by Julie from Joys Hope

This pretty much sums ups
what I want my life to be about.
Sometimes it's easy.
Sometimes it's hard.
But it's always worth it.
I'm so in awe of God's love for me
and the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ on the cross
that I can't help but love Him back
and share His love with others.

"We love because he first loved us."
1 John 4:19