Third Annual Family Camping Trip 2009

Thursday, June 18th thru Saturday, June 20th

The kids had a blast climbing on the granite rocks!

Marin, Emma, Kirsten, Preston

(a special thank you to Kresta for taking these pictures)



On Friday, we had a picnic lunch at McKinley Grove and saw some Giant Sequoia Trees. After that we went to Wishon Reservoir and put the Kayak in the water for the first time. While we took turns paddling the kayak around. The kids had fun exploring the water and rocks where the water ran off into the reservoir.



The water was nice and cool, but it was so warm and sunny that the water felt good!!

On Friday night even more families were able to come up to the campground. Every one's dinners smelled great and there were lots of smores and marshmallows to eat. Oh..... and thanks to our friend James there were also mini marshmallows flying everywhere from the marshmallow launchers he brought.

Saturday afternoon after we packed up camp we headed to Shaver Lake for one last kayak adventure. It was nice to get back on the water again, but it was TOO COOL!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for a fun weekend of camping. It was great to see all the kids playing and having fun. We always enjoy hanging out and sharing fun times with friends!

Once again he has done it.........

So the clothes dryer wasn't working. I put the clothes in and turned it on, but apparently the dryer wasn't heating up. I got a little excited thinking that maybe that meant we could get one of those nice new dryers. But that was not the case. Mondel said he would see if he could figure out what the problem was. I told him I didn't think it was worth fixing since a service would be costly. Surely enough after a little trouble shooting and some time on the internet he had a pretty good idea of what to do. A couple days later he had me pick up a part at the store and the next day I had my dryer back. And this time it heated up and dried the clothes better then ever.

Oh, and I forgot the part about the fact that the part only cost $18.99. I was a little disappointed I wasn't getting a new dryer.

But, once again Mondel has done it........he never stops amazing me at how resourceful, hardworking, smart, handy, and all around amazing he is!!!!!

Time for Cake

Marin got a cake baking kit at her birthday party.

She mixed, baked, and decorated 2 cute star cakes all by herself.

Way to go Marin!!

Our Little Paradise

While the flowers were in bloom I wanted to capture the beauty of

our little paradise right in our backyard.

Yum...Yum.....

I had to take a picture of our beautiful strawberry plants....... this is the first year we have had more than a couple of strawberries. Hopefully by next year our crop will be even bigger. We have all been able to enjoy the fruits of our labors this year.

Preston & Marin's Birthday Party

Preston's 10th Birthday

Marin celebrated her 8th birthday early.
(Bridget, Marin, & Sydney)

Wesley & Kyle

Zowie, Sydney, & Marin

Joseph- enjoying some cake

Preston, Marin, & Megan

Mondel & Cannon being silly!

Corbin

Megan

Marin's friends from school- Kristin & Emma

This year we decided to combine the kids birthday parties. We rented a bounce house and Kirsten got to have a pinata. Kirsten celebrated her 5th Birthday in the morning with all her friends. We had a combined party later in the afternoon for Preston's 10th birthday and Marin's 8th birthday. The kids loved the bounce house. We had a water balloon toss/fight, cake, and lots snacks and candy. It was a lot of work and very tiring for us parents, but the kids had a blast!!!!

Even the "grandma's" got in on the bounce house action!

It's Just One Big Party!!!! (Literally)