Sequoia

I'm a bit behind on my summer posts. We've been gone a lot and so busy when we've been in town! So I'm trying to catch up!
The week after Shaver Lake/Chawanakee, we headed over to Sequoia. We couldn't get Yosemite reservations this year, so Lodgepole in Sequoia is always our back up plan. We took my friend Maggie's boys Andrew and Jake with us. And the Farris family was there for the week as well, in the site next to us.


Holly: We brought our dog Holly on vacation with us. She sure loves to be with her family! We were a bit nervous about her traveling up the winding road to get to Sequoia so we gave her dramamine. It worked in that she didn't get sick, but the poor dog was a zombie the whole first day! Not sure if we'd do that again. At night we stuck all the boys in a tent since they had a couple extra friends along. Holly was in HEAVEN when we threw her in the tent too. She took turns sleeping on each boys sleeping bag and was loving life! And it made me feel at ease knowing that if a bear approached the tent, she would hopefully alert us!


Hume Lake: We spent one of the days at Hume Lake, about 30 min. from our camp ground. The weather was perfect! The kids played in the water, rafted, fished, etc. There was a GIANT log floating in the water that entertained everyone for quite a while. Darren caught a fish by pulling a hook around on a piece of fishing line. It was quite a surprise! Poor Ryan tried fishing for hours, only to come up empty handed!


Crystal Cave: We haven't been here in about 7 years I think. It's a bit of a hike down hill (and then back up again!!) to get to the caves so we've bypassed this activity our past few Sequoia trips. But we were with friends who hadn't been to the caves before so off we went. It wasn't as strenuous as my memory had recalled. Maybe it's because this time I wasn't trudging up and down this path of a million steps with twins who were only one and a half years old! They held their own this time and the hike was much more enjoyable! The caves are amazing and a site to see!



Moro Rock: We always climb to the top of Moro Rock. It's a pretty quick climb with an amazing view once you get to the top!



Our hike to the waterfall:
On our way we encountered a couple deer and to our surprise, a BEAR! We often see bears while camping, but I'm never totally comfortable with it! This bear was about 8 feet off our path, picking bugs out of a fallen log. We just kept walking (except for Jason who likes to push the boundaries and gets as close as possible with the camera) and he never looked our way. Whew!












Here's what Jason did to my car when he hit a rock while coming around a corner at the campground. He joked about being able to drive the gigantic motorhome all the way there, up the steep, twisty, windy turns, with no problems, and then gets in my van and 30 seconds later hits a rock! UGH!! Thanks to my Daddy for fixing it good as new!!


I love when everyone plays games together!


On the last night, the kids had glow sticks and ran around playing tag and other activities! Then then performed many skits for us grown-ups and we laughed and laughed! They made some up themselves, and some they recreated from what they had seen the week before at Scout Camp. It was quite entertaining!!