Yosemite… (it’s another long one.)

So our trip to Salt point made us realize. We love Yosemite. you can do everything in Yosemite from your camp site. You can either get on a bus or bike ride all over the valley. Can’t beat that. Plus we had been getting a lot of rain so we figured the falls were gonna be awesome (we were right:) So we checked reservations, which are hard to get for Yosemite, and were thrilled when we found some, in fact we were gonna have to go the very next weekend cause that was all that was available for months but then last minute Nick checked and one site had come available for the following weekend so we were able to take a week break from camping which was nice. My parents were also able to accompany us on this trip which was great! So the third weekend in April we headed out. And we are so glad we did.

One of my girlfriends said “you guys are addicted to Yosemite aren’t you” lol yes I guess you could say that :)

Here was our camp. My parents have a trailer so the kids and I slept in there with them and Nick bunked in the tent alone. We bought some camp pads and so I don’t mind sleeping in the tent but Allie needs me to sleep with her while camping and Keira sleeps wherever I do still and Allie and Wills wanted to sleep in the trailer.

Wills took these next three…

We hiked to Vernal falls (like usual, it’s just so pretty)

we had lunch out on a big rock. Here allie was set on the Rock and told don’t move! as she waits for everyone else

Nick and Wills had to get closer to the water. If they fell in that water they would probably die. Seriously it was moving fast and there is a very big drop down stream. It wasn’t that dangerous for Nick but it’s still scary to this mommy.

this is the only proof I was actually on this trip, see my legs

my sweet babies

my kids were pretty stoked to have Grandpa and Grandma along

Keira loves to climb and you couldn’t ask for a better place to do it.how stinken cute is she!!

we do lot’s and lots of this in Yosemite…

Miss Allie has improved ridding her bike significantly over the last two months and she loves having her big bike to ride around :)

story of her life… chasing brother tryin got keep up.

the day we left we stopped at Yosemite falls

(Nick and the kids are in this picture it’s just hard to see them)

this boy is a goof ball, seriously.

lol, silly silly

looking like a big girl!

wills wanted to see if he could get out of the bear box so we shut him in there and let him try to get out. we showed him how to push the lever from the inside shut him in and he got out. I would guess it is dark in there. Props to him!

we told him to act like he was a bear…

and a pretty picture of half dome to sum it all up

(if you care its straight out of camera)

well that’s it for Yosemite for awhile. Catch us this fall for our next adventure there :) It was a short but wonderful weekend. we got home and I asked Nick “did we really go cause it doesn’t feel like it.”

Salt Point… it’s kind of a long one.

Our little (well big to most people) family started this years camping season at Salt Point. Salt point is located on Highway 1 which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Salt Point is about a 1/2 or so from Fort Ross.

We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday afternoon. I love little mini adventures and will always cherish our camping trips. They are pretty sweet family time to me, no distractions, just lots of “play” time as a fam. In the middle of it I can feel a little overwhelmed or think, is this really a good idea, but I love getting home and looking through all the pictures of what we did.

The drive to Salt point is long. We got to Highway 1 fast and then you slow way way down and winding along for what seems like forever after you thought you were really close. It was kinda rough. Allie kept saying she wasn’t feeling good which I didn’t have a hard time believing cause I was car sick and trying not to get overly queasy. When we traveled home it was better because we started with the winding road and stopped at a beach to play before we kept driving. Helped a lot.

Saturday was SUPER windy. So much so we ate our lunch in our car. The wind is taxing. It made the whole day a lot less fun. As Nick was making dinner and I was sitting in the car with the girls the wind started to die down. We were all very thankful to have the wind return to “normal” ocean windy. Nick and I talked about how we had both been praying for the wind to die down but kinda figured God wasn’t going to answer such a selfish prayer but He did and it was perfect timing for us. we were able to have s’mores and enjoy the next day.  (can I just say for the record that windy (referring to the wind) windy (referring to the road) is just confusing!)

We were amazed that our tent stayed in one place. It was kind of crazy how much the wind was blowing it over. We have camped in difficult weather before, a solid down pour of rain for two whole days, but we decided that we think we would take the rain over the wind.

We did have a great trip! if you know me at all you are well aware that there are a tons of pictures to follow :) enjoy

playing at our campsite. Fun stuff.

Keira taking a nap in her backpack carrier

it was windy and half of Allies hair was flying in her face, lol

Wills was climbing with rocks so that her could throw them into the ocean. A family favorite past time

Keira and I from a distance.

Wills took this one :)

Nick or I took his one. pretty.

climbing with daddy

ok so here is the whole “salt point” thing there is a bunch of sand stone. I read somewhere that they were used to make roads in SF, interesting…

big ole wave. the wind does give you some pretty cool waves.

I got bored waiting for them while keira napped, lol

my cute little climbers

love this! me and my babies who are all getting so big!

In the afternoon we went down to another beach. We were the only ones down there at first. It was pretty cool. It was really windy still but we walked all the way across to hide under some big rocks.

I love this face!!! it is such a Keira smile. I have no idea why she does it but it is super cute!

ok so I thought this was kind of cool. It must have been low tide so we could see these little guys hiding in a shell in the cleft in the rock. Have you ever seen Cat in the Hat where they do this and sing we’re holding on, we’re holding on, you’ll never get us off cause we’re holding on, hahaha I’m just gonna admit I enjoyed that episode :)

on a much deeper level it reminded me of how God holds us in the cleft of His hand and protects us from “waves” that threaten us. it was a sweet reminder.

the beach

love these 4!

Nick packing up the car

it’s hard to tell which is which but you can barely see the ocean from our camp spot.

what the kids did while we packed.

when we camp the girls play in the car a lot. it’s great when its cold or windy or I just need to put them somewhere they can’t get out plus they love it!

Our final beach visit before heading home. It was called goat rock beach and there was a life guard down there telling everyone to stay away from the water whiched seemed so weird until I went to the bathroom and saw a sign sayin g this was one of the most deadly beaches in CA. It has sleeper waves  rip tides a sharp shelf drop off and some other stuff.

 

yes there was sand in her poop for a few days…

playing games. Wills could have stayed here for hours!

pretty pretty. we love the ocean! very grand and powerful.

Although this isn’t an impressive rock he just concurred, I love this picture of Nick, I feel like it is very descriptive of him and his adventuring spirit. why climb it? cause it’s there. He has a little Sir Edmund Hillary in him for sure.

if you made it this far I didn’t realize how long it would be :) I have several more post to get up but I don’t know when I will get there. I have Yosemite camping, Nate and Rach bday party, and Easter… all before our next adventure begins… Thankful to God for fun adventures.

I’m gonna ramble

I can just tell that I am gonna ramble a bit on this post so I am preparing you. You know how you have those days where you know you are blessed and loved and it just overflows into everything you are doing. You just can’t help but give your kids kisses as they walk by or smile at them while they are playing

Today is not one of those days

lol. It’s not been a bad day either its just that everything is taking work. The house isn’t cleaning itself ?!? the kids aren’t playing nicely?!? and the baby is getting fussy quickly, and they are all coughing. Which may in reality have a lot to do with why everything isn’t rose colored for me today. I am going on 5 nights of really bad sleep. Not bad like I got up twice last night, because that is what I call normal, bad like I don’t think I actually slept more than two consecutive hours together the last 5 nights. I am not writing this post for sympathy I don’t really need it today just more for a this is where I’m at today so when you read this post that's' really what's going on at out house and why my thoughts maybe aren’t so collected:)

So I meant to post about our camping trip that we took a few weeks ago but that didn’t happen. We went to Salt point and I will update on that as soon as I get the pictures uploaded. Not gonna happen today though:)

I will also be posting about our camping trip that we took this last weekend to Yosemite. Two camping trips close together I know fun stuff and I will get all that updating done sometime.

( my little Allie girl just came trooping out of my room from her rest time to talk with me and she just looks so cute. She has on thermal pajamas cause that’s what she wanted to wear and let’s just say she can’t wear skinny jeans! I just love that little girl and her chubby little body and her cute little voice telling me I’m joking when I gave her the wrong mint and she says I don’t like this kind. Feeling blessed again, she makes me laugh! :)

So if I’m not posting about that what am I posting about? this

Nick loves to mountain bike and he rides every Saturday if he can. He doesn’t ride in the summer cause it is too hot and dusty. He prefers the muddy winter if it is raining or snowing it usually means he goes alone but that’s when he loves it the most. All that to say his bike frequently needs to be cleaned and evidently Allies bike also needed a cleaning. I drove up from some errands and thought this was pretty cute! I took a picture of the baby cause she just looks cute and big, where does the time go?

I have also been meaning to post random stuff my kids do so I am gonna take a moment to write some stuff down before I forget.

Keira

loves to put food in her hair. She get’s bored with eating pretty fast and then she puts the food in her hair. She eats bananas for breakfast and then styles her hair. I call it banana gel.

Keira is my pickiest eater (of my kids, their daddy wins the prize overall) if she doesn’t like her food she just drops it off the side of her tray. After every meal my floors are a mess. I don’t enjoy this lovely habit.

She is our climber. She loves to stand up in her car stroller thing and then let go and clap. Scares me a lot. She climbs the step stools she climbs onto the toilet and she tries to climb everything. It’s scary and cute.

Keira loves her daddy. Whenever he comes home he has to say hi to her or she lets him know. She loves to wave at Nick and talk with him. She thinks he is pretty great stuff but I guess we all do so that’s not a huge surprise. The kids keep saying she can say “I love dada” and it kinda sounds like she can. it’s cute :)

She has been able to stand all by herself for several weeks and I won’t be surprised if she walks this month. She is actually our latest walker so far. She is eleven months.

She now has both her bottom teeth and she got her teeth way later then my other two did. I can’t say that I minded that. She has always chewed up her food really well so we didn’t have any issues there. When she get’s bored nursing she likes to bite momma and those little teeth hurt! She get’s pretty upset when I yell OW!

she loves to take a bath. They all do! She loves to stand up in her bath and try to drink the water.

I better go before they all wake up and I don’t get a nap so I will save a more detailed post of wills and allie for another day and just say that…

they both love to sing. I love it. They are pretty sweet. They rarely go to bed with out being sung Jesus Loves Me and the B-i-b-l-e. They also like to throw in whatever else they think we will sing them . Lately it’s been nothing but the blood of Jesus. It’s very sweet to hear your two year old sing “what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus”

Wills can whistle and it’s pretty funny.

Wills is really into rhyming things. he says weird stuff like cooka smooca looka doo all the time. It’s kinda funny.

The other day Allie came up to Nick and I and asked for a glue stick (which I use to give “reminders”) Nick handed it over and I said what do you need that for and she very solemnly said Wills needs a spanking. Of course Nick said okay here you go and laughed… and left me with explaining that she certainly can’t give wills spankings. it was pretty funny though.

Wills told us he wants a little brother. uhhh, good for you bud. lol