Black Butte bliss

So, we were super lucky to spend some time with my friend Chloe and her family at their house in Black Butte Ranch... we get to play at the pool, ride bikes and just play around the house all day, every day... it's pretty much kid (and parent) heaven...  We even tackled a 4 mile bike ride!  We got to see horses, cows, a natural spring, and a crazy water fountain along the way...

I've been working hard on my swimming and "diving" as well.. I pretty much belly flopped off the side for about an hour straight then figured out how to dive in from my bottom and "swim" to my mom!  I can't say it's pretty, but I actually can get somewhere in the water - I'm ALMOST an official swimmer!!   We also managed to fit in a little "yoga in the meadow" session... we're thinking this might be a new trend soon at Black Butte and we were there first!  I can't wait to go back to BBR!!

Smell the Roses!

Well, it's been a while since we've seen the Rose Garden so we decided to take Aunt Helen and Uncle David (who were visiting us) for a little trip to check it out... (Aunt Helen loves flowers!)  We had tons of fun seeing all the different kinds of roses and smelling all of them - they smell sooo good and all smell different.... if you're ever in town, I highly recommend it!!!

NWSS 2012

We go to String Summit every year... I think this might be our 5th or 6th year in a row going and we'll probably go for many more... :)  Let's see, here's some of my favorite things to do at string summit... 1. Hula hoop 2. Chase peacocks  3. Hula hoop  4. Play in everyones van  5. Hula hoop  6. Make crafts in the kid area  7.  Go to the kids concerts in the mornings  8. Run around camp with my friends  9. Listen to the music  10. Hula hoop :)  It took lots of time and dedication but I actually figured out how to keep the hula hoop up!  I had lots of people to watch and learn a few things from (it's like a sport at SS!)...

I think my mom enjoyed the addition of yoga classes this year... I didn't go with her, but I think lots of people were finding their "zen" at class - especially with the awesome background music from the 2nd stage...

Caitlyn also worked on hula hooping a bit, and she didn't quite figure it out but she did bust out some awesome dance moves (along with a pretty silly expression on her face when she was really groovin')

Road trip time...

So, my dad always talks about this cabin in Kings Canyon and Sequoia Nat's Park that he went to when he was a kid and how we wants to take us there... so we decided it was time to take the trek (and a trek it was!!) to the cabin... I think my parents were having doubts as we were crossing the Oregon border and realizing we were about 1/3 of the way there but us kiddos had faith we'd make it... we just peppered them with "our we at the cabin yet" every few minutes to push their buttons a bit... hehe.

What we didn't know was that we'd get to stop at this hotel (that happened to be hosting the "Home Schoolers of California") where we'd get to go swimming till 11pm at night (ok, so we didn't get to the hotel till 10pm), run around a lake full of geese, check out a koi pond, give the kid area for convention a trial run AND get free breakfast. Score!  Day 2 in the car consisted of us sleeping pretty much the whole way (well played 'rents!)

We did FINALLY get to the cabin and it was awesome...  There's a older red cabin and a new cedar cabin.  Caits and I had fun checking out the cabins (i.e. we jumped on all the mattresses upstairs in the new cabin for about an hour)...  Then we all headed out for a little wander on the trail behind the cabin with Patrick, Candice and their dog "Julep" who I got to walk. (I'm a future dog walker for those who are interested...)

That was just a warm up though.. they next day mom, dad, Caits and I did a 3 1/2 mile hike called "Little Baldy" (no it was not named after my dad...)  It was pretty cool, we got to see marmots, grouse, butterflies, and an amazing view from the top!  We did another fun hike all through huge granite boulders the next day too to another amazing view - it was awesome.. for real life.  I even brought my notebook and markers with me in my camelback so I could write all about what I saw on the hike when I got to the top (DEER, PRAIRIE DOG, ROCKS).

But of course, you can't leave Sequoia Nat'l Park without seeing the big Sequoia trees!  We checked them out and they were the biggest trees I've seen in my whole life.  One was 1700 years old, 30ft in diameter, and 267ft tall.  We're talking huge!!!  We even got to walk through a tree that was laying on the ground.

We also had good fun playing in the dirt, watching humming birds, and eating by the camp fire.  The cabin was pretty fun and we weren't ready to leave!!  But it was time to head back... Caits and I decided to take it easy on my parents this time around behave ourselves for the 14+ hour drive home.  I think they appreciated that :).

2 wheel peddle bike!!

Yep... it's true - I'm officially a 2 wheel peddle bike rider...  I've been trying to figure out the peddles for a little while now and suddenly it just clicked!!  check me out!  I LOVE riding my bike now... I even biked all the way to the farmers market and to the pool (almost 2 miles!!)  I did have a few bumps and bruises along the way but that's how it goes right?? :)