Happy Birthday to My Sweet Six yr Old!

Seems like it has just been a blink of an eye, from this...

{ Visiting San Diego }

For the second weekend in a row I got to go to San Diego! What fun! That is quite out of the ordinary for me, so you know it has been busy around here lately. 

What It Might Look Like to Bike from San Francisco to Long Beach

Just a little bike ride...

day six of vacation: the end of our stay

Our final night in the park was pretty eventful: rain and then HAIL! It was early on in the night time when the hail began and it lasted for quite a while. It surprised me how loud it was, even on a tent. 

VACATION: day five

July 29. Are you ready? Can you believe it? All these beautiful views!

 --Upper Falls

 Bicycles! Wouldn't it be fun to ride in Yellowstone? Amongst the bison?! Oh, look-- do you see the one in this picture? He wants a ride too...

 --Yellowstone Falls   I can't remember when I ever saw so many waterfalls all in one vacation! 

 I love this spontaneous picture! It shows just how we were all feeling at the time...er, something like that anyway! 

 On our way down the Uncle Tom's Trail: 328 Stairs down to see a view of the Lower Falls. The history of this trail is that it used to be steps along with a rope ladder that people held on to and climbed down the side of the mountain. They say even ladies in fancy dresses climbed down holding on to the rope! (Oh, and then 328 Stairs back UP!!)

 Double Rainbow!

 E&J and the Lower Falls

 Take careful notice of the stairs. You can see right through them. Ugh. 

 Inspiration Point

 Okay, so this picture is pretty, but it is hard to see what I want you to see here. We decided to take another trail to see the Grand Prismatic Spring-- remember that really cool one that I said I have even better pictures of? So we are on our way to the trail and you can see in this picture the steam that is coming up off the ground. Some of the steam even has a blue or blue/green hue. It was so amazing!

 Check out this trail! It is not an official trail yet, but rumor has it that they do have plans to put an official trail right here. Anyway, here we are jumping over logs and sort of making our own switch backs in order to get the view:

 I can hear the collective "oohs and aaahs" right now and yes, it was even better than this picture shows. This spring (did I say this already?) is 200 feet in diameter-- huge! 

 Here is a picture for you to see how large it is in comparison to people standing there on the boardwalk. See?! Huge. 

 I love how Chloe and Payton are walking together. And I love how Chloe's hair is flowing out behind her here.

Receiving their Junior Ranger Badges 

 Oh, but our evening is NOT over yet! We're on our way to find bears and wolves! (Or at least try, anyway!!) A big THANK YOU to Mark for all the binoculars we got to borrow-- and also the really cool big telescope! 

 Looking for wildlife

 Aaaaand here we are with the Wolf Watchers. Yes, a real group of people who come out every night to look for wolves. It was exciting-- and we even did spot one! Later this night after the rain and hail Eric and I even heard a wolf howl! 

There's a wolf down there...somewhere...

Don't worry, they'll find him.

v.a.c.a.t.i.o.n. p.a.r.t. f.o.u.r.

July 28. A day like any other day, except that we are still hanging out in Yellowstone. Yay! So really, the days are not like any other day. Especially because THIS is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

:: wait for it... vacation. part. three ::

Don't you love to linger over vacation? I feel like that is happening for me with how much time there is between each vacation post. Perhaps you would rather that I rush through and quit re-living this vacation? Well too bad, there are too many pictures I like so I can't cut them out! 

summer vacation . part two

July 26. It is someone's 10th Birthday and again, we are travelling...

:: Knock, knock. Who's there? ::

It's the FIRST DAY of School! 

{ Summer Vacation . Part One }

We had such a great time while we were gone....here, let me show you pictures, I think that will explain better than I could with words....

:: this week ::

I love summer! Relaxing, sleeping in, no pressure...wait a minute, that has NOT been our week this week. Though it has been a good one, we haven't done much sleeping in or relaxing at all!

{ life is full . and good }

This time of year is maybe my favorite-- anticipation of the summer schedule, but still getting a little time with friends at school. We have been running around here and there, doing as much as we possibly can fit into our days-- and we haven't stopped yet! 
I love this time of year also because we get to look forward to the fun things we have planned. This is what we have so far:

.: scrappy gift + new pillows :.

So many fun FUN things we have been doing lately! So much so, that I have a hard time sitting myself down to type. At the moment I'm sitting here in a hotel with not much else to do (read that RELAXING!!) So I wanted to share these fun things with you...

We disagreed, but I think it worked out anyway...

Do you have this too? Eric and I don't always feel the same about what to put up on the walls in our home. The result: many bare walls. When we remodeled the bathrooms last August, I knew that taking the things off the walls was going to present a problem-- getting them or something new put back on! 

:: a camera in her hand ::

Someone got a camera for Christmas... Just thought you might enjoy a look through her lens...

{Last But Not Least}

Really, he was my first...I just hadn't featured his sweet face here yet. His two sisters enjoy being in front of the camera a little more than he does, at this point.

::The 124th Rose Parade::

When we drove home from our Christmas family time, we had 6 hours to think about how we would spend the remaining week of our vacation...I could see the wheels turning in Eric's mind as he drove. At one point he asked whether or not I thought it would be crazy to try to get to the Rose Parade in Pasadena...