When in Placerville

First stop after a long drive was to my sister Merry's house. They had new kitties. This trip was all about cousins and kittens!

We then made it in time to pick some veggies at grandma's for dinner. I always forget how beautiful it is. Look at the view. Wish I could raise my kids up on the hill.

They loved working in grandma's garden.

We brought their old bikes to ride around. You can see my dad working on part of grandma's new chicken coop.

Even grandma has a kitten

That poor kitty never found a good hiding spot

O and his buddies. It's so nice to go to grandma's. Both Wendy and Teddy live there.

Jarom made grandma and grandpa visit the magic tree house

My brother baby Joe is getting really good at the piano. Little fingers always love to help make music.

Our pool party

turned into a tattoo making party

Walked up the hill to play at great grandma's

got dizzy

Grandma came to Oey's rescue

Grandpa played with Emma

Naomi brought over her new cat.

Waiting for the new bride and groom. My whole reason for coming to CA.

Me and my cute niece Katie

Whitney and Brandon!!!!!!! xoxoxooxoxoxoxo

Right after the wedding I hurried up the hill to the river. My parents took the kids up there for a nice cool dip. Daddy coming to Merry's rescue. Those are her two babes. She has THREE more. She is a champ!!

Me and little sis Merry

mud pies coming right up

Of course Jarom makes a friend and steals their floaty.

Taking a break

And this is the end result - dead tired

4th of July

Carl and Dolly are feeling it

Gramps and the kids watching the flag

Going for a little ride

Jarom wanted to take everyone for a ride.

Lunch with Nana!

BBQ and pool party at Heather's

Mikie to Bella's rescue, she had a sliver

Down to Folsom to get fireworks, but they were all sold out!!

We improvise with some snaps and party poppers

And enjoyed the real firework show

Someone finally found the perfect opportunity to play in the fire place

Poor teddy had a bad break.

Dinner on the rocks

Let the hiking begin!

Oey cried and wanted down. He said he wanted to climb like spiderman! He set a nice pace.

Found some friends along the way

Momma's little troopers

This path is fun and beautiful, the kids don't even realize that they are hiking. The outdoors are wonderful!!

Little miss thing felt so special with her very own pink camelbak.

Sunday dinner- yum.

In front of Stewart Falls.

Jarom found this pinecone and could remember the name of the tree it's from because of the story my dad told Matt and Matt then told Jarom. Got to love stories being passed down. It's from a Douglas Fir.

Bella brought her jump rope. It came in handy and made for a fun walk home.

father's day and big baldy

My choice for Father's Day was to retry Big Baldy. We tried previously in November 2008, but only made it a little way up the mountain before dark [pictures from that attempt].

This time we made it *much* further--probably about 2/3 the way up--but still turned around at about 7 pm because of the high winds. We've been taking the southwest ridge's virtually nonexistent trail which is extremely steep. I'm very proud of our five- and six-year olds who would've kept going if we had let them!

Amy and I will be back to conquer this mountain on our own. Same trail. I refuse to try the easier shoulder route now (at least until we've made it up this route once).

Here are all the photos from this excursion on Flickr.


with my M&M bowtie Bella made me at church

Here's the little peak while driving to the trailhead. It really doesn't look very big, but it's almost 9,000 feet with the scraggliest excuse for a trail you've ever seen.

starting off

through the woods

coming out of Dry Canyon

Everything in such beauty around us. So green due to our incessant June rains.



okay, this picture is nearly identical to a picture we took from the last try (below)

see--cutest little trio of troopers I know (from November)

notice Oey gripping his sword of the moment

a Sego Lily! Utah's state flower. Very beautiful, we're lucky to got to see one.

in the thick of it now

looking at Cascade

there's Utah Valley way out below us, up against Utah Lake



see that wind? at this point Amy and I decided to turn around. The kids were doing amazing and easily would've kept going. I had told Jarom that if they made it to the top, I'd call the newspapers and tell them a five- and six-year old hiked a 9,000-foot mountain on their own. He really wanted this to happen. On the way down he asked me, "Dad, can you still call the newspaper?" I told him I couldn't, and he said, "You can just tell them we made it halfway up."



can you tell how steep it is? this was fun barreling down, but we had to be careful to keep our footing. At one point I slipped, then Bella slipped, then Jarom slipped, all in a row. Dangerous stuff.

Amy gave Bella a piggyback much of the way. It was actually quicker this way. She's got a tough momma.

Jarom taking off

The kids found this teepee on the way down, and they both demanded to be photographed in it. #1

#2

Oey once again holding the sword of the minute, now it's a frail grass stem.

Another teepee to explore. They saw this on the way up across the meadow and we said they could go to it on the way down.

leaving Dry Canyon