Sunday, June 16, 2013

Yosemite

Today, on the last day of our eleven day tour we visited our sixth National Park and the one nearest and dearest to our hearts, Yosemite! First a snowball fight, then a scramble up Pothole Dome and finally a picnic lunch at Tenaya Lake rounded out our quick visit. Now we are back home facing a mountain of laundry.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Great Basin National Park

We set up camp next to a rushing stream. Kelton quickly mastered the log bridge. His brothers were soon to follow. After setting up camp we drove up to 10,000' altitude to view the 13,000' Wheeler Peak and hike around the alpine zone. The next morning we were 130' underground touring the Lehman Caves. It's definitely been a trip of contrasts! After our cave tour we drove across Nevada on the loneliest stretch of highway I've ever seen. No cell service most of the way and only two real towns all day. We made it to June Lake, a little town on the Eastern Sierra. It feels like home already. Brennan rolled down the window and kissed the outside when we crossed the border into California. Finally we drive home through Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite and sleep at 'real house' tomorrow.

Driving Utah

Utah is huge! We drove from Moab in eastern Utah to Great Basin National Park. Quite a contrast from hot red rock country to camping by a cool mountain stream in basin and range country.

A cowboy evening at the Bar-M Chuckwagon

We had a blast at the cowboy dinner/show in Moab, Utah. Kelton inspected the authentic chuck wagon and tractor. Weston and Brennan enjoyed playing horseshoes. Then there was an old western style shoot out - too noisy for Kelton, but Weston thought it was exciting. A cowboy dinner served on metal plates with tin cups was delicious. Weston and Brennan even got up on stage to try their hand at lassoing. We all enjoyed the live music show.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Arches National Park

We made it to Moab. The kids are loving rock scrambling.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Treat!

After touring three cliff houses, which included lots of climbing in hot weather, Weston really enjoyed his chocolate chip ice cream.

Balcony House

Today we saw Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House and Balcony House. Cliff House was impressively large. The kids loved going into a kiva at Spruce Tree House. The favorite was Balcony House because of the tunnels, ladders and cliff stairs that we had to climb. The photos are from Balcony House.

Setting up camp

We arrived in Mesa Verde and set up camp. Lovely site with friendly neighbors.

Sunday, June 09, 2013

Brennan at Grandview

One of many lovely awesome viewpoints. We tried the trail down for five minutes, then decided that a 1600' drop in the first mile was more than we wanted to tackle.

Little boy, big canyon

We were all suitably impressed with the Grand Canyon. No boys fell in either, so we had a successful trip.

Today we saw the Petrified Forest. We love the colors! The 100 heat was a bit of a problem. Hopefully it's a bit cooler at Mesa Verde tomorrow.

Friday, June 07, 2013

Campsite

Tree climbing in our campsite at the Grand Canyon. We haven't seen the canyon yet!

Thursday, June 06, 2013

On the road

We are headed out on our tour of the Southwest. Weston and Brennan are doing scratch art in the car. Kelton has set up a wireless network so he can test his HTML files from his laptop to the iPad. Tonight we will stay in a hotel in Needles, CA. Tomorrow we will be at the Grand Canyon!

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Pineapple day

Today Kelton cut open the pineapple. We ate half the pineapple fresh then made pineapple upside down cake with the rest. There's first a photo of pineapple right side up cake, then the finished project. It was our last official homeschool project. Delicious.

Monday, June 03, 2013

Peddle boats

Today's adventure was peddle boating at Shoreline Park.

Saturday, June 01, 2013

Memorial Day weekend

We opened our cabin for the season this past weekend. Luckily we found no winter damage. The boys were ecstatic to be back at the lake. We revisited some or our favorite spots, enjoying the very early spring season.

A game of Candyland, played on my childhood board, was enjoyed in front of a crackling fire. We even kayaked in a light rain on our last day. The boys did not want to head back to 'real' house.

Banana bread

Our first flavor of the week was coconut, our second was bananas and next will be pineapple! Cooking is a delicious part of our homeschool curriculum.

Artist at work

Brennan is very inspired by the petroglyphs he saw on our last desert trip. He has been making rock paintings for weeks now.