High Sierra Camping Trip 2012

We decided that this year's camping trip would be more of a car camping trip (vs. backpacking like we did last year). We were going to drive farther and see more things. All in all, we drove over 800 miles on our trip. Amazingly, the kids did great. No one even got car sick...which is quite a record for them (much to our relief). We did make many stops to let the kids stretch and rest a bit.

Day 1:

We drove up past Mammoth Lakes and looked for a campsite and wound up on a trail to this really neat overlook. You can see Crowley Lake on one end and Mono Lake at the other. It was pretty awesome. You pretty much need a 4x4 to get up here. We were tired from the long drive and had yet to find a campsite so we decided to camp somewhere close and try to get up early to see the sun rise from Bald Mountain Lookout. It seemed a bit ambitious since we were with the kids, but it would be worth it to try.

No lousy camping food for us on this trip. We pre-prepared and vacuum packed all our dinners before hand. It was a lot of work but it was tasty, easy to prepare and clean up afterwords. We basically just boiled the bags until the contents were hot and cut them open to eat straight out of the bag...much like MRE's except edible!

Day 2:

Believe it or not, we didn't get much sleep but still woke up at the crack of dawn, packed up our campsite and went back up the hill to the lookout in time to see the sunrise. It was the girls' first sunrise. They were excited...well, as excited as you can be with only about 5 or 6 hours of sleep for a little kid.

We were all armed with our own camera. Emily got a camera from my mom for her birthday this past year. Caitlyn was using my first digital camera.

She took some really awesome shots of the sunrise. They are pictures I wouldn't dare try with my fancy camera. The direct sunlight isn't good for the sensor and I wouldn't want to take too many chances.

We had the lookout all to ourselves. It was breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful. What more can you want?

Before we left, we spotted a bunch of deer passing in the distance. 

We headed over to the next hill over to see if we could see a different perspective. It was a pretty steep trail. I couldn't get a picture to really show how steep it was. At one point, we were at almost a 45 degree angle. It was kind of scary. I mean, you would seriously have trouble walking up this hill.

I always complain that I don't really get to use my 4x4, but we used it quite a bit on this trip. We would not have been able to make it down a lot of the trails we went on otherwise...especially this hill. I don't think the kids enjoyed it too much though. They were a little scared as they saw how steep it was coming back down the hill.

Afterwards, we decided to go back through Mammoth (Christian's memory card was filled up and we desperately needed another one). We were going to take the girls to the Devil's Postpile and Rainbow falls but found out that you have to be bused in. We expected to have to pay to get in, but we didn't expect to have to be bused in on some tour bus. Christian and I have been there before we had kids but the girls had not seen it. But in the end, we decided that there were plenty of other places the girls have not seen and wasn't going to spoil our trip by going on some tour bus full of tourists.

We decided to head to June Lake. That's where Christian and I had our honeymoon and holds special memories for us. We had actually never been there in the summer before and found it pretty crowded.  We did spy some more deer going through the woods around the lakes. The kids were so excited to see so many deer all around us.


We had a picnic lunch next to a stream and we dared the crowds and stopped for the kids to get their feet wet at the June Lake "beach." It was so refreshing and beautiful. It was so nice that Christian and the girls ended up getting a little more than their feet wet!

You can't even tell that there were a lot of people there from the pictures. I found that if you point the camera at certain angles and time it just right, you can cut out a lot of the extra people in the background.

Next, we headed to Mono Lake. We started off at Panum Crater. Christian and I had not been to this part of Mono Lake before. The most exciting thing that happened though, is that we saw a mini-twister  or mother-of-all-dust-devils coming in our direction. Luckily, it dissipated after a while.

It went up more than a mile high. I took a wide angle shot of it. It was about two miles away. It was pretty exciting...especially since it was far off and dissipated before getting too close!

The Mono Lake Tufas were next on our itinery. Unfortunately, since the last time we came, they now require some special parking pass on top of an entrance fee (per person) to go see the tufas. Everything is getting so ridiculous. Christian decided to just walk the girls in anyway. The ranger looked over at them but didn't bother stop them. I waited in the car in case someone was checking for the parking permits since I've been there several times.

Of course, the last time we came to Mono Lake was seven and a half years ago. I was pregnant with Caitlyn still. Emily was not yet two. She wouldn't be able to remember any of it.

It was a pretty long day. You can get a lot done when you start your day at 5 in the morning! We were pretty wiped out by the time we finished with Mono Lake. The girls had taken naps on and off during our drives from one place to the next though. We drove about again looking for a new campsite but we ended up going back to the one we camped at the previous night. Somehow, it felt a little like home. We set our camp back up and had dinner. We had a small fire this time and roasted marshmallows for smores and then called it a night. Needless to say, we slept in this time.

Day 3:

We woke up late and took it easy this morning. We had a leisurely breakfast and took down camp once again. We headed out to check out the Inyo Craters. We had not been there before. We got to the general area with no problems, but once you got into the woods, there were no signs telling you where the heck the crater was. The hills are littered with fire roads that went every which way. They are used for snow-mobiling mostly. We drove up and down those roads for nearly two hours looking for the place (along with a slew of foreigners looking for the same place).  It was insane. There was a whole mountainside full of lost people looking for the Inyo Craters. Whoever was in charge of putting up the signs for that place should be shot. A lot of the foreigners also had tour books. They were useless in helping them find it as well. We finally got out and started walking and ran into someone who finally found it and pointed us in the right direction.

The first crater was pretty accessible but after we continued on for a bit, it got pretty steep and the trail was not very defined. Which isn't surprising considering the time we'd had finding the place. Christian and Emily continued on to the top but Caitlyn and I headed back for our car. They made it up to the top but it was pretty scary from what I heard.

I think we were all done with our camping trip at this point and decided to head on home. We stopped by our old stomping grounds at Horseshoe Meadow for dinner and continued on our way home.  Unfortunately, our check engine light came on part way home which made the ride a bit tense. And then the 395 we ended up as a parking lot in Johannesburg. We were stopped for about 45 minutes. Apparently, they were slowly moving part of an airplane from Red Mountain. It's huge and they had to block off the entire road to move it. We had actually seen it on the side of the road on our way up. We knew that it would be late when we got back. We actually planned it that way so that we would not run into traffic. We didn't expect that they would be moving the wing section of an airplane down the road!

We didn't get home until l1:pm. We had to wake the kids up and give them a bath so that they could get into their soft clean beds.

Overall, it was a pretty great trip. Although, we still have to put a lot of our camping equipment away, we have a pile of laundry a mile high and Christian will be spending the next few weekends trying to find out what is wrong with our car and trying to fix it up in order to pass the smog check for my car that is due in another month.

More Misc. Stuff

We were super busy over the weekend, preparing for our camping trip. Christian spent all Saturday tuning up my car for the trip. We took a short break to take the girls to the Pioneer Day celebration and to grab a quick bite to eat.

After I got my hair cut at the beginning of summer, I thought it would be Caitlyn who would want to follow suit and have her hair cut. I miss her sassy hair cut. And she did want it cut...for all of one or two days afterwards, but since we did not have time to cut it right away, she changed her mind after a couple of days.

But Emily, who normally always wants long hair, actually wanted her hair cut for the summer. She was actually really naughty over the Spring and chopped off a good chunk of it in the back underneath. I could never quite get out of her why she did it. I can only assume she was bored or something. She certainly didn't want short hair then. And the only time you could even tell she did something weird was when she put her hair up because the little hairs underneath were not long enough to be included in her pony tails or braids.

After the many days of extreme heat and because she was tired of people pointing out her weird hairs in the back, she decided to ask me to cut it off to even it out.

Her hair is super thick and so very difficult to cut. I'm going to have to cut it several times to try to even it out in the back. I do not like to cut her hair. It is impossible. I'm glad she likes her hair long normally. It's  a lot easier to deal with.

Summer Reading Program

We've had lots of trials with the girls this summer. They've been fighting a lot...and not just because they've been home and together a lot. They started fighting as soon as school let out. It's been difficult.

One thing they were really good about this summer was reading. In fact, they completed the summer reading program in record time this summer. So, when we got a couple of mild days earlier this week, we jumped on the opportunity to go to Castle Park before the heat started up again.

They still love a lot of the kiddie rides and will get on all the ones they are still allowed to go on.

It is still difficult to get Caitlyn to get on some of the bigger rides. She seems to be afraid of them, even if she rode them willingly and had fun on them last year, so Emily had to ride a couple of them by herself. Caitlyn's new favorite rides were the bumper cars and Kings Crown though. They rode on them so many times. Caitlyn is just barely tall enough to ride on some of them without me.

We have also gotten the girls started on real chores to help around the house. They've been doing their own laundry this past year now (with mixed results depending on how lazy they were feeling at the time). But we've gotten Emily to help out with vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom now. So she cleans their own bathroom every week and I find that she is a bit more responsible in keeping it clean and organized daily, now that she has to clean it. Caitlyn usually tried to keep it clean and organized for them both. It has been a great help now that Emily is old enough to help out around the house. What's more is that it is still new to her and she is still excited and willing to do it. We'll see how long that lasts!

Polynesian Dance Lessons

Auntie Marian wanted to sponsor the girls in some activity this summer again. This time, we decided to go with Poynesian Dance Lessons. I thought about it last year but couldn't really see the girls actually doing it. They are generally too shy to do anything like this. We decided to consider it again, now that they are a bit older. They seem pretty excited about it so far, and they actually did what the teacher asked them to do in their first lessons, so I am hopeful.

I don't know how much they will learn over the summer (especially since the teacher is off on vacation for the next couple of weeks) but it will be good for them. I don't think we can keep it up during the year, so we'll have to see. It's a lot harder than it appears!

HOT

The summer heat has finally set in. This week...wait, last week...we pulled the pool out of storage and set it up for the kids. It's getting hard to keep track of time. It's all a blur. We got some over cast days but it was still hot for the most part. In fact, we got some flash flood type weather one night. It would have been pretty awesome if it was not for the warm temperatures. It could have been worse.

I didn't really plant a summer garden this year (for which I do regret), but we did get our apples in. They are coming along nicely. It is the only fruit trees that are not constantly molested by varmints so we actually get some fruit. However, when we start to overflow with fruit, we get excited about having enough for apple pie...and when it is over 100 degrees out, you don't feel much like cranking up the oven and making pie. I wish we had them in the winter!

I've experimented with apple cakes and apple muffins, but they only use a couple of apples to make. The only thing that uses up a whole bowl full of apples in a hurry is apple pie. I considered making applesauce but it's not quite as fun to eat as, well, pie!

Misc. Stuff this past week

On Monday, Caitlyn lost her first baby tooth. We were trying to get her to yank it our herself, but she was too afraid to do it. She loosened it to the point where it was just dangling in there and she could barely use her front teeth to eat so we told her if she didn't get her tooth out herself by the end of the day, we would do it for her...and that is exactly what happened. Christian gave it one quick pull and it was out before she even knew what happened.

That was late Monday night, so we didn't have her write the tooth fairy yet. She was supposed to work on that the next day. But by the time we got back from swim lessons and the girls got cleaned up, I found out that she lost the tooth...for good. No tooth for the tooth fairy. I was pretty upset about it. She didn't even tell me she lost it until half the day was over and then by that time, there was no way to find it anymore. We searched but it's gone. It was such a very tiny tooth too! So sad.

There was no swim lessons on July 4th. They would normally let them make up the time if they are closed for some reason, but not this year. We are out of luck. The city totally rips everyone off on the second session because you only get 7 days instead of 8...of course it costs the same amount and they did not really clarify this or I would never have signed up for the second session. I won't make that mistake again.

Our church had a flag raising ceremony and pancake breakfast on the fourth, but we are usually too lazy to get dressed and get the kids to get dressed before 8 in the morning on a holiday, so we had our own breakfast and flag raising!

Our friends, the Deans' have an annual fireworks watching party at their house so we usually go to that in the evening. Brett does an awesome bbq plus homemade ice cream and this year he even made a homemade root beer! We all brought deserts and side dishes.

There were no big fires to interrupt the fireworks show this year, so it actually finished at a decent hour, but we ended up getting home late still because the girls love to play with their friends.

We got notice from the school district that Caitlyn is now eligible for GATE. So far, the only benefit to that is that her next teacher is pretty much assured. Her 1st grade teacher hinted at it at the year end party so it's not exactly a surprise, but I am happy and relieved about who her teacher will be...at least for 2nd grade.

Thursday was the girls' last swim class for the session. Caitlyn was doing much better this week (except for Monday). But it was not quite enough to get her past this level (especially since they cheated her a lesson). So she will have to repeat level 3 again next time...which was not unexpected. The last couple of classes was really promising though, so I think as long as we get some practice before her next class, she'll be comfortable enough in the water to do it all next time.

Emily's class was already combined with some level 5 kids, so I was positive she would be able to move up a level. She kept up with all the other kids (and actually did better in a few things). She loves swimming and is doing really great.

Swim Lessons

Last week, we started swim lessons again for the girls. Emily is now in level 4 and Caitlyn is starting level 3. I was confident that Emily was ready for level 4, but I was a little worried about Caitlyn. It seems that she only barely passed the requirements for moving out of level 3, but she is at the same level as the other kids in her class so I guess it is fine.

Emily is mostly refining some of the skills she learned last year (i.e. diving, side breathing, backstroke, etc.).  She is also working on some new ones like the butterfly and breast stroke. She is doing pretty good. I have no doubt that she will be able to move on to level 5 after this week. In fact, she is combined in her class with a couple of level 5 kids and she has no trouble keeping up with them.

 I was a bit worried when Caitlyn started lessons because while she is capable, she has not entirely conquered her fear of the water. On her first day, instead of reviewing their skills to see if all the kids were in the proper class, her teacher jumped in and had them start learning to dive and tread water, I didn't think it would go well. But she did good, I was pleasantly surprised. However, as the week progressed (and having a substitute on one of the days), she seemed to start to regress and seemed less confident and less willing to cooperate. She is doing better this week again but I don't think she will be moving up a level this time. In fact, if they do move her up, I may just re-enroll her in level 3 until she becomes more comfortable in the water. The level 4 kids do all their swimming in the deep end. There is no way she can handle that!

Both the girls are learning though and having fun, of course. We'll see what happens when their classes end this week. Hopefully we can get some practice in between. I would like to enroll them in one more session before the end of summer. 30 minutes a day for 4 days a week, for two weeks really isn't a whole lot of practice.

I did take them to swim at a friends' house on one day last week and ended up getting a parking ticket that costs more than their swim lessons so I will be wary about doing THAT again! It was street sweeping day and no one bothered to mention that fact to us! Anyway...Emily did get so much better in her dive there because she kept wanting me to go into the water with her but I stayed out with most of the moms since they didn't really need me in there and there were so many kids in the water. I told her if she did a good dive, I would go in (I didn't think she would be able to do it). But one thing about Emily is that she is tenacious when she wants something. I'll tell you, she dived in over and over and over again until she started to do them pretty well. After all that work, I couldn't not go in!