December - End

Shortly after returning home from visiting with the girls, my new camera arrived. Christian took us out to Kelso Sand Dunes to try out our new cameras. Christian got my old camera...which isn't really that old but it is the last DSLR that Canon is making, so Christian is hoping to be able to stick with that for some time to come. 

We had not been to Kelso in a very long time. We actually have never even taken the girls here because it has gotten too popular. It has changed a lot...and not for the better. As soon as we arrived, we had a problem with the Jeep's brake lights. We parked and started to lock up before heading out when Christian noticed that his brake lights were still on for some reason.

Christian had to do some serious contortions to get under the steering wheel and check on the switches and electronics to see what the problem was. He managed to get it sorted out though and we headed out to take some pictures.

We found a ton of varmint tracks all over the sand where people haven't obliterated the tracks with their own. We think that the Kelso Dunes have become a sanctuary to all the Kangaroo Rats in California. There were just tracks everywhere.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a few remaining flowers leftover here.

We had a nice long walk, which is also what we wanted. It wasn't exactly peaceful since there were some very loud parties at the top of the dunes, but overall, it wasn't too bad, all things considered.

When we got back to the Jeep, however, we found a couple of vehicles had parked right next to us and had basically taken over the campsite that we were parked at. We were not there to camp but they didn't know that and we were there first. They just intended to shove us out of the way. We were happy not to stay there. We got dinner at our Ludlow Cafe on our way back home. This time it was open but just barely. Apparently, they also close super early, so something to keep in mind.

Christmas - Part 2

The next morning, Emily went to work, as usual. Since there was supposed to be a lot of snow this week, we told Emily not to worry about adjusting her work schedule since she only works mornings and needs the money. So far, we'd only gotten a few dustings of new snow here and there but we woke to some real snow this morning. 

We decided to head over to the campus with Caitlyn and take some pictures. The wind had stopped blowing and we were getting a nice peaceful snowfall. The conditions were pretty perfect. Christian had planned to get me a new camera for Christmas. He got the kids to help him justify it since I got a new camera only a few years ago or so. He wanted to get me one of the new mirrorless cameras but we were not ready to make the change last time since you basically have to get new lenses as the mounts are different. They used to have converters for a real good deal to entice people to move over to their new system, but apparently, enough people have made the change that they don't really care anymore and the converters are not really cheap anymore.

So since I would be getting a new camera system, Christian got to take over my camera and all its corresponding lenses and accessories. Since Christian was getting an upgrade to his system, Caitlyn would get to inherit his old camera, which is still an upgrade to what she was using, which was my very first DSLR. Emily was not part of the chain of camera juggling because she never put much effort into taking pictures. She had gotten Christian's old Kodak camera, but as far as we know, never used it the entire time she has been in college. We are lucky if she snaps a couple of pictures with her phone to share with us. Caitlyn showed much more interest in taking pictures, so she was the one that got to take over my old camera last time. 

However, since Caitlyn doesn't really need so many cameras (she also got an old camera that Cheri no longer used over the summer...it's kind of like the Kodak that Emily got), we asked Emily if she was interested in trying to get into photography now. We told her that if she was interested, she could take Caitlyn's old camera on a trial basis. If she used it, she can keep it....but if it just ended up in the back of her closet or wherever she has her other camera, she needed to return it to Caitlyn, as she would be happy to keep it. She has to take pictures and post the proof on her blog that we've been trying to get the girls to post regularly on since they went off to college (with very limited success). Everyone agreed that that was a fair enough deal and she would give it a try.

Anyway, we determined to bring Emily back later in the afternoon. First we had a quick errand to run in town before meeting Emily for lunch after she was done from work. We went out for our usual Mexican Burritos. Unfortunately, the best place the kids found was all the way in Idaho Falls. Afterwards, we picked up a few groceries for dinner before we could go back on campus. 

Unfortunately, it was a bit colder by this time so it wasn't quite as pleasant out here.

It got even colder as the sun went down shortly after. The wind also picked up a little bit.

Caitlyn was still having fun but I don't think Emily was quite prepared to be out here. She only had a couple of thin socks on and her feet were getting cold. Plus she hates gloves and I've never been able to get her to wear them, even when she was just a little tike.

We went into one of the buildings on campus and warmed up a bit before finishing up.

We had some nice hot chicken noodle soup after returning to their apartment. We also got our junk in order as we planned to head home the next day as some more serious weather was moving in.

The next morning, we said our goodbye's as Emily got ready for work. On our drive over the mountain passes to leave Idaho, we saw at least three vehicles that had wrecked. One of which, was a jack-knifed semi truck. There was ice and snow on the road. This is why we needed to leave before it got worse and why we don't really want the kids to drive this road in the winter when there is any chance of weather.

Christmas - Part 1

We finally headed out to Idaho. We were originally going to try to take it easy and take two days to get there, camping along the way. However, a storm was supposedly moving in and we didn't want the camping equipment to get soaked before we even arrived to the frigid temperatures of Idaho. We hoped to stay with the girls because of the snow and because all the roommates were supposed to be gone but we didn't know if it was really going to work out. 

One new roommate moved in a few days ago and the worst roommate was supposed to move out but her stuff was still there. She was supposed to get married and move away but towards the end of the semester, she postponed the wedding. She also got a contract supposedly at another complex but they were also saying that she was moving upstairs for the winter break so nothing was definitive.

We got there without running into much weather. There was actually a lot less snow than we anticipated and less than there had been in years prior at the same time. The new roommate was supposedly on her flight home for the holidays. The dreaded roommate that was left had not been seen for two days and so we thought we were in the clear.

Caitlyn made us dinner and it was waiting for us when we finally arrived. After we settled down to relax, the new roommate returns from the airport because her flight was delayed because of fog. Emily talked to her and told her we were there and she was totally fine with that, although we were still a little uncomfortable with the situation as they didn't know her that well yet. We stayed up chatting kind of late and when we were talking about calling it a night, the dreaded roommate returned to move her crap. It was 11:00 pm! She spent the next couple of hours thumping around, going in and out of the apartment and making all kinds of racket. I think she was a little ticked that some of her stuff was moved to make room for the new roommate. But here's the thing, the new roommate payed to be there and she was supposed to be out four days ago! We just stayed in the kids' room until she stopped stomping around. It's not like anyone could sleep through all that noise anyway. We could not even start to try to sleep until well after 1:am and we did not know when she was going to come back as she left a handful of things behind, probably just so that she can keep coming back in, even though it was no longer her appointment. Emily is super ticked and e-mailed the apartment manager that they need to just get the rest of her stuff out and get the key back for the apartment from her because she didn't want her coming back in to her apartment when she no longer lives there at any time of the day or night as she wished and that if she didn't do it, she was just going to leave her stuff outside in the hall for her to collect because she is not allowed back in the apartment.

The next morning, Emily had to get up for work (now with very little sleep, by the way). The new roommate heads out shortly after to head back to the airport, but then the dreaded roommate comes back in to retrieve the remnants of her stuff and is looking for other furniture that she stashed in the other empty room (not her previous room). She makes all kinds of more noise and now Caitlyn is extra ticked and e-mails the apartment manager to get the key back from her. We found the desk she stowed away in the empty bedroom and I helped her move it out to the hallway with some other furniture that was stuck out there for the manager to retrieve. The dreaded roommate was just supposed to be upstairs for ten days and then she supposedly was supposed to move to her new apartment complex but her moving the stock apartment furniture out of her new room for her own is not something someone who is leaving is going to do...especially since she has to carry it down the stairs! At least she is not staying in Emily's apartment but the girls had so much trouble with her that they will not be happy that she may be staying in the same building. It is not that big of a complex.

So, everything was not going well. Everyone was tired and disgruntled. While Emily was at work, we went shopping for some groceries for our stay. Marian arranged with Caitlyn to buy everyone steaks and stuff for our Christmas dinner. Afterwards, Christian went out to just work on Caitlyn's XJ. She needed an oil change and Caitlyn had not been keeping track of how many miles she had driven since the last one. I didn't think she should have had that many miles on it already but had forgotten that she got her oil changed when she got home for the summer. Since then, we had take the big camping trip in the Sierras and she and Ty had been driving back and forth visiting with each other every week during the break...then she had driven over 800 miles to get back to Rexburg, so yeah, there were quite a few miles logged in since her last oil change! 

After Emily got back from work, we had lunch and we tried to relax and settle down again...and what do you know, the dreaded roommate returns once again to get the rest of her stuff because the manager contacted her and basically yelled at her to get her shit together because it was "inconveniencing" her old roommates. Emily went out and talked to her and tried to be nice an not confrontational. The girl tried to make excuses about why she had not taken care of all this stuff before. She was looking for the desk again and wanted to finish cleaning her room so that she didn't get penalized for leaving it dirty. Emily told her not to bother because the manager had already started cleaning it (and besides, she didn't pass one single clean check the entire semester, the likelihood of her actually doing any real cleaning was nil). Emily told her the manager already retrieved the missing desk so the dreaded roommate supposedly went to turn in her key to the manager.

We hoped that that would be the last we would hear from her but we were not holding our breath. We tried to salvage our visit with the kids and decided to celebrate Christmas. Marian got us a prime rib steak dinner. We prepared and had that. Then we had the kids open up their presents on Christmas Eve.

Much to our relief, we had no more interruptions from former roommates.

On Christmas morning, everyone slept in a bit as no one has gotten a whole lot of sleep thus far. We eventually had to get the kids up if we wanted to do anything. It was Emily's only day off from work and we would likely be leaving soon, so we would not have a ton of more time together. 

Eventually, we decided to go for a drive to investigate an area in Idaho. With such a late start, we knew we would not be able to get too far down our trail but we wanted to at least make sure we can find the area we were aiming for. It isn't that close though so it would take some time to get there but the predicted weather was supposed to be nice Christmas day, but they hadn't been that accurate about the weather thus far.

The view from the Middle Butte area was stunning with clouds that would flow over the mountain ranges. There was mostly blue sky early on, but the clouds increased as the day went on. We stopped in the Cedar Butte area. Since the kids got up late and we didn't know what we were going to do, I didn't make and pack the sandwiches that I had planned for the day. We had water, but basically didn't bring any food for the trip. All our portable food was in our truck and we decided to take Emily's JK.

So since the days are short, combined with the fact that we started late and everyone was starting to get hungry and we had no food, we decided to call it a day and go back to have dinner.

December

The winter break could not come soon enough for Christian. As soon as it was over, we had Marian come over for dinner. We did not know when we would be able to visit with her as we did not know what our schedule was going to be like for the rest of the month. We were anxious to go up and visit with our girls but they had nearly another week of school.

We had a nice dinner and exchanged a few gifts with Marian. We got to catch up a bit as we do not see each other as often as we used to. She brought over some things for us to take over to the girls as well.

I didn't put up a tree or even put up lights on the outside of our house this year, but I did put up a few token decorations on our mantel. 

Over the next couple of days, Christian worked on getting the back seat of the TJ put back in so that we could take his father out for a drive. The back seat has never quite worked right since we got it. We would take it on and off depending on what we were doing. It is such a little vehicle that there is very little room for storage with all the seats installed. The last time we took it out, in was such a pain in the butt that we swore we would not put it back in until we figured out a way to fix it. On top of that, a bolt broke off and will need to be drilled out or something in order to fix it.

Christian had taken the seat apart last month or so and finally figured out what the problem was. A spring had popped off. That is what releases it from the bracket that holds it down. Actually there is one on both sides and both were not engaged. Luckily, it was still attached though, so Christian had to figure out where it was supposed to be attached to. Then he removed on the rust on the frame and painted it so that it would be protected. We also steamed the foam at the back of the seat so that it restored some of the fluffiness. We didn't end up doing the other part though because it was too difficult to remove from the covering without possible damage. All this took a lot longer than we anticipated and we frankly put it off for weeks after that because the dog next door would just bark and bark at us as we tried to do anything in our own garage or driveway.

When everything was ready, we drove down to visit with Terry. We drove him out to Coyote Mountain. We came here with the girls a couple of years ago and it was really neat. Christian wanted to bring his dad but I thought the trail might be a little too rough and scary for him. The trail turned out to be worse than we remembered. It has definitely taken a beating over the last couple of years. 

We explored a bit trying to figure out the trails. It didn't really pan out as we expected and it took us a while to backtrack back out. We picked up a quick dinner on the way back as it was getting a little late. We visited for a few minutes with Jackie when we dropped Terry off at their house and headed home.

Christian spent most of the next week working on his 3D printer. He has not had the time or inclination to touch it in months. He mostly needed to wire up all his components. He actually got it up and running...at least mostly. It was enough to at least print PLA. And even without really tuning it, it was printing better than the tuned Ender...which was already pretty damned good (at least when it worked, which was not consistent or often).

We had been watching the weather all week, trying to decide when to make our trip to Idaho. Of course, as our luck, there was a storm system moving in for the week we intended to be there so that we could actually spend Christmas with them.

Christian printed me a few ornaments. They were pretty neat. He printed a few kit cards to send out to a few friends. We had plans to visit my mom the next day to celebrate the winter solstice. My sister and her family were driving down from S.F. Since the printer seemed to be working quite nicely, we decided to print the younger niece and nephew a puzzle for them to work on. I say "younger" but they are in college. We only got Collins done in time. It was a saber toothed tiger.

Anyway, we went early to help my mom with the food. Norman and Lauren showed up shortly after. Debbie and Collin were working and would arrive later and Wendy and her family were a little delayed from the traffic but all made it safely at some point.

Thanksgiving Break

We had lots of ideas for the Thanksgiving break, but one by one, they got eliminated. We tossed around the idea of going to Idaho to visit with the girls, but they never get more than the extended weekend off and they are usually busy anyway. Those professors never even give them the slightest break during the holidays. In fact, often times, they give them more to do because they have an extended weekend to do it, right?!

Our next couple of ideas went out the window because of the weather system moving in. It was going to be super cold everywhere we thought to go. We finally decided to just keep it semi-local and head into the desert as it was a little warmer than the other ideas we had. We were supposed to leave shortly after Christian got out of school, but they forecasted a lot of rain and wind that was supposed to sweep through the area. Most of it ended up on coming down this far south. We got the tail end of the storm and it didn't amount to a whole lot where we live. 

When we finally got the all clear to head out, it was already halfway through the week...which was okay as we did not plan to go far but we would miss Thanksgiving with the family. We headed back out towards Nevada but as we jumped on the freeway, we knew we made a mistake traveling so close to Thanksgiving. There was quite a bit of traffic on the roads. At some point, we were down to bumper to bumper traffic and decided to jump off the 15 and onto the 395 because if we had to sit in that any longer, there was a good chance we would just turn around and go home. Traffic wasn't great on the 395 either but it was moving for the most part. It did clear up, the further we went. We were supposed to head towards the desert when we got to Big Pine but ended up getting cut off by a train of Toyota "Overlanders" that were headed that way after we got gas. We decided not to get stuck in back of them as they were most likely headed to the same area we had planned to spend the night. 

After a while, we found ourselves all the way up in Bishop. There was not quite as much snow as we had expected up in the Sierras. It was getting late at this point, so we decided that maybe we would camp at the staging area for Coyote Flats, where we took the kids over the summer. We had never been there in the winter before and we wondered at the conditions of the road. Since they had obviously graded it somewhat recently, we wanted to find out how far we could get before the snow was too much.

It was very beautiful, but we got a bit uncomfortable with the trail about halfway up and decided that we didn't want to go any further. But instead of camping at the base, as we had previously planned, we decided to just go as far as we can towards our destination. We were also hoping that we would find a place lower and warmer to camp.

We ended up camping in the Piper Mountain Wilderness area. It was cold, but not too bad, all things considered.

We headed to the Reveille Range, stopping by Warm Springs on our way.

Because it was so cold out, the warm spring water looks pretty steamy, but by the time it travelled under the road, to the other side, it looks like it cooled off significantly.

Originally, we wanted to explore the area, but we also wanted to look for a possible camp site for when we travel to Idaho so that we don't have to do it in one day, which is pretty excruciating sometimes. The Nevada guidebook we brought along with us showed some interesting trails, but the explanations and directions were rather terrible at times. We were looking for short trails and Christian told me to choose between four that were in this area. The information in the book was a bit deceptive though. One trail claimed to be something like a 9 mile trail, but doesn't take into account that this trail starts halfway down another trail that is over 30 miles long. Most of the trails are just old mining trails. There are lots of old abandoned mines dotted all around the Nevada mountains.

When it started getting late, we decided that we needed to just find a suitable camping spot. Unfortunately, we were a lot higher up than we had thought and it was very cold out. Even though we were losing light fast, it was still fairly early out, so after we set up camp, we had dinner in the Jeep. Our Thanksgiving meal was a pre-packaged, ready to eat meal consisting of a slice of turkey with stuffing which was drenched in gravy. All we had to do was put it in a water bath and heat it up. It wasn't too bad. We've had worse. Caitlyn will never us live down the dreaded Thanksgiving we had going down the white rim trail. We had instant mashed potatoes and some weird Spam spread. I admit, it was pretty awful. We finished with a jello fruit cup for dessert. Not quite a Thanksgiving feast.

Christian managed to scrape together enough twigs and things to have a small fire afterwards. That lasted about half an hour. There is not a whole lot to burn out here but it kept us going for a little while. We then headed back into the Jeep to get a last burst of heat and read a little before finally calling it a night. At least it was no longer quite so early any more. You don't want to turn in too early as it would make for a VERY long night. I didn't sleep too well because it was so cold. It was hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. By the time I got some sleep and got warmed up some, I heard Christian get up to use the restroom, then I had to start the process all over again. We both got up pretty early. I quickly packed up my stuff and Christian started up the Jeep for me. I warmed up while he started taking down camp. When I warmed up some, I jumped out to help him. Everything was covered in hoarfrost. He could not really brush it off the tents. We did what we could and put them away.

We decided to just finish the long trail that led to the so-called short trail that we were supposed to be on. We passed a bunch of old buildings and mines. Unfortunately, people have made a mess of most of it, so they are usually not that interesting. They either leave trash everywhere or they knock down and deface the old buildings and equipment. It's pretty sad. It took us longer than we expected to finish the trail as it branched off all over the place and the directions were not very clear. We had to backtrack a little when we thought we were headed in the wrong direction and try to get our bearings. We finally made it out to the old mill where they processed some of the stuff they mined. It was the closest water source near here, so they didn't have much choice and it wasn't very convenient for them.

The sun had been up for a while by the time we got out here but the water was still very icy. We were surprised to find a good number of fish in the pond out here. It looks like someone put them in there at some point and yet they were able to survive and even thrive in the harsh environment. It was a really nice surprise.

The way out from here was a pretty straight shot back to the road. Some of Christian's clothes got wet when our water bottle must have broken while being jostled up and down some of the trails on the first day. We had spent the previous day trying to dry them but some of it was still a little damp because of the cold. He also hadn't really packed quite enough clothing, so to lose what little he had was not very good. In the end, we decided to head home as it was just way too cold on top of it all.

We got a hot dinner at our usual stop in Baker before continuing on our way home. We got back late and took nice hot showers. We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up all our gear and airing everything out to make sure everything was dry and relatively clean before putting them away and looking over our pictures and videos.

November

We had a little more going on this past month than the last one...mostly because we made a concerted effort to get out of the house, plus Christian finally got some time off from work this month for the holidays.

We celebrated Christian's birthday this month. I got him a Black Magic Speed Editor which came with DaVinci Resolve Studio. Or, you can say that I bought him DaVinci Resolve Studio and got a Speed Editor for just a little extra!

We also went on a short camping trip for Christian's birthday. Every place is crowded these days, too far or too cold. We ended up in the desert on the border of California and Nevada. We had several places that we wanted to visit while out there. Our first destination was the Chloride Cliffs in the Funeral Mountains, overlooking Death Valley.

It was very remote and beautiful.

It was a long drive up to this point and we spent longer than anticipated in this area, so we decided to camp in the area. We found a suitable campsite at the site of an old mine, not far from the cliff. Because it was still close by, we decided to go back up to the cliff to see if the view was a little clearer in the morning light. 

It was a little clearer, but still not as clear as it could be. The skies are still hazy with smoke from fires for the most part. Afterwards, we headed to the end of our trail. Today's plan was to stop by Monarch Canyon on our way out to do a bit of hiking. It is an established hiking trail so we thought it might be a good option to get some exercise and push my knee a little bit to get some movement back in it. On the way there, we ran into our first signs of people in the Funeral Mountains. Two vehicles were heading in as we were heading out. 

However, when we turned into the area for Monarch Canyon, we found a couple of vans packed with people at the hiking area. We decided not to bother and headed back out. We decided to check out a different 4x4 trail further along in Nevada instead. It was still early and we were already way out here, so we decided to check off another trail from our Nevada trail book. Unfortunately, as we were traveling down one of the main roads in Nevada, the traffic came to a complete halt. We were wondering what was going on as we were still basically in the middle of nowhere with a line of cars as far as the eye could see and beyond. Even though we travelled a long way and was almost to our turnoff, we decided to turn around and head back before everyone else got the same idea and clogged up our road back out.

It was pretty disappointing and very frustrating. We started heading back into California and tried to make some plans for where we wanted to camp for the night. We stopped in Baker to pick up a quick dinner and decide once and for all, what we were going to do. Christian wasn't feeling that well and his back was bothering him. He was afraid that it was going to get worse and he didn't want to be stuck out here camping, not knowing how bad it was going to get. In the end, we decided to just head home, just in case. Of course, part way back, we discovered that the turn signal/brake light stopped working on one side of the Jeep, so that was a bit stressful. It was just a bulb that went out.

He did end up getting some rest and going to work on Monday, but he was suffering again by the time he got home and had to take the next day off. It was a bit more manageable after that and he managed to make it through the rest of the week before it got better.

We had Terry and Jackie over the next weekend. We got to visit and catch up a bit and celebrate birthdays.

We are kicking around ideas for the week of Thanksgiving already.

October

October was a pretty long and otherwise dreary month. We didn't do too much, at least not much we want to remember.

Christian recovered enough from all the repairs on the girls' vehicles to turn his attention to our own vehicles, which were overdue for some maintenance items. He had to change the oil on the truck and the transmission fluid needed to be changed on the TJ.

The maintenance on the F-150 went pretty smoothly, but he ended up having to change the transmission fluid on the TJ three times! He got on the pans and stuff off the bottom of the Jeep, cleaned it up and put it back together. But when he filled the transmission fluid, it was leaking badly, so he had to turn around and take the pan back off. We got some new RTV and new fluid and started over again, only for it to still be leaking! All that fluid is pretty expensive and it's all a pain in the butt to take the pan off and clean it up. So, the third time around, he saved the fluid and put a cheap and seemingly warped gasket on instead of using the RTV. Amazingly, it worked with the cheap gasket. It's not like this was the first time he's changed the transmission fluid on the TJ and he's done it on all the other vehicles, multiple times, so we don't know why this was such a problem. Anyway, it seems to be fine now and is shifting better than ever.

While the TJ was out of commission, we also did some work on the back seat. We were planning to take his dad out for a drive somewhere and we need the back seat in order for us all to fit in one car. The last time we took the back seat out, we had so much trouble and broke a bolt, we didn't want to put it back in until we figured out how to fix the darn thing. It's always been a problem. Christian dissembled the whole thing and finally figured out that there were a couple of springs that was not connected which allowed you to pivot the seat out of the way to either have more storage or in order to get to the bolts to remove it completely. He is now grinding some of the surface rust off of the frame so that we can treat and paint it so that we don't need to worry about it anymore. 

It is still in pieces, however, as every time we go out to work, the neighbors dog barks at us unceasingly and it's been pretty miserable. Every couple of weeks, it will just bark all day regardless if we or if anyone else is outside. We don't even want to go out any more. It's been pretty miserable. We've talked to the neighbor, but they really don't care, we will just get into an argument with them and nothing is done. The worthless cops won't do anything about it either, even though there are noise and dog barking ordinances. They just shrug their shoulders (figuratively), and say, well, dogs bark. Laws don't mean anything anymore.

So, yeah, we haven't gone anywhere this month. It's been horrible trying to do anything in our own garage or yard, so we shut ourselves in the house and try not remember there is a world of jackasses out there. It doesn't actually work most of the time...or not for very long anyway.

September

With all the time we have been spending visiting with friend and family while the kids are home, we even got a visit from our friend David. He was passing through and decided to come by to see us. We had a nice visit catching up.

The girls and I also drove down to San Diego one day to visit with Christian's dad. We didn't have much of a visit last time because he was basically sick nearly the entire time he was here. His new medication seems to be still doing well for him but we didn't want him driving by himself to come visit until we are sure that he is doing well. He took us out to a fancy seafood restaurant and we got to sit down and the girls were able to catch up their grandfather on what's been going on with their lives.

Emily continued the arduous maintenance on her JK...including an oil change and changing out her power steering fluid. With each maintenance item completed, the vehicle is driving and handling better and better but we are basically out of time. We only have enough time to test the vehicle to make sure everything that has been adjusted on it is good before they make the long drive back to school.

The girls and I drove back out to do our big shopping trip at the Chinese Markets. The girls go to stock up on all the shelf stable ingredients they can't get in Idaho. We normally stop by and have lunch with my mom before continuing on our shopping spree. We have a routine going now and have narrowed down which stores we go to but it still takes us nearly all day. When we our done, we get ourselves boba drinks from our favorite boba place and head home. Luckily, my mom usually sends us back with leftovers so that Christian can have dinner, otherwise we wouldn't have time to finish everything we want to do.

Our nephew Brandon got married out in Texas. We had too much going on to even consider trying to make it out that far. We sent him a little gift, which is all we could do.

It's kind of sad that the as everyone grows up and moves off that we barely know everyone now. We have spent the most time with Austin and his family but Christian and I have not even met their little boy yet. That's where the girls stay as they travel back and forth from school. We've only met Mason's wife once last Thanksgiving and barely got to talk with her. We've never met Brandon's wife and apparently, Michaela is engaged to be married next Spring.

Caitlyn went to Universal Studios with Ty and his whole family. We were supposed to go out on one last drive with Emily but it's been too unbearably hot to do much of anything. On top of that, there isn't much point as we wouldn't be able to see much. The skies are filled with smoke from all the fires burning around us. 

We also got some weird things happening. Lots of little earthquakes. We got a rainstorm that came through amidst the heat. It didn't last super long but it dumped quite a bit of water on us.

We got a brief reprieve from the super hot weather with it. It wasn't cool, but it wasn't oppressively hot either...at least for a little while.

The girls spent most of the last week packing or procrastinating from packing. Christian spent the last weekend putting fluid film on their cars. We have been wanting to do that for quite some time so that all the work and money into their vehicles don't go to waste because the salt they put on the roads in Idaho ate away at the metal under their cars. We actually bought the equipment last year but didn't have enough time to do it. So Christian decided that he definitely needed to get it on the cars come hell or high water. The ZJ had it and everything under there is in immaculate condition. He spent a long time washing down and inspecting the undercarriage of the vehicles. Then he had to dry it. He ended up putting way too much on the XJ. We've never done it before and we wanted really good coverage so it took a bit to learn how to do it. Christian only ended up getting the XJ done so he had to take a day off on Monday to finish the JK. He did much better on that one and didn't have to use quite so much for coverage...which is good, because we used more than half of our supply on the the XJ already!. I think that the next time we do it, we should have enough for one more car!

Of course, by the time he finished, he was super sick. We didn't know if he had an actual sickness or if it was heat exhaustion or even smoke inhalation from working so hard out in the smoke filled air. He was considering taking another day off when he got a message from his school district that the schools were going to be closed because of the awful air quality from the fires. We had the Bridge Fire going in the Angeles National Forest above us to the west. We had the Line Fire going above us to the east and we had the Airport Fire in Orange County. Plus, there were some smaller fires going on and off around us while those big ones were burning. On Wednesday, his school remained closed, which was a good thing for Christian because he still wasn't doing well. After that, the school just decided to keep the school closed until the end of the week. 

The girls left on Thursday. It was a pretty chaotic morning. Christian's messaging app on his phone stopped working. He hates phones so he refuses to spend money on them, so his phone is actually my old phone. I've only had my new phone for a year. Emily actually had it a year before that but ended up upgrading because she didn't get one with enough memory. Since it was only a year old and I was looking into getting a new phone anyway, I decided to just give Emily some money towards her new phone. So, after only a year of having this phone, I gave it to Christian and decided to buy a new one so that Christian had a working phone but I wanted the girls to help me get it and set it up. The store opened late and we were having trouble transferring the information over. While we were gone, Christian was teaching Caitlyn how to sharpen her knives as we didn't have time earlier to do it. There is always too much going on and not enough time to do it all.

In the end, Emily got my phone working for me but I wanted still wanted to transfer my data over instead of starting over but they had to hit the road. We topped off their gas tanks and they headed out. Because both the girls were driving their own cars this time, getting updates from them was going to be difficult. Caitlyn was able to share her location data with us and we were able to check in every so often to find out their progress. It was really awesome. We worry enough as they travel and they frankly never update us quite enough as to their progress so we just sit here like basket cases waiting to hear from them. But with the location data, we still sit here like basket cases but we are able to know their location and progress as they go. When the stop for gas or food, they will text us and we can get more information, but I really like this option. Their Aunt was working so they didn't stop to see her this time. They got to their cousin's house in time for dinner and headed out again before the crack of dawn so that they would get into Rexburg early enough to check in and get their stuff done.

Ty was probably also tracking Caitlyn and was able to go over to help her unload when she got there. He got to Rexburg the day before as he did it all in one shot. We are happy that she has someone else there to look after her and help her.

Meanwhile, Christian was getting sicker, but with the kids safely back at school, we had hoped that he would able to get some better rest to recuperate. After the anxiety of the kids traveling was over, I was just left depressed that they were gone in so short a time. We didn't get to do as much as we wanted to together as a family since Christian had to work and there was so much work to be done on the vehicles. 

I actually took a temporary, part-time job doing some data entry for a friend of Marian's. He's the CFO of the company and had a project that he needed extra help with. Since I could do it remotely from home, I took it on a whim. Also, we had found out that Caitlyn will need to get her wisdom teeth out probably the next time she is home, so a little extra money would be helpful. It was probably a good thing as it helped distract me a little from the kids being gone. Christian spent the weekend setting up a computer for me. He set up a little work station for me in Caitlyn's room. I had a brief meeting with him that weekend and started working on Monday. I've only put in 5 or 6 hours a day as it is mind numbing work and my eyes get all crossed looking at all the data on the screen too long. Marian thinks I'm a light weight, and I probably am but I don't think I ever just sat there doing data entry, even when I first started working, with nothing else going on for hour after hour. So every now and then, I would take breaks to do the dishes, do some laundry or water the garden. It's not like any of that disappears just because I started working. 

Christian went in to work everyday as usual after that week. The air quality wasn't significantly better but the weather improved slightly and they were able to get some control of the fires. He was still sick and wasn't getting any better.

My birthday was the next weekend, but we basically didn't do anything because Christian was still sick, so he stayed home and took naps as much as he could. Christian's dad wanted to come over and visit with us but we didn't want to get him sick either. Emily had embroidered a neat kitchen towel for me before she left so Christian baked us some bread and used it to make it.

Christian was feeling mostly better at the end of the next week, so he took the day off to take us for a drive to make up for my birthday. We drove out to the Rodman Mountains. The air quality was a bit better than it has been but the fires were still burning. You can see the Line Fire from where we were but at least there was some blue sky above us.

As we were driving around, there was a weird noise on the driver's side of the car. It has actually always had the noise since we got it but seemed to have gotten significantly worse on this trip. We only heard it in certain circumstances....mostly when we were coasting at a certain speed. We have been searching for what it might be since we got it and started to question all the work we've done on the axle (even though the noise existed before we even touched it). We stopped in a bit of shade in a small canyon and took one of the wheels off to see if we can find it as we were starting to get really concerned. We've had problems with the brakes there before but couldn't find anything wrong with it. So we put it back together and continued on our way.

Christian was going to take us out to dinner at our little diner in Ludlow but we were dismayed to find it closed! We aren't sure if it is a temporary or permanent thing. Either way, it ruined our plans and we didn't want to waste our time any money eating at the regular fast food joints along the road. We then thought that we might see the sun set at the Kelso Dunes and headed in that direction. The sun was going down pretty quick and we decided that the dunes were going to be too far away and we wouldn't make it in time. We ended up heading home in a round about way through 29 Palms. We picked up a burrito at the Castaneda's we normally went to but found that it was significantly more expensive and frankly, not as good as it used to be. We don't go out to eat very much, especially of late, but we have found that it just isn't worth it any more. The cost is prohibitive but also the food is just crap these days. You can't even enjoy it. It is almost always a major disappointment. 

Some time after we got back home, Christian researched possible problems that could be causing the noise. He even looked at the driveshaft. Christian took another look at the wheels on the TJ to see if maybe adjusting the brakes would help. He cleaned them and adjusted them slightly and the noise seemed to have gone away! Not positive what exactly is going on with them. We actually have new brakes for the Jeep but have not had a chance to put them in. We will keep an eye on them (and keep them clean) and see what happens. Anyway, it doesn't seem to be anything of major concern at this point. 

More in August

 We were able to get together with some of my family members one weekend. My sister and her husband were in town, so we went out to see my mom while they were there. My brother and his kids came out as well. Christian stayed back home to continue working on the JK or there was no chance of finishing before the kids go back to school.

We went to hang out at a nearby park as some of the members of my brother's family was either sick or getting over sickness but we left after a while when we all started getting bit up by mosquitos. We returned back to my sister's house to chat some more but my brother and his son were hesitant to come inside. After a while, we decided to go out to dinner. We went to a Toisan Restaurant in Hacienda Heights. It was pretty good and we all ate way too much. We brought some of the food back for Christian. After dinner, we returned to the house once again to chat. My sister wanted Emily to try this weird roller thing for when her back hurts. It was uncomfortable, but it seemed to help afterwards, so she gave her one to use. It was a good visit and the girls and their cousins did a lot of catching up since they hadn't seen each other for a while and probably won't see each other for a long time after.

We stopped by the craft store to get a few supplies and look around and Caitlyn found some yarn that she absolutely loved and wanted to make a blanket out of. She ended up buying a whole cartful of this thick chenille yarn to finger knit a blanket. She finished it in less than a week. She has mixed feelings about how she made it as it seemed a little loose to her but she said that she is going to live with it until the winter and see how it performs and then she can decide whether she wants to take it apart to tighten the stitches. It is pretty big, so I think it should be fine whatever she decides. It is very fluffy and soft. 

Both girls are still working on their cross stitch. Emily is dabbling into embroidery a bit to make me some neat kitchen towels.

Caitlyn and Ty seem to take turns visiting each other nearly every week since they have come back from college. Caitlyn has also reconnected with her best friend from high school, Aubrey. Aubrey was out of the country when they initially came back from Idaho.

During most mornings and weekends, work is continuing on the JK. Emily had to change the fluid once again in the transfer case since they had topped it off with the wrong fluid, we replaced it, ran it going to Oregon and then they wanted to dump it once again to fill it with clean unadulterated transmission fluid. She also had to drain the transmission again and change out that fluid since it was old and burnt. When you drain the fluid, you only get about a third of the fluid out before replacing it with new stuff. You can't get all the fluid out unless you have a super expensive machine to simultaneously pull out the fluid while filling it with new stuff. So after the Oregon trip, she drained it once again to infuse the tank with some more new transmission oil. It's starting to look much better.

The other big thing they had to do was to bleed the brakes as it looked pretty dirty as well. In doing so, Christian found that they probably topped it off with window washing fluid as it looked green and should be a light yellow at most. And her window washing fluid reservoir was just half filled with water. It just gets more and more ridiculous as they work on it.

In fact, after we came back from Oregon, she noticed that the light bar seemed kind of loose and wiggly. It was irritating her because we could not wash the windshield when we stopped at gas stations as the light bar would get in the way of the squeegee so she took a look at it when we got home and ended up taking it off. She doesn't like the look of it anyway and it is just a nuisance. When she unbolted it, most of the screws were just finger tight and apparently, the original bolts were not quite long enough to hold it in place so instead of getting longer bolts, they filled the cowl with some janky spray foam to try to reinforce the bolts that were too short!!!

Christian's dad and his wife drove up to visit with the girls at the end of the month. We made them lunch but his dad barely got to eat anything before feeling sick. He was having trouble swallowing and kept wanting to throw up. We found out that he has been sick on and off for a couple of months now. He went to see a doctor and found out that he had kidney stones or something a while back. Then he went up to Oregon some weeks before we did and he ended up in the Emergency Room or Urgent Care. They seemed under the impression that he had food poisoning or something, but it didn't just pass in a day or two, he was sick for some time and was finally able to make it back home again.

The long and the short of it seems to be that after his last episode with his heart some years ago, they restricted his water intake but the lack of water damaged his kidneys because he was constantly dehydrated. They have him on new medication now and they have removed all restrictions on his water intake and he is feeling much better. He has some additional tests they want to do, but so far so good.

The girls took a day off to go to the beach while they are home. They went to Crystal Cove. It wasn't too crowded so I think they had a good day out.

Marian also came out to see the girls. We actually met up with her after work (she went in for half the day) in Ontario. She took us out for all you can eat lunch at El Torito and then we did some shopping. We brought back this giant box of crabs for dinner from Costco. It was pretty sweet and tasty but so much work to get into the shells! We only managed to get through a little more than half the box. She had also gotten a bunch of snacks and some food stuffs for the kids to take back to school with them.

And speaking of food poisoning, I don't think that the AYCE Mexican food agreed with me too much! I definitely prefer quality over quantity.

August

Christian had to go back to work at the start of the month. The girls and I had things to take care of. Caitlyn and I had to get our SMOG checks on our vehicles. We all had to go to the dentist. 

Emily has to go up to Oregon to visit her grandma and get things settled a the DMV for her JK, so she and Christian had to spend a bunch of time prepping the vehicle for another long trip. First and foremost was changing the transmission fluid as it is black as soot and smells burnt to boot. We don't know if they have ever changed it. While they were down there, they changed the transfer case fluid as well. They found out that the idiot mechanics at the Jeep dealership put the wrong fluid in it. They did not drain the fluid, they just topped it off or something and they obviously put the wrong fluid in it. Her transfer case is supposed to be filled with transmission fluid, which is red. They obviously put gear oil in it (which is yellow). It didn't mix very well as you can tell some of it has a reddish hue, some of it was thick and yellow and some of it was orange. The viscosity was all wrong. Some fluids don't mix at all and turns into a thick sludge. Luckily, hers did not do that and we got it out, but she drove nearly a thousand miles on it. 

Also, on their way home from Idaho, they noticed that the lights would flicker on her vehicle. She thought that her headlight was going out and got a new bulb, but when she took it apart, she found that the connector of the wiring harness for the light was actually broken and had been replaced but the bulb was fine. So, she had to order a new harness along with some bulbs for the interior that was also flickering because they replaced several of them with LED lights that were not working well with her system.

With some of our housekeeping items completed, the girls and I headed to Oregon for a few days. Emily drove her JK up to get her plates and take care of some things there. It's a grueling fourteen hour drive to get there. When we got there, we had a late dinner, chatted for a little while and headed for bed as we were all pretty tired.

In the morning, we went to the DMV to add Emily's name to the title of the JK. That took longer than anticipated as no one was aware that the DMV wasn't open until late on that day of the week normally...which was strange. Afterwards, we picked up some lunch and loaded up the kayaks to take the girls to the river. That also took longer than we thought because we loaded up and headed to the river, only to realize that we forgot the paddles! We had to take both Jeeps as we could only fit one kayak in each Jeep. We dropped them off. Caitlyn had her lunch when we were loading up the kayaks, so she was fine, but Emily had waited and she was hungry by the time they got in the river and was trying to eat her sandwich while we were casting her off.

We then drove the Jeeps 25 minutes down river to meet them. We set up chairs at the edge of the river to eat our lunch while we waited. After the drive and settling in, the girls were not that much longer before they came paddling over. We had the whole place nearly to ourselves. There might have been one or two other small groups there and the girls didn't see anybody on their journey down the river, so it was really nice. Plus the weather was nearly perfect as well.

We hung out by the river for a bit afterwards. The girls got snacks, skipped rocks and tried to catch one of the many fishes that were swimming around our feet as we sat at the edge of the river.

It was a pretty relaxing and pleasant afternoon. We went home to unload the cars and clean up. Cheri made us dinner and we watched a movie to end the night.

The next day, Cheri had booked us ride that afternoon on the Hellgate Jetboat Excursion. It's a two hour, 36 mile trip on one of their giant speedboats. We had a pretty leisurely morning except for when the girls helped clean her back windows since the house painter had just finished before we got there. The girls had been working on learning to cross stitch and had brought their projects to work on during the downtime. Cheri decided to take the girls to JoAnn's to get more supplies as she thought it was pretty neat and wanted them to continue. We ran a few more errands and had lunch before heading over to the boat dock.

The Jetboat Excursion was pretty interesting, because the boats glide over just inches of water in some places. It proceeds down the Rogue River to the Hellgate Canyon. It speeds along fairly fast, but they will slow down in certain areas to give us some history of the area, show us some of the wild life living there or when they get near others along the beach or in the water. In some of the wide open spaces, they will do  some tricks spinning around 360 degrees and splashing through the water with some of the other tour boats we are traveling with. The splashes were always fun, but you are never quite comfortable pulling out the camera when we are moving along. 

Cheri had dry sacks for us to use, so I brought my camera but only pulled it out when we were drifting along looking at the wildlife.

We left early the next morning to head back home. Caitlyn slept more than half the time, drinking and eating almost nothing. She seriously stressed me out. She finally took a few sips of water when we were back in Southern California but complained of a headache after. When we finally made it home, we got her to eat a little bowl of food. She cleaned up and went to bed after. She seemed pretty normal in the morning so not sure what was going on with her.

That same morning, Emily had to go a second time to get a filling and repair a chip on her tooth from her accident. They are also having her get a mouth guard to where at night. 

The next week, Caitlyn had to go back for a consultation from the surgeon as they want to take her wisdom teeth out. They have not progressed much from last year and she doesn't have much time left, so we are just going to keep an eye on it and check again next year. Plus, it's going to be pretty expensive so I think we will have to save up for it. Originally we thought maybe she could keep them but the surgeon doesn't think that she will have enough room in her mouth even if it does come out straight. At this point, he is worried that they won't actually come out at all and the root will just grow at hit a nerve in her jaw. So we are pretty sure she has to get them out in her future.

Meanwhile, Emily and Christian needed to continue trying to get the maintenance done on her JK since the Jeep dealership in Oregon was so inept (or criminal) that we can't rely on them to have actually done anything on the Jeep (certainly not done right if they did). Emily changed the differential fluid in both her axles. They were clearly not done. Christian worked on changing the spark plugs. That opened up a new can of worms since you have to take the intake manifold off in order to get to half the spark plugs. In the process, he found out that they removed a big insulation/spacer under the manifold which supports it and keeps the air intake cooler. The spark plugs looked like they have never been changed out as they were in pretty bad shape and were all gapped wrong and different from each other. A wire on her main wiring harness was damaged because some insulation was removed. The drive belt was cracked and near falling apart. We had to stop working and change gears continuously to search for and buy replacement parts. He ended up replacing her tensioner and idler pulleys as well. She needs new timing belts as well, but you have to take apart the entire front end of the engine apart to get to them. We just don't have that kind of time so we left that alone for now.

Summer Trip

Now that the kids are home from school, we have exactly five days before Christian has to go back to work. We thought we would have at least a week. We hoped it would be about a week and a half actually, but Rialto is starting a week earlier than last year. I don't know how they get away with that. I remember when our girls had to go back to school at the end of August instead of September and they just keep moving it back. Summer vacation is no longer almost three months. It is only two months now. Why are the kids and parents, not to mention the teachers up in arms about that?! Between Christian's dwindling summers and BYU Idaho's weird schedule, we barely have time together anymore. We are not very happy about any of it.

Anyway, on day one, we spent the entire time getting ready for our big summer trip. Caitlyn had to change the oil on her XJ. Christian walked her through it last time, but she never actually did it herself, so we saved that until she got back to do...under Christian's supervision, of course. Our plan was to drive both the XJ and the TJ on this trip. They are the most capable vehicles but do not fit a ton of gear. Christian also wanted to take the the TJ with the top and doors off.

The rest of the day was spent packing and preparing meals and stuff for the trip. It's quite an ordeal.

On day two, we got up and packed our remaining items, namely personal items, refrigerated items and snacks. We then drove to Lancaster to pick up Ty, Caitlyn's boyfriend. We met briefly with his mother. Unfortunately, because of our tight schedule, we had to start our trip on Sunday so we missed his father who was at church early for meetings. 

We then headed up to Coyote Flats. It's the same place we went last year, but we really liked it and it met most of our other requirements. It is relatively remote, not too far, and fairly high in elevation so that it would not be too hot.

When we got near the trailhead, we had Caitlyn and Ty take turns driving the TJ as we knew they would have more fun in it. Ty was a little wary of driving it as he has never been off-road in a vehicle before and he also was afraid of damaging her dad's vehicle. The road itself was pretty uneventful. The trail is supposed to be rated "difficult," but since it was so damaged last year, the forest service must have fixed the road because now I would rate it as "moderate" at best and barely that. I think they fixed it a little too well because the other downside with the trail being easier is that more people find it now accessible which makes it more crowded, which will eventually make it more polluted and damaged.

Overall, it was a lot dryer than last year, so there were less wildflowers, but also less mosquitos! We camped at our old campsite, which is nice and big, but unfortunately not quite as flat as we would like.

Since we weren't doing much except traveling this day, we went all out on dinner. I had made Indian curry and some rice back at home a couple days before and froze it to help it travel for the trip. The night before, I made the dough for naan and retarded it in the refrigerator. After setting up camp, Christian helped me to portion out and then flatten out the dough to cook. Unfortunately, we forgot to pack our cast iron pan, oil and flour, so we had to make due. It was a pain in the butt, but surprisingly, they turned out pretty good!

On day three, we kind of had a mixed bag of activities. Originally, the kids were supposed to go on a hike, but no one was sure of what they wanted to do. We were really feeling the high altitude and wasn't sure if we should just acclimate for the day. We wanted to leave our camp ground set up but quite a few vehicles were milling around and driving by, so we were afraid to leave it unsupervised. 

In the end, Christian sent Ty and Caitlyn off to scout out a trail by themselves in the TJ. I guess they turned around when they hit someone else's campsite. After they came back, the rest of us took off in the Jeep while Caitlyn and Ty stayed behind to watch the camp. We took a different trail as we didn't want to run into the people at the campsite. We took a loop to scout out the lakes I wanted to see. It was a lot longer and rougher than we had expected.

The first lake we came upon doesn't really have a name. There were little frogs all around it. We continued down the trail a bit and ran into another lake. This next one was super neat. It's called Funnel Lake. The snow falls on the surrounding mountains. As it melts, the water drains down and fills the lake but at the edge of the lake, as it overflows,  a small waterfall is created and the water streams down the rocks and disappears into some underground creek.  It does not have a pool of water at the bottom, the rocks surrounding it is basically dry. It's strange but I could not find any information on it.

It was super neat but we knew that we had been gone too long and decided to head back when another vehicle pulled into the area. 

We did stop to take a quick shot of the flora and fauna in the area. 

We finally got back and had a quick lunch while we discussed what we should do next. Christian was tired and the kids had been sitting around too long, so I suggested that they should just go on their hike. I actually jokingly said that they could just walk over to the base of Sugarloaf and head up since Caitlyn kept insisting that Sugarloaf was just a little morning jaunt. We climbed up there the first time we came to Coyote Flats and I guess she remembers it being a lot easier than I did but we parked part way up, so it was a bit easier. Christian decided to just lie down and take a nap, so the kids decided that thy would just walk up from camp as I had suggested. They took nothing with them but a bottle of water each. 

Christian woke up a short time later and went after them. We figured he would drive up back up and maybe meet them at the top. When Christian took off, I could see the kids were still heading towards the base so I thought that they would see each other and he would take them the rest of the way and they would go together. The next time I looked over, the kids had disappeared and so had Christian, so I didn't know if they met up. I stayed at camp and relaxed and read my book since my knee certainly isn't up for a hike. After a while, I decided to collect some firewood for the evening as everyone would be tired when they got back.

They were gone a lot longer than I expected. I started to get a little worried that they didn't meet up at all. But they did make it to the top.

It has a great view of the Palisades, but because all of the fires, none of our views were all that clear. From what the kids tell me, the reason they disappeared from view shortly after Christian took off after them was because the landscape dipped into this steep trough before getting to the base of the mountain. You can't see it from camp, it looks fairly flat from my vantage point. Overall, they didn't pick a very good line up the mountain...not sure there was a good one from where they started. They bush wacked up quite a bit of it, traversing a lot of rocks and boulders. Needless to say, Christian beat them to the top and waited for them with his camera and climbing on some of the bigger boulders to pass the time. Caitlyn was excited to find the peak registry. She wanted to find her entry from 2021. Ty was pretty skeptical of their climb as he's doesn't really hike up things without a trail. Emily was generally disgruntled and unimpressed with the hike. They went back down the way we climbed up the first time and Christian went back the way he went up to get the Jeep and pick them up. They definitely like the trail they went down better than the one the used to get up there. They piled into the Jeep and came back to camp. All of the kids are pale from Idaho and came back sunburnt. Emily actually got burnt before from riding around in the Jeep. Ty got burnt the worst as he didn't have anything covering his neck and ears. Christian had to introduce him to the shemaugh and he ended up wearing it for most of the rest of the trip.

On the morning of day four, we took down our camp, had breakfast and discussed what we would do next.   We were going to show them the lakes we found but Ty and Caitlyn decided that since we already saw it, that they were fine moving to the next area. First we went down to Bishop to get the kids some aloe for their sunburns. We also picked up some more sunscreen and ibuprofen too. We got then got some gas and icy drinks and headed over to Mono Lake. Ty had never been there.

Christian stayed with the Jeeps while the kids went to go see it as it is just a short trail but there were tons of people there. We've been there many times and Christian had no desire to be amongst all the riff raff. I went mainly to take a few pictures of the kids. It was hard to do as they were either standing right next to me or among other people. Some volunteer from the park service was there with a monocular trained on an Osprey nest and we all got to look into it. That was pretty neat.

Afterwards, we headed up to the backside of the lake. We have a campsite that overlooks the lake that we've been to several times. On the way there, we decided to take Ty to Bodie as he hadn't been to a ghost town before either. We tried to take a shortcut but the park services has kind of blocked off the back entrances. We found out why when we eventually got there. They are now charging $8 bucks a person to walk around in their little ghost town. That's $40 for all of us. We offered to have Caitlyn just go in with Ty and we'd wait for them outside. It isn't worth that much to go see it again but they declined. They didn't think it was worth it to go in regardless, so we just headed back out to our original destination...our campsite for the night.

There had been quite a few falling stars on the past couple of nights, so it was nice to sit out and just watch the stars.

On the morning of the fifth, and last day, we broke camp and headed back home. We had a long way to go and Ty's family wanted to have dinner with us when we brought him back, so we had to make it back at a reasonable hour. We were a little concerned about having dinner there after four days of camping, but they insisted that it would be fine so we accepted their invitation.

We stopped by Alabama Hills briefly for lunch and to show Ty around a little bit.

We didn't have too crazy of an adventure, but Ty survived relatively unscathed. Luckily his sunburn toned down some before he got back home as did the girls', but I think they will peel some before it's done.

Ty's mom made us a big pork chop dinner with potatoes and apples. That was pretty fantastic after being out camping for the past four days. We got to get to know his family a little bit, although I think they mostly talked to us rather than with Caitlyn. She wasn't contributing more than she had to. Mostly Christian and Ty's dad chatted if I'm gonna be honest! But we were happy to find out that they are very normal people and we got along pretty well. Ty's mom also made this really fancy cheesecake with raspberry sauce. It was really good too but I felt like I was going to have to roll out the door by the end.

We left a little later than we intended but it was good to get to know them. Of course, we ran into some problems with road closures and stuff in trying to get home again so it took us even longer to get back. We were all dirty and exhausted and Christian had to get up early in the morning to start work the next day.