Summer Fun

I decided to take the boys to Arnold for a long vacation (alone, yes I am crazy). I was lucky that my Dad came up with us Wednesday and left this afternoon (Saturday) - he claims he had a good time, not too sure. The boys have been ON FIRE. No fun for anyone. Today we decided to go to Big Trees State Park - we are so lucky that it's a mile up the road. It is a beautiful place. We got there just before 10am and found out that their little camp starts at 10am - perfect! (and the boys were excited for it). Todays theme was noses - we learned all about animals noses... did you know that bears can smell up to 3 miles away!!?? Here the boys are listening to Ranger Theresa tell them all about noses.

After they went on a tour inside the visitors museum and got to see all the animals whose noses they talked about (stuffed not alive) they got to do a craft and make their own noses. Grant is showing his off - so cute!

This is the Pioneer Cabin Tree - this tunnel was carved out in the 1880s (pretty impressive right?) Cars used to drive through it. I learned on our hike that because of the huge cut, this tree can no longer support the growth on top, which you can see lying on the ground when you walk through the tunnel. The opening also has reduced the ability of this tree to resist fire. On branch bearing green foliage tells us that this tree is barely managing to survive. All in all, we're a little sad that they carved this tunnel - but the tree is so huge it is impressive.

The boys are actually getting along (this happens about 2% of the time so it's pretty easy to document). They love climbing through every hollow tree and up every single rock.

This was such a cool bench! It reclined so you could look up and try to spot the top of the trees (you couldn't see it). It was a lot of fun.

July 16 - 19, Brooks and I were lucky to get to go to Cabo San Lucas for the Bowen wedding (without the boys). Boy was it hot, and I mean REALLY REALLY HOT. Gina looked beautiful and the wedding was so special happening on the beach and the bride and groom riding away on horseback, we were so glad we could be there to share their special day with them.

Mason lost his 3rd tooth - and so cute it's one of his front teeth. It had been loose for a LONG LONG time - it was hanging lower than his other front tooth, we were VERY glad when it came out (ok, so I was glad). I told him he needed to work on it to get it out. We were in our room and Mason comes in and triumphantly states "My work is done here!" and holds up his tooth. It was too funny. Where do they get those sayings?