Family Vacation - The Sierras

We took our trailer up to the Sierra's for a fun family vacation. We were above Bishop, California at about 8000 feet for a week (July 30th-August 5th). We stayed at Upper Intake 2, just below Lake Sabrina and close to North Lake. It was BEAUTIFUL!! (Yes that is snow - in July!)


We spent time hiking...

playing in the river...


and fishing!


We had to keep a close watch on Bradin, because he had his own ideas about how to catch a fish...his way didn't work so well, but it kept me nervous!

Everyone else was successful using the traditional method of fishing (even I caught a fish)!





Norm decided that the kids had to help clean what they caught. So he gave them a lesson on cleaning fish....

and made them do it...

not everyone was excited (notice Ryan in the background, waiting for his turn)...

but eventually everyone (except me) helped clean fish...


There were other fun things we did too - we hung out, had campfires, smores, campfire stories, watched the stars, read books, ate good food, ate bad food, watched movies and played games. We went to Cardinal Village - we saw the boy's pictures proudly hanging on the fisherman wall of fame from last year's visit.


This year, we wanted something else that would make this trip memorable, so we tried something new - we rode horses!





This was the first time that the kids have been on horses. We rode from Cardinal Village up to the abandoned gold mine. We had a blast!! I'm still trying to convince Shelly that we can't keep a horse in the back yard.


It was great!! Such good times - some that I have been banned from blogging about. But I'll sneak this one in - vacation wouldn't be vacation without dad's silliness...

The week flew by! On the way home we went to Manzanar - the Japanese Relocation Camp located near Independence, California (kind of ironic isn't it?) We toured the location, learned some important history, and Ryan and Tayler completed the activities necessary to become Junior Rangers.

We had a fantastic vacation!! Full of all of the greatest things! We were reminded about the beauty and majesty of nature and the joy of being together. These are memories that will be cherished for years to come!