Tim and I had originally planned to go to Yosemite with our girls and my parents for a little camping trip in our friend's trailer; however, that was the week they were expecting a huge storm and very low temps, so we decided to make it a little easier on our girls (and us) by going to a campground in Bishop called Brown's Mill Pond.
I think the pictures do the talking best:
The first day we drove the entire way to the Sierras and needed a place to camp, so we pulled off onto BLM land and just set up, after a cold night, we were greeted by the warming sun and this sublime view:
Earlier in the day, I captured the shadow of our rig driving down the desert highway:
waking up freezing the first morning, but in good spirits:
The mill pond campground had lots of ammenities including tennis courts, horseshoes, a playground and a creek, not to mention the full RV hook-ups! My mom reads while my Dad and I play Backgammon; my parent's dog Rainey came too.
He builds a pretty good fire, considering his job is to put them out:
We brought some plastic boats for Madeleine to float in the creek and she really enjoyed launching them from one bridge where Dada was and then having me catch them farther down the creek on another bridge:
We spent quite a bit of time at the pond feeding ducks. It was amazing; I would get caught up in just being at a duck pond like any other time and then I would look up and see the mountains all around us and it would astonish me.
We took a few day trips which included Lake Sabrina:
G-money loved spending time with Nani:
Say "Cheese!"
Madeleine looks at the "Dada noman, Mama noman and baby noman":
Tim likes to dabble in photography and some of his favorite shots include jumping, throwing or action of any kind. Guess who gets to be his subject? After about 100 head snowballs, I think these next few about sum it up:
And, monkey see, monkey do:
On a different day, we went up to Mammoth, I don't remember ever going, so it was nice to see it and have the cultural reference point. We visited some snow for the girls on the outskirts of town:
Hiked up a snowy hill to the top of a vista and took a few pics. Notice the big sister/ little sister interaction...more "monkey see, monkey do":
So thankfully blessed my parents are part of my life and my daughters' lives:
One morning, Popi introduced Madeleine to the wonderful world of fishing:
She got pretty good:
G-money plays on a playground:
My parents left a day before we did. Tim wanted to try and capture the still-changing Fall colors, so we headed back up to Lake Sabrina, enjoyed a grilled cheese as a family in the general store and then drove out to some more lakes in the mountains:
Our home was courtesy of Tim's captain and we really appreciate it! I definitely see an RV in our future:
On our last day of the trip, we stopped by the Manzanar Historic Site in Owens Valley. I had read Farewell to Manzanar while teaching 9th grade; Tim and I started dreaming about all the wonderful options homeschooling will open up. Can you hear month-long Lewis and Clark expedition trail? When the girls are older, experiential learning is going to be great when it comes to roadtrips. They have recently remodeled the old community hangar into a walk-through exhibit and are still working on building the barracks. Should be good to revisit in a few years and see the progress:
Lunch in the parking lot of the Relocation Camp:
Another rest stop on the drive home, this time for yogurt and a few "baby stretches":
Sweet loves of my life:
