Sequoia

The day after my family left, we packed up to go camping at Sequoia National Park. Wow!!!!!! We had a BLAST!! We had never been there before. It was so much fun, I wish I could write every detail of every day. We were there August 9-13. We saw bears EVERY DAY!! Our pictures aren't too great though because they're from a cell phone (it's all we had!!) We hiked through the most gorgeous meadows and forests every day!!! I am now IN LOVE with Sequoia trees! I also had SO MUCH fun cooking-- I love camp cooking. We had campfires every night and s'mores every night. (Still trying to lose that weight.) What a wonderful camping trip!

Our first day, we set up camp, went swimming in the stream just next to our site, went to the visitor's center where we saw a movie about bears and then later hiked to "Tharp's Log" a cabin made from a tree trunk. We saw our first bear at the cabin! (But he was too far to get a picture with a cell phone!) :) We were scared at first!

Our second day, we hiked down to the Crystal Cave and went on the tour! On the way back to camp, we followed a bear in our van that was going along the road on a hill!

Our third day, we were laying in our tent looking out the door and I spotted a bear across the stream! It was pretty far away, but it was exciting and we got out and tried to get a better look. Later, we went to see the "General Sherman" (the biggest tree in volume in the world!) It was huge!!!! We also went to the Beetle Rock discovery center for the afternoon which was a fun kid's science center with lots of fun activities for kids. Then I took Bella and Olivia on a hike to this gorgeous waterfall.

Our fourth day, we had to clean up and pack up to go. But after that, we went swimming in a beautiful part of the stream and then went on a guided hike through forest and meadows. We learned so much! At the end, we saw FIVE BEARS in the meadow!! They were eating flowers! We saw a mama and a baby and then another mama and a baby!! We saw the second little cub climb quickly up a tree after it's mom snorted at it!! It turned out there was a male bear coming!! (Did you know a male bear will kill a cub so that it can mate with the mom?) Before we left, the girls became "junior rangers." They worked very hard over the trip doing a workbook that they got on our first day. They got badges!

We had so much fun! We hated to leave! But we were going to Fresno so that we could take a tour the next day of our dairy farm that we get our milk from, Organic Pastures.

We got a tour from the owner, Mark McAffee!! Here we are with Mark and our cows that eat organic grass!! :) We had such a wonderful vacation!!