Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Kind of laborious, actually...

But very enjoyable, nonetheless!!! Labor Day weekend would have been a 4 day weekend for us this year, but with my workaholic husband, there was no way that was going to happen. So we talked him into giving us a day and a half. I'll take it!! That's more time than we have spent with him in over a month.

Our friends, The Robinson clan, invited us to go up to The Trail of 100 Giants with them. It's about a 2 hour drive (what isn't a 2 hour drive around here?), so we packed a picnic and enjoyed spending some time together. We always have loads of fun with these guys, and it was so great to explore the Sequioas! Hopefully soon, we can go to the National Park.

These trees are MASSIVE, that's the only way to describe it. Pictures do not begin to do them justice, and I'm sure my words wouldn't either. So just enjoy all of these gigantor trees and try to imagine my commentary to go along with it.


We all loved it and want to go back again and again!


On actual labor day, we went for our first family hike. As some of you may recall from last summer, I'm really into family hikes ;) Travis, who works with Nate and also desperately needed to get away from the office for awhile, and his lovely wife Sharon, recommended Onion Valley. Travis had been that way a few years ago with the Scouts and remembered it to be a fairly easy hike. And, it's only (you guessed it!) about 2 hours away.

Evan was a champ! Thank goodness for good friends who let us borrow their baby pack. Couldn't have done it without you!
 
Here's our crew! Taking the first break in the shade.Looking over Onion Valley. (Don't worry, the trailhead alone was at 9200 feet. And then we hiked up!!!  Beautiful waterfall
Our destination was the Little Pothole Lake. What a gem!
Crystal clear water. Ahhh, water.
We enjoyed lounging by the lake, wading in the water, and watching the boys attempt to spear fish. Unfortunately, both cameras died before we could capture said events.
It was a great hike, the weather was superb, the scenery was breathtaking (literally, at that insane elevation) the exercise was much needed, and the baby, thank goodness, could not have enjoyed it more. He loved it so much, in fact, he did not nap until we were about ten minutes away from the car. Impeccable timing.
 (Picture courtesy of my phone- blurry, but you get the idea.)

I think it's safe to say we enjoyed our Labor Day weekend. Only two more weeks until we have a daddy and husband back in our lives again! :) 

7 comments:

n8'swife said...

I'm glad the backpack worked for you. It looks like a beautiful hike!

Deidra said...

Two hours to land with elevation? In my dreams! That's not such a bad trade-off for such beautiful scenery. And apparently, family hikes are so much more fun when you're not pregnant and it's your idea, huh?

I wish we were spending Conference Weekend with you guys again this year. Though I'm not sad just to be spending it in Utah/Idaho with family.

stacey said...

Man, those are some big trees :)

Isaac said...

Ha, ha. It was fun to imagine your comments as I looked through the pictures. It went something like this:
"Here we are in front of a tree... here's another one. See, its so big. Look WWWAAAYYY up. What am I doing to this child? This tree could eat that little boy. There's two trees. They are close to each other. It looks little here, but we are standing seven miles away. This one tipped over. See how small we are? Nate is trying to hold this one up. Is that a squirrel I see? There is Nate's face sticking out from behind some stuff. Aww, cute! More trees! I know, these things were everywhere! It was like a forest out there. This tree was going to eat me and Evan. Family photo op! More cute Evan."
Whew, that was fun. Be glad you have mountains nearby and cool clear water. Not all of us are so lucky. Thanks for sharing your labor day weekend!
P.S. Longest comment EVER!

Megan said...

What a fun weekend. I wish we did more family stuff like that, but it is so hard to pack them. I guess that is why we usually bike and pull them! lol. That water looks amazing too!

Carly said...

can i just say that your kind comment made my day? because it did. we have always wanted to go to the sequioas, it looks incredible and worth the two hour drive.

melissa and nathan said...

So Nathan and I went to the Sequoias and loved the time away from the hot baking valley! So glad you did as well! We took our fam there for Thanksgiving (Neil Fuller Fam) and Don's suburban overheated and died. It was fun!
Keep up the memories. I love reading them!