Schools Starting Adventure!

We always start school after the local schools start and some time during the week or so in between we squeeze in a great family adventure!
We thought it would be fun to have a fun hike with a great goal at the end, so we drove up to Lake Tahoe and hiked down to Skunk Harbor. Leili was a super hiker!


It was a nice broad dirt path but went strait down 600 ft. in just a couple miles, down hill was not so bad...

We saw circling vultures! They were waiting for us not to make it back up! :)

Getting closer!

Then we made it to this beautiful harbor!

We set up on the sandy beach, had a nice picnic lunch and then...

We hoped into our swim suits and jumped it!

Riley edged around for a while.

Dad caught me in the water even! ;)

Jake was happy to find some large logs to float around with, he named this one "fatty". This kid cracks me up!

Leili and I enjoyed nursing in the lake.

What a beautiful view (times 2, my babes are so pretty)!!!

These mountain lakes are chilly! But the sun was warm and the rocks warmed us up!

The girls enjoyed playing in the sand with Dad.

Fern was quite the builder! We stayed and enjoyed the non-activity around us having nothing to do before all the renewed rhythm and activity of the new school year. We stayed until the mosquitoes came out!

In this Harbor is an old stone house called the Newhall house... just address my letters there I'm moving in! ;)

Here we are still smiling before we started up... it was a little grueling with little legs who were SOOO tired and a baby on my back!

This is when we were almost back to the top, do you see the circle? That is the van...

lets just say we were tired and sweaty when we got to the top.

It was a beautiful day and one we will enjoy in our thoughts for a long time!

{this moment} X 2!

A Camping We Go!

We did it! We finally got away and there was NO cell service! Hooray!!! We headed out to Lakes Basin in the Plumas National Forrest and it was beautiful! Stay with me here I tool a million photos!
Our first night was just us, we enjoyed "hobo dinners" although they are most likely not called that any more nor is it P.C. I am guessing. Oh well! This was Leili's first camping trip, Fern was 6mo. old when she went but I have to tell you Fern was a better sleeper at 6 mo. than Leili is at 2 years. I have resisted taking her for that reason, the first night was really rough but the second was much better! Leili was really upset when we did not go back to our "tent house" at the end of the third day! Leili was super cute warming her hands with me!

We enjoyed the critters (but took EVERY precaution to not be visited by the bears), this bird is a Steller Blue Jay. We thought they were very pretty the first evening... the rest of the time they were a little annoying. They would show up just after meals and were very aggressive...

Leili just LOVED the chipmunks and kept yelling "hip monk" or just plain "monk"!

Our first morning after breakfast we went for a stroll to the "pond" near the camp site, Jake was on to his second injury by this photo...

Leili and I did what we do everywhere! :)

The boys had fun finding things swimming in the shallows and trying their hand at skipping stones. Fern was hot and hungry...

After our little walk we went back to our camp site and just in time for 3 cars worth of friends to show up to camp with us! Emily, Kristin, Gloria with kids in tow all came to play!

After lunch and setting them all up we hiked up to Long Lake! It was beautiful and so much fun! Leili fell asleep on my back on the way up and got a good nap!

Here is Kristin during our baby swapping so mamas could go swimming! It is great to have 4 mamas and one dad for 10 kids!

Gloria, (Brock) & Emily took the first chance and then once Leili was up Kristin and I got in. Let me tell you, this is a mountain lake, there was still snow on the peaks, lets just say the water was invigorating...

But seriously this was a wonderful day I had so much fun swimming in the lake and hiking, it was perfect!

Ont the way back down (it was about a mile hike) Jake found this butterfly/caterpillar insect. It was beautiful but we could not decide if it was suppose to look like that or if it was a little "freak of nature".

Jake picked these flowers for Leili, she was so happy to have them! They were beautiful! And as you can see by the amount of dirt on her face she had lots of fun!

Back at camp we got all the kids to eat enough dinner so that we could bring out the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers! SMORES!!!! Leili was super cute doing her "mellos"!

And eating them!

Here is the only semi-group shot we got. :( We should have thought of that...

This is Kristin's little guy Waylon, he was trying to figure his way around the smore and was most likely wondering why I was taking pictures instead of helping. ;)

The next morning we had a nice warm breakfast (it was in the 40's at night), packed up camp and headed over to hike up to Upper Sardine Lake. It was not a long hike but it was over loose rocks and did a number on my knees, but I "iced" them in the crisp mountain lake! (Yes that is snow up there!)

Leili even got in to her middle with me! It was beautiful and we saw no sardines much to Jake's disappointment. Grandpa has introduced him to eating sardines...

Dan ignored his good judgement and jumped into the icy water! But look at the fun picture he has to prove it!!

We had a lovely afternoon picnicking, swimming, and hiking before we all headed home. We are all a little home sick for our "tent house" now...

Enjoying:

: a new family picture I am going to have to frame!!

: sisters with "hot pockets"

: sister love and flops, where are the flops?

: all the soft seasonal fruit, and gorging on apricots with Cherish!
: all the ways we are stying cool, freezing in the morning, popsicles, sprinklers, and water balloon fights!

: all the outside beauty here, the hiking, the picnics, the mountain lake swimming, and the anticipation of camping soon!

Happy Monday!!

What are you enjoying right now?

{this moment}

Today

Today was exhausting, I rose before the sun and dressed in the dark quiet kitchen. When you have 4 kids you don't do that too often. As I got my things together for the next 6+ hours I was joined by the soft patter of Leili feet, I was thankful to not have to wake her. I tied my walking shoes on and Leili and I jumped in the car ready (we hoped) for our day.

As we sped along the 80 the sun begain to peek at us and I lived on the edge and took pictures while I drove.

We got to the marina and unloaded and set up our LLL booth, there was satisfaction as all our hard work came together and we could enjoy the event. Today the event was a 5k run/walk for breastfeeding awareness. I have found myself in this culture, surrounded by some of the most amazing mamas I have ever enjoyed. And enjoy I do, the support it immeasurable and the service I get to give is fulfilling beyond words.

So Leili and I & some mamas and babes, we "manned" our booth we walked or ran a 5k and our cups were filled to overflowing.

Today was a good day... one that will sustain me on some of the less fulfilling days.

{this moment}

{this moment}

{this moment} - Girl Week!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Nursing Photo Shoot

Leili and I were invited to a photo shoot to take nursing photos to submit to the Nevada Breastfeeding Coalition's annual breastfeeding calendar! It was a great experience, and so much fun. I am so thankful to now have these beautiful pictures to remember this time in our little family's life. One of the moms Brittany, organized the shoot, and Kristin and Yuliya took the photos. Brittney just wrote up a fun post about it on her blog. What a blessing it is to meet mamas at La Leche League!

Of course I had all the kids with me which turned out great (with much bribing), they helped entertain some of the toddlers, tried to catch crawdads, and then I got to have a couple great shots taken of me and the kids! I submitted (from the top) 1, 2, &4! Which is your favorite?

Away Photos!

Well we ran away for a week to Grandma's, we got to travel the "Loneliest Road in America", and we lost the boys to Grampa's house/Cub Scout camp!
We don't just celebrate the 4th, we spread it out a bit...

This is as close as Leili got to fireworks, and I ended up having to take her inside. She enjoyed the big ones the next night, she was just too worried about her boys setting off the "smaller" ones (it's Utah they are not that much smaller...).

I just could not keep my camera off this guy! He even let me love up on him a bit (he's not quite as fast as Leili yet so he can't get away as easily)!

And my whole motley crew! Aren't they cute!!!

Happy 4th!!