Dirt, Bees and Big Trees

We have had a busy and fast summer.  To end it right we went camping at Calaveras Big Trees with Arron, Marcy, there girls and Marcy's Brother BJ with his family. On Friday Tuki and Kaleem came up for the day to enjoy the beauty of the mountains and a pleasant hike through the North Grove.  All of us combined killed at least 40 bees and unfortunately didn't make a dent in the population.  Any time the stove went on the bees came.  David was stung/bit by the bees once or twice and when we were cleaning up Bryson got it on the hand.  Our families are seriously considering investing in one of those screen tents that fits around a picnic table for next summers camping adventures.  The campsite we had had a fallen tree in it and the kids had a blast climbing in, over and on it.  One of Brooklynn's favorite activities was to lay in the dirt and cover herself in it.  At one point Marcy asked her, "What about the dirt?" Brooks simple response was, "I put it in my hair."  How do you respond to that?

A cute one from David was the first day when I called out, "David where are you?" In a sweet voice I heard back, "I in the forest."  He had gone behind the fallen tree and was playing.  He is so sweet.

Here's a lot of the group enjoying a relaxing afternoon. You can see the the tree on the ground in the background.

 Courtney, Catherine and Karly playing a game of UNO

Tuki with David and Catherine on our walk through the North Grove of big trees.  There were 26 signs and a booklet you can buy tells about the trees by each number.  Andrew and Courtney read the info on each tree for us.

The whole group and proof that I was really there.

This picture sums up what David did camping.  Sticks, dirt and tress.

Marcy was adventurous and took the little ones into this big tree.

Megan and Bryson

Each morning we went to the Jr. Ranger and Cubs programs.  It was fun for everyone. On Saturday the topic was fish in the cubs class.  Here Karly and Catherine are swimming around with their gills.

Marcy and the two little fish hiding from some sort of predator. I believe one of the children in the group called out that they were hiding from tigers.  We weren't exactly sure how the tiger got into the redwoods, but we hid from it anyway.

After we cleaned up camp and said our goodbyes to family we decided to drive through the park to Beaver Creek. It was very refreshing to walk in the creek after two days of camping. 

Beaver Creek was a great way to end our camping adventure.  We certainly plan on going back again.