California Camping/Doctor's appt

So we got back last week from camping in Castro Valley, CA. That is about 20 miles east of Oakland just over the mountains. Anyhow, TONS of sycamore trees, which is a nice change from pine that are in our mountains. Anthony Chabot campground. It was beautiful! Cold, but beautiful. Low to middle 60s, but with the humidity, it was chilly. Nice change from our upper 90s to 100s. But still cold!

Saw wild turkeys everywhere.....deer once in a while.

Lake Chabot

MORE turkeys! ;-)

We drove down into the Bay area (Muir Beach) and the kids played in the ocean. I don't know how kids can do that....FREEZING water and they still play in it!

Nathan, Daniel & Sammy didn't last as long as the others. THey stayed up under the towels and blankets with me!

Three years ago next month will be Daniel's anniversary for his transplant. I got a new picture of one that I loved from back then. Anyhow, they have grown up so much!

Daniel's doctors appt went well. Dr Talley said he is doing great! Kidney is nice and soft, which is what they want.

We then drove over to Walnut Creek to visit the Olde San Francisco Creamy. We love watching Man v Food. This one Adam took on the challenge of "THE KITCHEN SINK". Almost 2 gallons of ice cream, 8 toppings, 8 servings of whipped topping, 8 cherries.....

8 hungry people.....well, mostly 7 hungry boyz......

GONE in under 10 minutes!

Lords v. Food........LORDS WON!

We did a lot of hiking around out campground. There were osme beautiful trails.

Bryce had to go to the bathroom. He lifted his leg to go and we all started laughing. Funny boy!

Found an active beehive while on one of our hikes.

Played lots of games.

Ate lots of food! Smores....YUM!

We experimented with different cookies, candies, etc. Here we tore a marshmallow in half, put a caramel between them....YUM! Threw that on a pj cookie! WOW!

On the way home we stopped at the jelly belly factory in Fairfield. Got the tour and free jelly beans! Can't beat that!

We had a lot of fun with our travel trailer. This was the first big camping trip with it. Back yard doesn't count! We were gone for 6 days, 5 nights and batterie, water and propane all lasted! We pulled up that first night and there was a big sign, "NO GENERATORS". I died! But we had power....I know, we are not 'true' roughing it campers!
Today we are going geocaching and scouting out some closer camping areas that don't require reservations.....wildreness camping.

Daniel and and iPod

So on our trip back from camping yesterday (pictures to follow) Daniel was listening to an iPod. He was singing away the primary songs. Here is my favorite:

"When Jesus Christ's bath time down in the river Jordan"

We have a little gentle correcting to do. So cute, though!

Singin' in the Rain & finger update

I can't believe our summer is half way over! Kids have done swim lessons and just plain swim a lot. Boyz had father/son campout, scout camps, I had girl's camp and next week we are camping as a family in California. (Daniel has a doctor's appt over there!)

Here is the 'fixed' finger. Super glue is amazing! Looks like I got a papercut! Took 2 weeks to heal, however. I am glad it didn't get infected with girl's camp and everything.


Yesterday we had a 10 minute burst of rain that I didn't have to coax the kids out into. Of course power went out and the surge ruined the Wii. So the kids don't know what they are going to do today! MOM doesn't know what she is going to use as bribery to get the kids to do things. Guess they will just have to do it! At any rate, rain cooled off the 100° weather down to low 80s.


Hope your summer continues to be great!