Water World

We had two big vacations this summer-- LA/Palm Springs right away, which you have already read about, and this trip to visit my sister and Andrew in their new home in Colorado, which we are just returning from.  When Dave did their wedding in September, their thank you gift was airline tickets for us to visit, so we were thrilled to cash those in and see their new state and home.

Our priority was, of course, to spend time with them, but Heather is an adventurous soul and packed our week with super fun activities making the week of vacation feel especially full.  Leading up to this big trip, I was getting hilarious texts from Heather that said things like, "How do you guys feel about class 5 white water rafting???" or "I found this company that will take us up a mountain on an ATV!  What do you think?" ;)

Our first day in CO and first outing was a total blast!  Heather and Andrew took us to the best water park ever, located in Denver.  Here we rode water slides unlike any we'd ever been on before. 

There were roller coasters!  Like, uphill and downhill while in a raft roller coasters!  SO fun!

There were water slides that actually went underground and had a whole bunch of animatronics and special effects to entertain you as you swooshed along.

There were races that pitted you against your family and clocked your time.

There was a video game slide where your raft had buttons you had to press to match colored rings you slid through.  There was a wild rapids version of the lazy river, which was not really so lazy.  There was a ride that flushed you out a hole in the bottom of a funnel and left you feeling all sorts of disoriented.  One of my favorites, there was a water slide called Storm, which churned you through a long dark tube with thunder and lightning!  And then there was this crazy thing (video above), which we nicknamed "The Skipping Stone" because that's what you felt like as you zoomed off it!

We were at Water World from open to close, rode everything just once, and didn't even get to it all because the park was so massive!  It was a great day!  I love my sister, but I may head back to Colorado just to revisit this awesome park! :)

Happy Birthday, Delia!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Delia turning 12!  Her summer birthday, as it often does, fell right before we left for our big summer vacation, so she once again had lots of grace in picking out activities for her birthday that were special, but low-key.  That is what is awesome about Delia.  She is so enthusiastic and passionate about the things she loves; presents, a best friend over, and her favorite foods are all she really needs to have the BEST DAY EVER! :)

 We were all delighted with Heather and Andrew's gift-- a Pogo Ball!  Who remembers this?  Who had one?!

 LEGOs from Grandma and Grandpa!

Ella was sweet to make the play date with BFF Kate super special with this painting tutorial.  Ella researched ideas, wrote out a step-by-step lesson plan, shopped for supplies with me, then guided the 7th graders through this fun Harry Potter painting.

Cheeseburgers, fries, berry salad, and ice cream cake was the birthday menu Delia selected.  

I'm so thankful for this girl and the 12 years we've had to be entertained, challenged, impressed and blessed, by her!

Pretty Pretty Pinecrest

We took a day this week to drive up to one of our very favorite places in our state-- Pinecrest Lake.  It was the perfect summer day!

Tons of precipitation this winter meant the water was HIGH and very very cold from the recent snow melt.  It was not comfortable to swim in, but bobbing around on our big fun floats was lovely.

 And hilarious as we tackled the challenge of  getting our rafts connected while trying not to get too wet in the numbing water! 

Ahhh, life is good.

Ella and Dave took off for a few hours to do the 4 mile hike around the lake.  They returned with these pictures and stories of how gorgeous the views of back part of the lake, where the river feeds it, were. (Ella started the hike in just her bathing suit top, but was getting bitten by bugs, so Dave lent her his undershirt!)

Later in the afternoon we grabbed our favorite Twilight Special on a kayak rental and had a great time taking turns paddling around the lake.  

We even invented a new way of tubing by tying the handles of one of our floats to a rope hanging off the back of our kayak.  This was soooo funny to us!  We loved Delia in her life jacket especially.  Safety first with these dangerously high speeds!

 After her big hike with her dad, Ella was content to curl up in her kiwi raft with her book for some beach reading.  

It was a great day away!  Can't go wrong with a gorgeous summer day at Pinecrest Lake, though!

Creation Testifies!

Ten days ago I had my kidney stone procedure and have been doing a very good job of following the doctor's orders to rest.  But, I'm feeling totally fine again and needed a little change of scenery after all those days cooped up at home, so the fam decided to tackle a hike that's been on Dave's List for a long time now-- the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail.  This was a super strenuous hike, one nicknamed "The Stair Master", but most of us agreed that the moments you thought you were going to die were worth the amazing views!  While calculating how many miles and feet of elevation we conquered, we figured out this fun fact: we could have taken the stairs to the top of the Sears Tower and done less work!

Don't let those mere 3.5 miles fool you-- they are grueling, with almost 3000 feet of elevation gain.  We decided not to go the hardest last third of the hike, which takes you to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls.  We were totally satisfied with our spectacular views of the valley and the falls from a short ways up from its base.

This is what the first mile and hour of the hike looks like-- granite steps stretched out over 60 switchbacks.  Ella, who is probably the most fit of the 4 of us, was having no trouble on this hike and often had to be told to wait for us.  Open the picture below to see if you can find her peeking out from behind a boulder.

It took a while, but the heart pounding, breath gasping work is worth it as the path levels out and the entire valley opens up in front of you.  We ascended so high, we were actually above 2 helicopters circling the valley!

Very neat to see Half Dome from yet another angle!

 Dave and I were enjoying reminiscing on the many hikes we've taken together.  Our marriage pedometer sure has a lot of miles on it!!

After a bit more walking, the Upper Falls suddenly appears before you and it is AWESOME!  Even Delia, who was ready to disown us as we made her troop up a million stone steps, switched into giddy, awe and inspired mode!

We continued up to a shady spot in a cleft in the rocks and enjoyed the lunch we packed with this incredible view!

We were told by fellow hikers on the trail that the views didn't actually get any better the higher up you went, so we felt totally satisfied calling it quits without enduring another mile of steps and switchbacks.

 The way down was way better!  We could actually breathe, so we were able to talk and made the time and steps fly by playing word games.

 Back on the valley floor, we added another mile to our hike and walked around the Yosemite Village Loop.  This was all level ground, with no elevation gain or steps, so it was a piece of cake!  The loop takes you by Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls from the ground level.  We've popped out here to take pictures a dozen times, but after yesterday's hike, we appreciated these falls in a whole new way!  I loved hearing the girls proudly declare, "We were up there!!"

I also love that we can say we were up close to and misted by BOTH Upper and Yosemite Falls!

 We found the above model showing our hike.  Those zigzags are the million switchbacks and steps, and it was our opinion that the model did not include nearly enough of them!

 SO proud of this girl for doing hard things!  We're training her!  She'll be a hiker yet! ;)

Back at the car, we marveled yet again.   Ella is pointing to Columbia Rock, where we took those Half Dome pictures from.  And the below picture shows the high ledge we traversed along to get to that base of the falls view.

And since we were in Yosemite and crowds were not too crazy and it's been a few years since we made all the stops, we took our time heading out.  We stopped at El Capitan to watch the climbers (didn't see the Free Solo guy, though).  We took a picture at Tunnel View and met some people from Clinton, Iowa!

And we did the quick path up to Bridalveil Falls, which were REALLY spouting off, giving us quite the Bridal(veil) shower!

It was a good day in God's creation!

"So now we join in with creation

And sing our adoration

Our prayer is heaven come to earth.

All creation testifies

All creation testifies

That You are good

You are good.

If my lips run out of praises

Please remind me of Your goodness

Creation testifies

That You are good."

Our Amazing Dad!

This is Dave eating soup from a can for his Father’s Day meal.  When you spend your Saturday in the ER and don’t make it to the grocery store, this is what happens.  This picture also shows an amazing dad and caregiver! One who serves his family even after working a long day.  One who sits by your side in the hospital for hours even when he has a sermon to write.  One who will give up a whole day to drive you to Oakland for surgery and then be strong enough to balance a week of working with taking care of everyone and everything at home.  This is what a dad who puts everyone else before himself and a husband who keeps his “in sickness and in health” vows looks like. 

(Trying to honor Dave and how amazing he's been these past few days in this post, but don’t want to be too cryptic.  After the worst pain of my life made me pass out at home yesterday, I was diagnosed with kidney spasms due to 2 big kidney stones and sent home from the ER with good strong meds to manage pain and an appointment for a surgical procedure in Oakland on Monday to bust them up.  Feeling alright again now, but would appreciate prayers!)

High Schooler In the House!

As mentioned, Ella turned 14 while we were on this trip.  Her birthday and a whole week spent in her company caused me to reflect on something that probably seems so obvious: our little girl is growing up.  We've moved into a new stage of parenting this teenager.  We don't take care of her in the same way.  We do a lot more listening and question asking and training.  Through all this, what a joy it is to discover that the person we're raising is actually one of our favorite people to be around!  Ella is smart and funny and teaches us stuff now.  She is definitely her own person-- a gal who loves Chinese food, and Marvel movies, and her friends; someone who is passionate about and whose heart breaks for the unborn; a girl with many interests and talents who can't wait to explore new opportunities in high school! We're proud, but also just delighted in the young lady Ella is growing up to be.  We hope as she moves even more towards independence, she'll continue to give her old parents a bit of her time too...not because we're trying to be controlling or helicopter-y, but because we just love being with her.

Keeping Our Cool

Spending half a week in the desert in the summer is easy peasy when you have an amazing resort!  Off season prices allowed us to upgrade to a place a bit fancier than we usually go for and stay in a nice Westin, where we had a multiple room villa with a kitchen and access to 6 different pools, 2 of them with watersides!  The kids were happiest to just experience Palm Springs by hanging here!  They loved taking the golf cart shuttle to hop around the huge property and explore each pool.  After a very busy season of finishing school, moving my classroom, dance recitals, grad parties, and guests, I was SO happy to just lay in the shade with a good book and a to-do-list-free blank mind. 

  

The resort was super family friendly!  Each pool had various contests throughout the day and an assortment of fun lawn games too.  Giant Battleship was probably a favorite!  We loved playing lots of family games of HORSE in the baseball hoop pool too.  The main pool by the clubhouse even had a DJ!

One afternoon we escaped the heat by enjoying some a/c at the movie theater and a nice restaurant.  Ella actually celebrated a birthday while on this trip and picked Aladdin and PF Chang's to help make it a little special.

And that concludes the recap on how we filled our first week of summer!  What a start!  If this week was just a taste, we have a lot to look forward to these next few months-- more time together, more hikes, more outings, more books to read, more movies to watch, and more opportunities to rest!