Summer Fun!

This summer has been a dream. It has been a very long time since I didn't have a job for the summer. I can't say that I miss it, to be honest! I have been keeping busy though, for the most part, with learning to sew and doing craft projects, and an online English class. On top of that, Richard and I have been able to have some fun, going on little trips. Our first fun trip was to Yosemite with all our pest control friends. We had a hoot! We hiked to Vernal Falls on the mist trail - it was soooo amazing. Part of the hike was a very looong set of stairs with water streaming down, right alongside the waterfall. It was beautiful! The mist from the water fall was so thick that when we looked into it we could see rainbows. We were soaked to the bone before reaching the top (which felt nice in the very hot weather!)

About a week later, we were able to go to Pennsylvania/D.C. and go through the Washington, D.C. temple with Richard's brother, Stephen, in preparation for his mission (he is now in Cape Town, South Africa, and doing well!) We were also able to be there for Stephen's farewell talk in church that Sunday, and we really enjoyed that. All of Richard's grandparents were there, and it was so good to see them along with the family. Even though it was a short trip, we were so glad we got to spend a few days with them!

Then, a couple weeks ago, my whole family (minus Tayler) drove here to California, and we all met at a resort in Angels Camp (about 2 hours away from Yosemite and an hour and a half from where we currently live). We stayed in two very nice and comfortable condos, and really had a blast! The first full day we were there, we went to Yosemite for the day, and explored a little. Unfortunately, the drive was long, the weather was hot, and we were all very tired! We were glad we got to see some of the beauties of the park again, but everyone was ok with coming home early to get out of the heat! (It didn't help that we chose the hottest day of the week to go- i think it was in the upper 90's)

The next day, we went to a nearby mining town and went on a pretty cool cave tour - I think it was called Moaning Cavern. We went down a few hundred feet into the ground and saw some really cool stalactites and stalagmites. Then, to top that off, we went on a zipline that was a quarter mile long, and had a blast. It was pretty fun, although we thought it would have been more fun if it had gone faster :) I was pretty scared leading up to it, because you had to step off of a tall platform and trust that you were strapped in correctly. But once we got going, it wasn't scary at all! Richard got some sweet action shots of me screaming (see the slideshow) so that's pretty cool..



On our last day, we decided it would be fun to go and see an old growth sequoia forest that was nearby, and it was really cool! The name of the park was Big Trees National Park - very appropriate - I have never seen such big trees! We had fun walking around on the trails and gawking at how tall and fat these ancient trees were!
In the rest of our time on this vacation, we were either swimming, napping, eating, talking, or playing tennis and ping pong. It was a very laid back and relaxing, yet fun vacation! Richard and I were glad to have a break and had fun being with the family! I felt like the vacation was too short, and it was sad to say goodbye, but I'm glad we could do it at all, and that everyone was willing to drive all the way out here!