Bumming around Boise.

I need to be better about taking pictures of the ordinary stuff we do around here.  Summer is time to teach my kids to work, sew, cook, clean, and weed.  It's also a time to be bored, to read, to take walks, bike, swim, go to the park, hike, make messes and bum around.  We did all of those things and more.  The most memorable visions of summer will always be the vacations.  But the transformative aspects of summer come in small moments, in routines, in just being(and learning) together.  There are no pictures to quantify these moments of growth.  They speak for themselves.  They are manifest when we send the kids back to school in the fall, excited for the newness of it all, prepared to meet challenges and experienced in the fundamental lessons that home life provides.  I love being a mom...but especially during the summer.  Here's to a good one!

My dad surprised us with a visit mid-summer and we took him on the river.  It's a Boise thing, I guess.

Grandma joined us a few weekends later.  Lucky us.

We went paddle-boating for the first time in years.

The weather cooperated for a leisurely trip to the Botanical Garden.

We also managed to take a trip to Wahooz, a trip earned two summers ago when we set(and achieved) some healthy eating goals.  It's encouraging to see that my kids are finally abandoning a sense of entitlement.  They were dying of thirst (it was 100 degrees the day we went) but they wouldn't let me fork out cash to buy a drink or two from the vending machine - they simply used the drinking fountain.  They played hard and all day, knowing that it would probably be another few years before we returned.  They gushed about how fun it was and how grateful they were that we went...I've got good kids.  And they're learning to be grateful, in spite of a world of entitlement.

                                                Oh, how I wish summer would never end.

Holy epic summer trip.

It almost rivaled our trip to Michigan three years ago.  We were gone for 12 days, though we only traversed three other states besides our own.  It was the camping (and the planning, packing and overall inconvenience associated with it) that made it epic.  I was 17-18 weeks pregnant at the time, just coming off of being sick and tired and more sick.  Of course, when we booked our campsites in February(a remarkable achievement, if any of you can appreciate trying to reserve a campsite in Yosemite Valley), we had NO plans to be pregnant.  But yet here I was, trotting up and down mountains, ankles swelling to dangerous proportions all the while.  We saw so much beauty it was awe-inspiring.  What a wonderful world in which we live.

45 minutes after arriving at Lake Tahoe, we were forced to huddle under our beach umbrella to keep out of the downpour(and thunder and lightning).  Fortunately, the rain missed our campsite and we set up without incident.

Sunday was a different story.  Perfect weather.  We hit up morning church and then spent the day exploring.

Mono Lake - stinky but beautiful.

Tioga Pass

A room with a view.  Seriously - Half Dome, does it get any better than that?

Hike to Vernal Falls.  We read on a website that this was a moderate hike so we marched the kids up without reservation.  The "moderate" hike rating did not include the 1000 feet of vertical steps leading to the base of the falls.  Feel that burn.

Rachel and Tim went the extra mile up to the top of the falls.

Another view from our campsite.

On our way for a swim in the Merced River.  That constituted our shower for the week.

Biking around the valley.

Lower Yosemite Falls.  Somewhat underwhelming due to the severe drought but at least it was still running!

Tunnel View

Glacier Point

Climbing cousins.

Avenue of the Giants - a little gem just outside of Yosemite.  A contrast to the crowds of the park.

Kings Canyon National Park

So many big trees at Sequoia.  We almost got big-tree fatigue.

Tubing in Redding.

Aunt Julie and Uncle Wayne were good to us.  

Tim was almost convinced to buy a boat after our day on the lake.  Almost.

Crater Lake.

Our hike was spoiled by another thunderstorm.  Dang weather.  Doesn't it know we plan these vacations months in advance?

There are no words for the beauty (and the blue) of this lake.  It was spectacular.

Chris was nice enough to join us.  

I love family vacations...they seem to be the only time I can truly cut loose and just "be" with my loved ones.  We were blessed to have family members and friends join us for our time in Yosemite and Crater Lake and other family members and friends accommodate us as we passed through their territory.  Memories for a lifetime.