Our trip...

We had a fabulous time! We tried things differently this year and I think it was successful, we may do it again next year!

First of all, I have to say that it was a F O R E V E R car drive with the kids saying "Is Marissa (their cousin) going to be there?" "Is she on her way to Lundy?" "Are we going to the hotel?" you know, the wuestions that kids are famous for? And the questions lasted from the time we told the kids we were going camping (around March) until we got to Lundy Lake.

This year we left a few days earlier to go camping before we headed to Lundy Lake to stay in the cabin. We found a cool little spot about 20 minutes from Bishop. It was a campground in Bishop Creek Canyon that had 5 hidden walk-in camp spots. It felt like we were backpacking with the kids. The kids really liked camping in the tent but they were still bugging us about seeing Marissa. On the first night Hannah woke up, looked at the brightly moonlit tent and asked me if jack-o-lanterns lived there. heehee

When we got to Lundy Lake we found out that my parents (& Marissa) had RV trouble and weren't there yet. We did find a good friend of mine, Clarisa who was waiting for us. We had a nice time catching up and she stayed the night so the next day we chatted some more. We moved into our one-room cabin, and figured out all the details of where we will sleep...it's good thing we co-sleep! There wasn't much room. My parents arrived the next day and all the questions (from my kids) about Marissa and camping and the RV, disappeared!

They went fishing with their fishing vests on every day. Ben said that he needs to practice fishing and that fishing takes a lot of time. He didn't catch any but he's not bummed about it, he'll just try some more later and next time we go fishing. What an awesome attitude! Corey caught 3 fish for the trip and we cooked them up when we got home!

Our second night at the cabin we invited my parents, Heather, Marissa, JP and Ryan over for s'mores. The kids really enjoyed getting together, playing in the tall grass and eating marshmallows. Noah fell asleep pretty early and didn't wake up until we went inside. It was a great way to start our adventures at Lundy.

We went on a few hikes. We went up to the beaver ponds one day. Hannah had a minor break-down on our way up but she quickly got back on her feet and decided that hiking was fun. We had a nice little snack watching for the beavers (I have never seen one), checked out the indian rock, climbed a gigantic boulder and went home for lunch. Another day we went hiking in Yosemite in the Tuolumne Meadows area. We had been to this area last year and it was beautiful. We ran into lots of deer by the river as it was nearing the end of the day. Another hike we took Marissa on was to the waterfalls up Lundy Canyon. We couldn't make it all the way but we made it to a nice vista point where the kids had a snack.

A highlight of our trip is going to the Mobil station - yes the gas station. They have a mean deli, named Tioga Toomey's Whoa Nellie Deli, where all the locals and tourists go to eat. It is delicious! They also have local bands play on their lawn. The lawn has giant boulders that the kids climb and jump off. This trip though...they played hide-and-seek in the dark.

GranDad and Uncle JP helped them build a fort in the bushes. What a great idea! They will be able to play in it next year too. It was already framed a bit with rocks, they added some flooring (pine branches) and some roofing material (branches) and they even had a little escape door. It was awesome! Something that I would've liked to have as a kid.

Noah was a real camper. He loved every minute of it. He got dirty at the campsite and was not affected by it at all! He walks now...yep full-time walker. He couldn't crawl on the dirty ground, I guess. We were at the cabin for about an hour when he fell out of the door onto his nose, and the next morning he fell again. So here he is all scratched up but he didn't let that get in his way of having some fun.

Our last night we were invited to my parents campsite for dinner, campfire and s'mores. It was a nice ending to the trip. I didn't have to cook and the kids had fun with their cousin. GranDad also told them a few of his famous stories (the ones I grew up with). They were bleary-eyed by the time we got back to the cabin and fell right to sleep.

Disappointingly, we didn't see any bears. Didn't even hear them. Yes I'm disappointed...but there's always next year!

(If you got this far...thanks for reading! I promise to include some pictures tomorrow.)