Rozlyn loves the pool!!

Erika sent this of Rozlyn of her first experience in the swimming pool.
She loved it!  She stayed in for two hours even though it was naptime.

The Amazing Giant Sequoias

                          Just a last couple of shots of these amazing giants.

The largest trees in the world in our backyard - who knew?

The giant Sequoias in Calaveras are amazing!  You get to even walk through the inside of one.

Here is the cone from the Giant Sequoia

Here are the seeds from the Giant Sequoia
 - about the size of  a flake of oatmeal.

Calaveras Big Trees

We made a great discovery this summer.  We are only 1 1/2 hours from Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  It is an amazing place and one that we plan on returning to.  If you remember the picture of Don and his Dad in the waterfall - this is that place.  Above are pictures of Don in the same location.  What a beautiful river.  We saw kids jumping off boulders into the river and walked down to the big boulders where the rapids were.  Lots of people were fishing - something we hope to do with our grandkids in the future.

Best Hike at Tahoe

The Rubicon trail went from DL Bliss to Emerald Bay.  It is a beautiful hike!  You go in and out of the trees all along the lake shore.  What we decided is the easiest way to do this again is to camp at DL Bliss and take the free trolley to Emerald Bay and then hike down to Vikingsholm, then take the Rubicon trail back to DL Bliss.  This way you are going downhill most of the way and see a lot of cool stuff.  Next time we will do it this way - any takers?????

The Rubicon Trail

Don and I went up to Tahoe and stayed at Tahoe Sands courtesy of Grandma Z.  We had a great time exploring future camp sites and things to do.  We loved DL Bliss State Park and Sugar Pine State Park.  We also went to Tallac State Park where there were lots of restored buildings from the 1920s - the elite of the 1920s.  It was their homes and "cabins".  It was fun to explore and we didn't see it all.  One great hike here took us back to a grove of aspens and pines that went right to the Lake.  Fun and flat -  a double bonus!

Finally we meet!

I got to meet Brooklyn but not for 2 weeks!  I got a patch of shingles and had to wait until they were completely gone before I could hold her.  Torture!!  Aaron and Kelly were kind and Skyped me regularly.

This year was my Mom's 90th birthday.  We had a great celebration with the whole family at our biannual family reunion but on her special day Tommy, Annette and Don and I took her to the Back 40 BBQ.  Here she is in her hat when we sang Happy Birthday.