Summertime and the livin's easy

So,
   I realize it has been a while between posts and there are several reasons for this. 1) Laziness 2) Not Many Pictures being taken (laziness) 3) Lots of being out and about.
   For the 4th of July we went swimming and ate a pile of sausages. I celebrated by trying my best to embody the spirit of the day.

The kids saw fireworks for the first time. Z wasn't terribly impressed but Aiden was enthralled and exhausted.
    Teresa signed up for one of those field trip classes again so we've been out seeing the local historically significant locations.

The Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Park

The Near Death Experience Recovery experience.

Discovering Gold under a tree.

Aiden has become very skilled at spotting the closest place to sit in every location we've visited.

We have more destinations to hit in the upcoming weeks so be on the lookout for more SUPER adventure shots.

We also went camping at Leo Carillo. I had noticed earlier in the year that there was a space open for the 8-10th. I quickly jumped on it thinking it would be a close, quick, family fun time. It was close and quick and the kids absolutely loved it. I have a few observations...
1) It's really crowded
2) Beach people act a lot different (louder, self obsessed, rude, narcissistic, aggressive, invasive) than mountain camping people.
3) There were kids running amok until all hours of the night.
    I'm sure my parents thought all of these things back in the day and since I was a roughshod hooligan I loved the bacchanalia but now I am old and not so fond. As I said before the kids really liked it and it is really nice to be that close to the beach but I'm not sure if we'll be going back to Leo any time soon.

Any who, pictures.

Our site Positives:  Nice shade, bathroom proximity but not adjacent and large. Negatives : it was right across from the store and the giant oak tree contained a beehive.

There is so much to love about this shot 

The beach, kids throwing things at water (see every post ever about us and bodies of water)

Another sweet shot.

We made s'mores the first night with reeses' peanut butter cups and they were amazing. (thanksKirk)

Fun with torches!!!!

electric... torches

Funny Face time around the fire.

We've got more summer to go but it is going by quickly. Till next time-

RTSZAB

First Family Camping Trip of the Year.

So,
    On Thursday last week the spoil me rottens drove up here and we loaded a bunch of camping gear in the back of their truck. The kids had the last lesson of the current session of swim lessons that day so we just gave them our stuff and Sam and they headed up to rock creek for the night.
   The next morning we loaded up the car and drove up to rock creek. They had already done a pretty nice job of setting up our crazy mansion tent so there wasn't much for us to do but fish and relax. I caught one fish and Papa caught one fish which was on a stringer but Buster barked and he dropped the whole stringer in the river. Some nice person found it later and left it in an easy to find place so the fish was recovered. We came back to camp made tacos and the later smores.

S'mores Cheers!

Campsite with guard/ crazy dog.

That night was a bit restless as camping/ kids/ tent/ air mattress nights tend to be.

The next day we had tossed around the idea of taking everyone of a much shorter version of the hike I had taken a few weeks ago up here, or going into Mammoth which is only about 1/2 hour away. The group was pretty tired so we opted for town. The mountains and lakes above mammoth are really pretty and have much more to do than the town so we drove up there.

Every lake needs rocks thrown at/ in it.

At least this time it wasn't during a soccer game.

From there we headed up to the waterfall you can see in the background.

The lakes we were just at from the new perspective.

You guys might remember this bridge and waterfall. The kids proceeded to climb everything and make mom/ grandma nervous. (camping equals dirty bums)

The kids thought it would be fun to climb rocks.

Aidens version of rock climbing. EPIC AIR!!!

Zoeys version

Saccarine.

By now the kids were getting kind of tired.

The usual result of tired is Zoey beating/ yelling and Aiden Crying/ whining.

A tree and Papa to the rescue.

Aidens favorite game with papa.

This is a .GIF so if you missed the show just click on it.

After that we went back to camp for more relaxation and fishing. I caught another one. Papa cooked up a sausage fest on the open flame.

We relaxed a lot more and went to bed. The night went much better with everyone being much more tired.

Tired and pitch covered Buster.

By this time Sam wasn't doing well. He wasn't eating and had thrown up a few times that day. He really doesn't like camping... He's fine now that he's home.

We drove home the next day. It was a great trip. I would've loved to stay for more but I think I'm the only one. We have at least one more camping trip coming up down to Leo Carillo. It's going to be a fun summer.

Till next time-
RTSZAB

Big Wheel Keeps on Turning

So,
    Lately we've been doing a lot of the same. Every year we try to go cherry picking and this year was no different. The harvest wasn't as outstanding as it has been in previous yeara due to the severe drought conditions California is still going through but we managed to get more than enough delicious cherries.

Aiden is ready to go!

A happy harvest.

Then on the weekend the spoil me rottens came up to visit. We celebrated Zoeys "pretend" 5th birthday. A swing set was constructed in the desert heat.

It needed someone to hold it down or it rocked around like crazy.

That didn't stop the kids from loving it.

On the 4th we celebrated Zoeys actual birthday. She woke up to a card and presents from the East Coast spoilers and decorations!

Super happy birthday girl!

Due to the double dipping on birthday celebrations we all enjoyed multiple cakes.

Then this past Friday Z officially finished Preschool. We all went for a brunch and the kids sang a song. We arrived at 8:30 am since that is what I had been told at least 5 times. We were then told that it wasn't going to start until 9:30 or 10am. The teachers offered to keep Aiden (whom they love) until then so T and I left the kids. When we returned at 9:30 all of the kids were having a great time.

A motley group if ever there was one. Look at all that crazy.

Many of the parents hadn't shown up yet so the kids started to get really antsy. A game of duck duck goose was the prescription.

Aiden was no match for that kid.

Zoey and Tamara kept picking each other. 

The other parents still didn't show up.

Aiden was getting really mad/sad/bored. Yes he is wearing a headband.

 Besties Zoey and Tamara!

They sang a song (which I will add later. youtube is telling me it's an hour and a half upload.) We brunched, we left.

Let Summer Begin!!!


RTSZA