The Indiana State Fair

No summer is complete without a trip to the State Fair!  

We missed Nick this year, he had a better offer to play soccer with friends.

 

Kings Canyon

We took a drive to the base of Kings Canyon and were treated to a waterfall on the drive.  The drive was so beautiful, amazing cliffs and rock formations at every turn. 

Our final destination was Muir Rock.  A formation at the edge of a creek that was just right for jumping off of into the cool water.  I gladly stayed on shore, held towels and took the pictures!  The boys and Eric had a ball jumping and swimming!

 

Hiking

Eric and I went on a couple of hikes during the week.  The first was a trail we had been on before, an old favorite, Buena Vista.  It's an easier hike, just a couple of miles and provides a beautiful vista and fun rock formations along the way! 

Just a Karen, amongst a field of cairns. 

 Our next hike, Muir Grove trail was new to us and took us to a marvelous circle of Sequoia trees. We were the only ones on the trail coming and going.  It was the most peaceful hike I think we've ever been on. 

This was the first sighting of a sequoia on the trail.  You can see the red tree peeking through in the middle of this picture.  

 

Montecito Sequoia

Our vacation continues to the Sierra Nevada mountains and to Montecito Sequoia family camp.  This is our 3rd year coming.  Family Camp held the same Montecito magic that we all remembered from years past.  

The boys joined their groups for daily activities, they remembered a few friends from last year, and just had a good time being independant in a safe setting while exploring the great outdoors!

This year we had a few visitors, cows were migrating through the camp.  A local farmer is allowed to graze his cattle in the park.  All the other years the cattle have passed through camp and moved along by this time of the summer.  This year we were treated to their funny personalities and loud mooing at night!  

Under the sea was as this years theme.  As you can see the boys were excited to participate! 

 

California!

Our summer vacation continued traveling out west with a trip to Disneyland.  We stayed at the hotel Grand Californian, it was connected to Disneyland and California Adventurer, which was super convenient!  The first night we arrived we had dinner in Downtown Disney and checkout out some of the shops and sights.  The next morning we were off to Disneyland. Because of Covid, the characters were not posing for individual pictures, but instead we saw several characters walking around the park.  They were also in settings behind a gate, posing for distanced pictures. I thought that was a clever way to see the characters and take pictures.  The following day was spent at California Adventure park.  Sam rode a real roller coaster with Eric and I, The Incredicoaster, I'm hoping that he is hooked on coasters now!

Disney brings out the best in our family!