Minecraft Father's Day

Hailey and Shane made me a Minecraft Father's Day world and we spent a portion of Father's Day morning in it. Here we are riding the mine cart through the entrance to the world. 

Then through a giant statue of me. 

No Minecraft world would be complete without a giant marshmallow s'more. 

The mine cart ride ended at a pen of our family represented by Minecraft characters. From left to right: Shane (cow), Hailey (Pig), Jesse (Villager), Molly (Sheep). 

After the ride, we relaxed in the hot tub. 

Happy Father Day! (Evidently, Minecraft doesn't have spell check)

Mud Butts

We entered the Mud Run a 3.8 mile race and our team was named the Mud Butts.  We had Big Butt, Muscle Butt, No Butt and Little Butt, you can decided who was who.  We ran this race 4 years ago and decided to have the kids join us even though the minimum age is 13.  I told Hailey she needed to wear a bra and I would stuff it so she looked old enough.  She didn’t like that at all!   Lots of pictures to capture all the great moments

Our official camera man, it’s not easy to keep the lens mud free

The Kuyper family joined us which made it so much more fun.  They are up for anything.  At the starting line with no clue what’s to come

The first pit, no big deal, we can walk through this

The same pit further down, it dropped a few feet.  Shane swimming in mud

Getting ready to go down the waterslide into a mud pool

Jesse taking the plunge.  Hailey went down and forgot to close her mouth- Yikes

Love that today was the Kuyper’s Anniversary, and this is how they decided to celebrate!

Quality family fun for an early Father’s Day celebration.  It was such a blast

Camps and Kuypers

It’s going to be an annual event for both our families, can’t wait till next year.

Mammoth

One week in Mammoth and we did it a lot.  On our drive in, it was raining and we jumped out to take this. 

Views on our way to Devils Postpiles

Cathy and Duane and the Jennings joined us for the first part of the week

Yes, we coordinated our outfit- Not

The kids made the first part of the hike to Devils Postpile easily.  We heard from some hikers that Rainbow Falls was another 1 1/2 miles and beautiful so we headed onward

Not too many trees on this hike but still very scenic

Camps and Jennings hiking to the falls

Rainbow Falls did not disappoint.  At first we were just enjoying it from above.

Then we found a path down, so worth it

Katie and Adam having a moment

Hailey and Shane got as close to the falls as possible

My awesome sista’ in law

Can’t take too many pictures of this place

The girls, while they still had energy

The scene in our condo in the evenings- Minecraft party

We drove to an Obsidian Dome.  A huge mountain of broken up obsidian rock that was about a mile across.  We hiked to the top and it looked like another planet up there

Cathy, Duane and Katie took all the kids on a horseback ride around Convict Lake.  I guess the horses were a little spunky which made for a fun ride.  Not your typical rental horses

Hailey and her horse Frank.  She was in heaven, it was the highlight of her trip she said

Hailey is laughing at Eli’s horse who is taking care of business

Horseback ride break for the horses or the kids?

Afterwards, we meet up with everyone and Cathy rented some canoes and a pontoon boat to ride around on Convict Lake

Nicki and Liam joined us.  We maxed out the limit on this boat by a few bodies.  We tried fishing but still the Camps can’t catch a fish

The kids really wanted to try out the mini golf course.  These are no fair-weather golfers.   It rained on them and they never stopped!

We took the kids on a really fun bike ride called downtown.  Best part, it was all downhill and the kids didn’t crash

Jesse and I rode back up to get the car and I enjoyed that more than going downhill.  It was a great ride

 

Jesse and Chris went out the next day and did some serious riding

I took the Graves kids with us on the Downtown trail.  The boys were so fast I hardly saw them, just hoping to see them all in one piece at the bottom

Here is the spot that Hailey crashed and burned last year.  She was nervous but handled it like a Champ!  Hailey is funny, she talks the whole bike ride to me and I can’t hear a thing

Looking out over Twin Lakes.  We decided to hike straight down the mountain along the waterfall and blazed a new path to the lakes

It was a tough hike but because it was an adventure the kids were ampted

I’m not sure if Nicole enjoyed our hike as much as the kids did!

Took the kids bowling that night

John Wada knows all the ins and outs of Mammoth.  I told him we wanted to do whatever he does.  So he took us on a hike in Little Lakes Valley.  He said we would be back for lunch, so we brought hardly any food.  Rebecca and Tyler joined us too.  I can’t believe how much Hailey looks like Shane in this picture

The kids hiked up and down boulders the whole way

It was probably the prettiest hike I have ever been on.  Fairly flat, with meadows, streams and 6 lakes

Our group + Rebecca taking the picture

The kids kept saying they wanted to hike to the snow.  They were so motivated that they wouldn’t stop till they touched it.  We kept telling them that it’s a lot further than it looks. 

4 miles later their determination was rewarded. 

So here are Kyle and Shane 4 miles from the car and we had no snacks.  I thought it was going to be a disaster hiking back but they were the biggest troopers.  Not one kid whined and we didn’t get back to the car until 4pm.   Shane said that hike was his favorite thing about the trip.

A very well deserved jacuzzi.  The funny thing is, the Graves had been waiting for us since 1:30 to get back, we were a tad late

Our last morning, Hailey wanted to try one last time to catch a fish so we headed to Lake Mary.  Still nothing!

A slight detour on our way home.  This rock sums it up-  A Happy and Fun Trip