Camping at Sugar Pine in August

At the beginning of August, we took the girls on a Family Camp adventure at Sugar Pine Camp (associated with Girl Scouts).

On the way to Sugar Pine Camp, we stopped off to do some gold digging.  This was something that Jessica was interested in learning more about as she has been really interested in gems and crystals.  Unfortunately, due to the drought conditions, there wasn't water to do gold panning in, but we did do gold digging like they do in the desert.  Jim served as digger for all of us.

Jessica and Jamison got to practice gold panning in some water that was setup to the side.

Both girls found gold too!

Once we were at Sugar Pine Camp, the girls enjoyed the onsite and offsite activities.  One of their favorite activities was horse back riding.

Jamison was a bit small for the trail ride, but was super excited to be able to ride a horse in the ring.

I even shocked Jessica by going on a trail ride with her.

Here is a photo of Jim and the girls from breakfast one morning.

We spent one of our mornings at the Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

There were some really big and old trees at the park.

The girls and I easily fit into a tree that had fallen.

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The park has a tree that can be walked through.  The girls thought that walking through a tree was pretty fun.

On the way home from Sugar Pine, we stopped at Moaning Cavern Adventure Park.  Jessica and Jim took a walking tour of the cave.

Moaning Caverns also had rock climbing and zip lining.  Jamison, Jim, and Jessica had fun rock climbing.

The girls also got to discover crystals and gems.

Disneyland in July - Day Three

On our third and last day at Disney, we spent some time in California Adventure.   While Jim and Jessica went to Cars Land, Jamison and I had fun on the Toy Story ride.

Once we all met up, we went on Mickey's ferris wheel.

The girls love the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, so we spent some time there too.

Jessica had a blast rock climbing and swinging on the tires.

We spent some time on the rides in Bug's Land too.  Here the girls are taking a break.

Jamison was pooped before the end of day three.  It was time to go home.

Disneyland in July - Day Two

In our second day at Disney, the girls saw lots of characters.

And, while Jessica rode the big roller coasters, Jamison saw even more characters.

We also took a spin on Dumbo.

And Jamison rode her favorite ride -- the rockets!

Disneyland in July - Day One

In July, we took a quick trip to Disneyland for a family vacation.  The girls were excited to spend a few days at Disney.

Once at Disneyland, the first stop was Space Mountain for Jessica and Jim and the rockets for Jamison (of course all around).

Then, we visited Pixie Hollow.

We got a photo in tea cup.

The girls enjoyed Tom Sawyer's island.  They love the treasure.

Camping at Foothills Park in June

In June, we did an overnight camping trip at Foothills Park with Jamison (as Jessica was on a camp overnight) and some friends.  Everyone enjoyed having smores by the fire.

The next morning, Jessica joined in on the fun and we went for a quick hike.  The girls enjoyed throwing rocks off the bridge and climbing on the rocks.

Spring Break Vacation: San Diego Zoo Day 4

On our last day in San Diego, we went to the San Diego Zoo.  The girls were all dressed for the occasion in their Lion King dresses, but only Jessica would take a picture for us.

The pandas are always exciting, so that was one of our first stops.

There is another panda baby, but he was very hard to see way, way up in the tree.

The girls were excited to see one of the polar bears swim.

Well, at least for a second.  They were really more interested in playing in the polar maze that was outside.

To give the girls a break from all the animals, which were a bit boring to Jessica, and to allow Jim some time to do some animal sight seeing, I took the girls over to the children's zoo.  First stop was face painting, where we got one princess and one doggy.

Then, it was off to see the goats. The girls were a bit disappointed that there were no brushes to brush the goats with.   

We caught up with Jim for lunch.  After lunch, it was time to explore some parts of the park that had been remodeled since our last visit.  Jessica thought it was fun to ride the big cat statue.

And, well, monkey see monkey do.

There were lots of statues for the kids to climb and sit on. I think they found them more exciting then the real animals.

And, you do not even want to know how Jim hoisted Jessica up onto this camel (note the camel is life size)....

It was a lot of walking for Jessica's little feet by the afternoon.  After an ice cream treat, it was off to the hotel to take one last dip in the pool.