Days 1-3 - CALIFORNIA VACATION - National Parks & Beach

DAY 1 - September 1st we started our California Vacation!  Kinsely had drawn this picture of Minnie Mouse and hung it up.  Every day she would come ask how many days left until our vacation.  We were all really excited.  We left Saturday morning at 7:30 am!

The kids did great driving - thank goodness for DVD players!  Our new van drove great.  We stopped in Fallon, Nevada for lunch.  Dallin was crazy and trying to run anywhere he could.  We had to play games to keep him somewhat contained!  We drove through Oregon, then Nevada, finally getting to the California border 8 hrs and 15 min later.

September 1st Kasen qualified for the 4th grade National Park pass.  Every 4th grader in the country gets a pass for them and anyone in their car to get into national parks for 1 entire year for free.  Luckily we printed off the paperwork before we left that morning.  So we decided to drive through Yosemite National Park on our way.  Kasen was so proud of his new pass.  We stopped in the Meadows area for a quick second to take some pictures by a little lake.  Kinsley masterfully snuck a few selfies in of herself. 

The park ranger gave the kids newspapers with information all about the park.  Kinsley was reading about  all the wildlife in the park.  She was reading "cougars, bears, wolves" and Dallin goes "Oh no scary animals!" So of course, Kinsley and Kasen kept reading that part over and over and over.  Dallin's face says exactly how he felt!

We learned that Yosemite is famouse for it's dome rocks.  They were everywhere and massive, just sticking straight up out of the ground randomly.  They were very smooth and looked like you could just slide down the side.  Lots of people were hiking them. The picture on the bottom left was the first dome rock we saw.  The rest of the pictures are of the biggest dome rock in the park called El Capitan.  The pictures just don't do it justice.  This dome rock was amazing and awe-inspiring!

The park was very crowded in certain parts.  Luckily the traffic flowed fine.  We had read that at certain times traffic jams occurred and you could wait in traffic for hours.  That never happened for us thank goodness!  We were going to stop at the Yosemite Village and walk around, but it was so packed.  It honestly felt like we were in another country - like somewhere in Asia because I'm pretty sure we were the only English speaking white people. I had no idea Asians loved national parks so much, but they were very excited about everything and were running around like chickens taking pictures like crazy.  So we just pulled off the road near the big waterfall - Yosemite Falls.  Unfortunately the water had already stopped for the year.  We got a couple pictures and stretched our legs.  We had been walking around when we saw a sign that said to stay off the grass.  Oops. lol

As we were leaving Yosemite Valley there was a great spot to look back at everything.  There was El Capitan, and Half Dome (a spot people hike up with the last part climbing a rope ladder Yikes!), and some other rocks I can't remember what they were called.  As we were leaving this part of the park we had to drive through a 1.5 mile tunnel through the rocks, aptly called Tunnel Road.

This summer there had been a huge fire that burned large areas of Yosemite.  The park had actually closed for some time which it hadn't done for like 30 years or something.  We were wondering if we would be able to drive through the park at all.  A couple weeks before our vacation though they opened up again.  South of Yosemite Village on our way out of the park, we drove through all the burned areas.  There was so much ash it looked like there was white snow on the ground.  Other sections were bright pink from the flame retardant the planes had dropped. The air was still very smokey smelling.  Even with so many sections burnt we would see one lone tree or a few bushes that looked like they were alive.

The way we exited the park was a lot more winding of a drive than the way we came in.  It was a longer drive and Dallin started going delirious.  Anytime someone would unroll their window to look at something, Dallin would unroll his as fast as he could and try sticking his head out the window like a dog.  After we exited the park we stopped at the closest restaurant which happened to be Denny's - one of Kasen's favorites. 

We finally got to our hotel in Kingsburg, CA for the night.  The sign as we were coming into town said Kingsburg was the raisin capital of the world. We were all ready for bed!  Dallin kept sneaking into bed with Kasen or the girls, anything to get out of his pack-n-play.  We didn't know if we would get him to settle down, but about 2 min after we turned off the lights everyone was snoring.

DAY 2 - Woke up ready for another adventure.  Dallin was enthralled with the hotel pool outside our window.  He wanted to swim so bad, he stood there for 30 min as we packed up to leave.  We had about a 2 hour drive to get to our next National Park and we passed a lot of raisin farms.

We went to Sequoia National Park today to see the giant trees.  The sequoias aren't as tall as the redwoods in northern California, but they are bigger in volume and usually older.  The trees were definitely amazing driving into the park.  We stopped to see the General Sherman tree - the biggest tree in the world.  Right next to the parking lot we noticed a lot of people pointing and yelling (in Chinese) and taking pictures.  We realized there was a black bear right on the hill.  It was pretty close when we first saw it and then it hiked up the hill a bit and turned around and just watched people.  It was pretty cool, but then also a little unnerving that the bear was that close to people including lots of kids!

We hiked down a path through all the big trees.  I mean they were just insanely massive.  Standing side by side we still weren't as wide as these trees! 

We couldn't get too close to General Sherman and you can still see how big it is!  It is considered the biggest tree in the world by volume - about the same volume as 1/2 Olympic sized swimming pool.  It is about 2000-2500 years old which is middle-aged for the sequoia - they can live up to 4000 yrs.  Apparently in 2006 one of the tree branches broke off from General Sherman and shattered the fence and pavement below.  They measured the tree branch as being larger than most tree trunks.  It is crazy to see in person.

The hike down through the sequoias was pretty steep so coming back up was a little tiring!  It was about 1.5 miles in total.  There were so many old people walking down to the trees I kinda' wanted to tell them they'd never make it back up. lol  This park was very crowded as well - which wasn't too surprising considering it was Labor Day weekend.  I had bought Dallin a little leash backpack because I knew he would want to walk on his own through the parks and so we put it on him.  I mean these backpacks have been around forever, but I still think it's funny how many people give such shocked looks when they see us use it.  But then again I see people pushing dogs in strollers now so people are weird.  Kasen and Kinsley love the leash backpack and pretend Dallin is a puppy and then they want to put it on so they can be "walked." haha

From the park we had 5 hours to drive to get to Anaheim.  Driving through California is really interesting.  It is such a diverse state.  We drove through so many farms - raisin, citrus, almond, etc.  We also passed a lot of oil fields.  Most of California was very desert-like.  It actually reminded me a lot of Idaho and especially Boise.  I can see why we get so many Californians moving here - it's not too different from where they are coming from.

We finally got to our condo and unpacked.  We had just a few minutes to unload and then we headed to our dinner reservation at Goofy's Kitchen!

The first person we met was Mickey Mouse himself!  Dallin was so excited - he ran straight up to him and gave him a big hug.  The dinner was a buffet and all the characters came around to every table quite a few times.  It was really fun.  Kinsley had her autograph book and the kids thought it was really funny how the characters would tease them and goof off.

 

One of our favorites was Minnie Mouse.  She was super silly.  She never stopped dancing or twirling or waving her arms.  The kids thought she was a lot like Aunt Patricia.

Pluto was super silly.  He gave Dallin hugs like Grandpa Erickson does by rubbing Dallin's whole head.  Dallin was a little wary of Pluto.

There was a big dance parade through the restaurant and the characters would march by all the tables.  We held up our napkins and spun them around.  I think the entire dinner all Kinsley did was giggle.  Even Ava and Kasen thought it was funny.  The food wasn't that great, but it was a fun experience. It made them really excited to go to the actual park.

DAY 3 - LABOR DAY - We decided that the theme parks would be really crowed so we decided to hit the beach today.  The kids had to get their workout in on the suitcase rack before we could leave.

We found a small little cove - I can't remember what it was called now though.  It had good reviews for not being too crowded or too big of waves.  But it was still pretty crowded.  We got there right at the end of low tide so Jed, Ava, and Kasen hiked down to the rocks to look for shells.  The water was still chilly so Dallin was always watching for the waves to make sure he could run up the beach and not get wet!

It was a really pretty little spot.  There weren't many shells, but the kids had a blast in the ocean.  Dallin and Jed preferred the sand.

Kinsley was quite the beach babe!  She loved playing in the water.

Ava tried her best to get Dallin to like the water, but he would run as fast as his little legs could carry him up the beach as soon as he even thought water was coming in.  He had a great time with filling up his bucket with water and making rivers in the sand though.

The kids loved wave jumping and trying to dive into them.

The only problem was that high tide was starting and the waves started getting bigger and bigger as the kids were getting braver and braver.  The were getting knocked down a lot.  I decided to go show them how to dive into the really big waves.  So Kasen, Ava, and I went out a little deeper.  We were getting pretty good, but the waves were coming in quicker and harder.  There were a few really big ones back to back and right when you would stand up another wave would knock you down again.  After this happening like 4x in a row I finally stood up and was wiping my eyes and then I was looking around to make sure the kids were ok.  All of a sudden I realized that my swimming suit was completely down to my waist!!! I was so embarassed.  I have no idea who saw me but Kasen did and he said it was super gross.  haha.  After that I didn't have too much of a desire to play in the waves anymore!!! The kids played for a little bit longer, but then we felt like the waves were getting a little dangerous so we loaded up and headed back to the condo.

We passed lots more beaches on the way back to the condo.  They were all full!  When I picture California I picture palm trees and beaches, but now we have a whole new outlook on the state.  But we still like the palm trees!  Dallin was so wiped out from the beach he fell asleep in his carseat with his cute belly sticking out. :)  Back at the hotel we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool.  One of Kinsley's favorite songs a few summers ago was "Cake By the Ocean".  So we had packed cake to eat by the ocean, but we saved it for the pool instead.  Sandy cake just didn't sound too yummy.  The condo pool was fun and it is really nice all the kids can swim by themselves.  Dallin has his life jacket and paddles around trying to keep up with the rest and he does a pretty good job.  He never wants to be left behind!

That night we watched movies and got to bed early so we would be ready for our first day at Disneyland!!  Not before we watched the firework show from the park on our balcony though!