Kelly's New Bike

Kelly is hard to keep up with on her bike these days, and after two and a half years she's finally outgrown her bike. Daddy bought her a 20" mountain bike equipped with hand brakes and gears. She loves her new bike, especially since it's pink! It took her a little while getting used to the hand brakes, but now she's riding like a pro.

Yosemite Trip

We took a trip to Yosemite from May 12-19. It was a vacation we had planned six months in advance. We had such a great time there. You could not help but be reminded of God's awesome power every time you looked around. Mandi's favorite part of the trip, besides the fellowship with our friends, was the hike up the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls. It was 2.0 miles and 2000 ft. You had to experience it in person to truly appreciate its beauty. If you look closely you'll see Tom and Kelly in the bottom left corner. This is the part of Mist Trail when you got drenched.

Our Campsite

Here is our campsite, located in the Upper Pines Campground. We were very pleased with our location. Our good friend, Lou stayed at the same site. The rest of our friends stayed at the Housekeeping Camp, about 1 mile from our campsite. We pedaled our bicycles to visit them every night.

While we were riding our bicycles back to camp one evening we saw this deer relaxing in the meadow along the bike path. He wasn't scared of us at all.

Each night one of the families prepared dinner for the rest of the group. Our night was Monday. We made macaroni & cheese, spam, spaghetti and salad. The top photo shows some of our group chowing down. There's Lou, Tom, Mike & Summer and Jill. In the bottom, Jenna, Kelly & Emma enjoy dinner in the Bus.

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls

The first picture is of both the upper and lower Yosemite Falls. The top picture is the upper falls. The middle picture is the lower falls. We could see the upper falls every time we rode our bikes to the village.

A group of us hiked the trail to see lower Yosemite Falls. Kelly, Levi and Annie take a break on the way up.

Each week the art center at Yosemite offers a free class given by an artist. Kelly and Tom took a watercolor class by Fealing Lin. She said Kelly's water gave her goosebumps.

We Saw Bears!

We were coming to the end of our trail when we saw a mama bear and two cubs. She must have heard us coming because she already had the cubs up a tree. We watched them for a good five minutes. It was an awesome sight.

Some Beautiful Scenery

Vernal Falls

We hiked to the top of Vernal Falls twice. The first time Mandi forgot her camera. It was such a beautiful hike we went back up the next day with the camera. Most of the hike was up and Kelly hiked like a pro. The mist sprayed us as we got closer to the falls.

Little Cub Jr. Ranger

Kelly completed the Little Cub Handbook and took the Little Cub Oath to become a Junior Ranger.

Kelly Lost a Tooth!

Kelly finally lost her loose tooth. She was brushing her teeth when it came out. She was very excited.

Ballet Performance

Kelly's homeschool ballet class performed "Peter and the Wolf". The little girls were the water. Tom gave Kelly a rose after the performance.

Family Camp

This weekend we went to family camp with our church. We camped at Woods Valley Kampground in our VW Bus. It was a great time of fellowship, devotions and fun activities.

Some of the activities we enjoyed were riding bike, horseshoes and swimming. It was 80+ so we enjoyed a dip in the pool.

Kelly's new chore is loading and unloading the dishwasher.

Kelly's First Loose Tooth

Kelly finally has a loose tooth. She's been waiting and waiting for a tooth to come out. It won't be too long until it's gone.

Wiggling her loose tooth. If you look closely you'll see that her permanent tooth has already cut through behind the baby tooth.

Ballet Birthday Party

Kelly's friend, Casey had a ballet birthday party at the YMCA. Kelly loves to do ballet.

Kelly had fun leaping and spinning and doing all the girly ballet things.

Kelly likes swinging from the monkey bars. Now that she goes to work with Mommy she gets lots of practice.

Field Day

Kelly's school had field day at the gym. She got to play volleyball, basketball and soccer.

Breakfast

Kelly and Mandi made a log cabin for Kelly's history lesson on Abraham Lincoln. This morning she enjoyed oatmeal for breakfast before heading out to school.