Hiking on the Western States Trail

We spent our last Saturday, before the soccer season started, hiking on the Western States Trail.  It is a trail that goes through the Sierra National Forest (20 minutes from our house) from Squaw Valley to Auburn.  Daddy has run on it lots of times, and he knew of a fun hike he wanted to take us on. 

It was a rainy day, but the rain stopped just in time of us to go exploring.  As we hiked along the trail, we first came to No Hands Bridge.  Legend has it that when the Western States Trail 100 was a horse race there was a woman that would let go of the reins and ride with no hands across the bridge on her horse.  Back then the bridge didn't have rails.  Most people would dismount and walk their horses over it.  I guess she trusted her horse a lot.

It was a beautiful bridge built into the granite cliffs along the American River.

 Next we came to the waterfall.  It was beautiful from all of the rain.  It had wild figs and grapes growing around it. 

 Finally, we decided to hike down to the river.  The kids loved playing in the water and on the rocks.  Lily would have swam if we would have let her.  She got pretty wet.  :)

 Daddy climbed to the top of a big granite boulder.  Alex wanted to do it too, but he was nervous. 

 

Next thing we know Alex was on top of the boulder too!  He overcame his fear and climbed up on his own.  We can do hard things when we set our mind to it!

Happy Birthday's and Anniversary!

August is a big month for us!  We celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary on the 15th, Daddy's 37th birthday on the 18th, and Mommy's 38th birthday on the 26th.

Daddy bought mom some "hot pink" roses for their anniversary and they went out to dinner that night to a fun Sushi restaurant that they like.

 Mommy made a chocolate quinoa cake for daddy for his birthday (we won't be making that again any time soon).  It was fun to try something new. 

 

For mommy's birthday we took the safe route and made a lemon cake.  It was yummy.  

First Day of School

The kids started school this week on Monday.  Sarah started 7th grade.  Alex started 2nd grade with Mrs. Peterson, and Lily will start Joy School next week.   They each had a good day and got nice teachers.  They seem to be growing up really fast.  Here are some pictures from the first day:

 

Costanoa Beach Camping

We decided to take one last vacation this summer to the beach.  We camped just north of Santa Cruz in a beautiful area of the Central Coast.  It was gorgeous.  Our campsite was in a grove of eucalyptus trees.  We also had a view of the light house from our campsite.  It was awesome.

Most of the beaches we explored were mostly empty and some we had to ourselves.

The kids loved playing on the beach and exploring tide pools.  We saw lots of fun creatures.  We saw lots of crabs, birds, anemones, barnacles and other beach creatures.

One night we went to the Pigeon Point Light House and watched the sunset.  The sun came through the clouds just for a few minutes before it set.  Because it was filtered by the clouds, we were able to look right at it and take some pretty pictures.  

 Lily loves camping.  She would play in the tent all day if she could.

 There was a cute garden in our campground.  It was a fancy campground with a nice lodge and restaurant.  They grow all of their own veggies in their garden.  Next time we will have to try it out!

 We walked to a second beach the next day.  Again, it was mostly deserted.  We had fun exploring.

 We spent most of the day at the beach.  Went to another beach that had a ton of kite surfers.  It was fun to watch.

 The next day we drove to a beach we saw on the drive to our campsite and thought looked interesting.  It was called Shark Tooth Beach.  The hike down was a little steep, but not too bad.  It was a pretty amazing spot. 

That was our trip in a nutshell.  This was one of our favorite trips and we will have to go back again.