Skating on Tenaya Lake

Instead of skating at Curry Village, we went to Tenaya Lake. What an amazing experience! We had a picnic on the sand around the lake and watched the kids play hockey and Jim give the adults rides on the chairs on the ice. And we sang happy 40th birthday to Tina!

Geocaching

We went geocaching today at Rainbow Pool off of Highway 120 - just outside of Yosemite. We walked up a very muddy path (about 1/2 a mile) and searched around in a bunch of rocks for about 25 minutes before finding a cache in an ammo box. It was filled with fun stuff. We took a pathtag (pathtag.com) and left an army man and a glass rock.

We had one casualty - Grace slipped on a muddy path and took a big spill. She was scratched up pretty good but managed to carry on!

Boat Contest

The girls built their own boats out of paper plates, cups, straws, etc and then went to the lake to float them. Grace's was top heavy - may have been the cannon.

Bug's boat was engineered to have a blow motor that required blowing into a straw to make it go!

Spoons

Last nite, everyone at the cabin, except for me, decided it was a fine time to play a game of spoons. There were 8 of them playing at the kitchen table. It's all fun and games until someone lands on Murray when going for a spoon! He let out a yelp that alarmed all the dogs and scared the heck out of himself. He proceeded to come and sit with me and Ahi on the couch and fret everytime someone got a spoon.

So I had to take the dogs downstairs away from the ruckus so they didn't fret. We all layed downstairs and watched some tv ---- for about 2 hours ---- until Drew won!

Last Stop

Our last stop on our high country adventure was Mono Lake. The visitor center was closed....because it is suppose to be winter and covered with snow! But it was about 60 degrees and sunny! We hiked around a little and checked out the sites (you can see Murray and Daisy in the bottom part of this pic).

Then we headed back to the cabin - a 2 hour drive - to meet the Cindy's who had made us chimichungas! What a way to end a great day.

Back side of Yosemite

These are pics for the grade that goes out the back side of Yosemite, heading to Lee Vining (a town) and Mono Lake. This grade is 12 miles of super steep road with a canyon right over the side....with NO guard rail! We stopped to look into the canyon and saw a bunch of guys repelling a chunk of ice. And we could see holes in the rock where they blasted the rock with dynamite to make the road. Super cool adventure.

More High Country

Here are some more pics from our Yosemite High Country adventure.

Tenaya Lake

This year is very unusual with the weather as there is no snow in the mountains. But it allows for us to go up to the high country of Yosemite in the winter, which we have never done. We went all the way over Highway 12o, which is Tioga Pass. Here are pics of our picnic at Tenaya Lake.

More pics from Mari and Kyle's Wedding location

Here comes the Bride

Yesterday, we went to look at the place where Kyle and Mari are getting married. It is this super cool "estate" that has all these buildings for people to stay in and buildings for wedding events. This is the chapel.

New Melones

We did a little winter boating today on New Melones Lake. Caught four trout but then lost two of them on our trip back to the dock. Darn! It was a warm day for the winter but still a bit chilly on the lake.

Vroom Vroom

We have a driver -- Drew passed his drivers test!

Jim took a bullet for the family and took him to take the test last Friday while Grace and I were at the cabin. But Jim gave us a play by play via text.

Drew was up and ready at 7 am for an 8:30 am test!

They went and were told to pull the car around in line and wait in it. So Drew did that and Jim waited inside the DMV....that was the beginning of the trouble...

Apparently, Jim was suppose to wait in the car with Drew, but that is not what the lady inside told them. So Drew got in trouble by one of the tester guys and had to get Jim. And then Jim got chewed out by the guy. Not a good start for Drew (AKA Nervous Nelly).

So Jim gets in the car and sits with Drew to wait his turn. While waiting, the car in front of them dies! DEAD! And the people have to push it out of the way.

Next, they see a girl who just pulled out for her test immediately come back and she is crying!

Yikes....Nervous Nelly is sweating bullets!

Luckily, Drew doesn't get the mean, grumpy guy who chewed out Jim, he gets a nice woman. And out they go for the test.

It took about 10 minutes and he came back having only missed three and passing! (You can miss up to 15!?!?!) One of the things he missed is he didn't know where the defroster was!

And the best part of it....he took the test in the Mini - and it's a stick shift!

A mini road trip

My mini went on its first road trip to the cabin! Jim and Drew drove up in it to meet us up here.

It looks so cute in the woods!

Hot diggity dog...

While we were shooting at hay bales, the dogs were hunting for small furry animals burrowed underground. They love to dig!

Ahi dug so deep that she was almost upside down with her head in the hole!

Ready, Aim....

Here we are trying out my new bow up at our local archery range.

I was pretty decent at it but the string kept hitting me in the arm which caused a big bruise.

Jim is AMAZING at it. Hit a dead on bulls eye at 50 yards!

What do you want for xmas?

Drew really wanted a 4-wheel drive truck for xmas....but instead, we got Grace a tractor!

Just kidding, we found it when we went to shoot my new bow.

I Love the Biebs

Grandma gave Gracie this hat so she can wear it when the soccer girls are on a mission to move "The Biebs" from one birthday girl to another!

Mini Me!

The kids got me a Mini t-shirt and a Mini travel mug for xmas. The travel mug is cool because the mini has little tiny cup holders that only fit little mugs and this one is made just for it!

Bow and Arrow

My xmas gift this year is a re-curved bow so that I can go out and kill bales of hay with a fierce looking arrow!