The Sand Dollar… July 4, 2008

 

Today we collected a hefty bounty of Sand Dollars, and found this little poem to share…

Legend of the Sand Dollar

There’s a pretty little legend
That I would like to tell
Of the birth and death of Jesus
Found in this lowly shell

If you examine closely,
You’ll see that you find here
Four nail holes and a fifth one
Made by a Roman’s Spear.

On one side the Easter Lily,
Its center is the star
That appeared unto the shepherds
And led them from afar.

The Christmas poinsettia
Etched on the other side
Reminds us of His birthday
Our Happy Christmastide.

Now break the centre open
And here you will release
The five white doves awaiting
To spread Good Will and Peace.

This simple little symbol,
Christ left for you and me
To help us spread his Gospel
Through all eternity.Anonymous

 

 

Day 1 at the Redwoods…We have nothing but GOOD to say! July 4, 2008

Okay so our Campsite is the most beautiful place we ever camped. Check it out at www.redwoodsrv.com

I think that this will take the prize for nicest campground on Sabbatical. We are surrounded by humongous trees and yet we have cell phone service and internet (a big plus for me of course), our site is actually right in between 2 giant stumps that are larger than our car, there are lush green ferns growing everywhere, and the only thing we hear are birds singing. We Love it Here!!!

Also tonight we checked out Ocean World (www.oceanworldonline.com). Wow! What an awesome place… We held Starfish, Crabs, petted Leopard Sharks, and got a kiss from a Sea Lion :)  We were the only lucky visitors on the tour, so we were treated to some VIP treatment. It was great! Zoe was all excited about holding starfish and petting sharks, but unfortunately she wasn’t up for Sea Lion kisses, so she missed out on the experience.

We would highly reccomend this place, it looks like a dive from the outside, it looks kinda cheesy, but trust us you will be pleasantly surprised!

Lassen and The Sundial Bridge July 4, 2008

Lassen was had beautiful crystal clear mountain lakes, tall trees, streams, snow capped mountain ranges, and wildflowers. We didn’t hike because we didn’t have much time, but it gives us a good reason to go back and explore it deeper next time! We did walk around a couple lakes, but we had to hurry back because Chip wasn’t allowed on the trails and it was over 100 degrees outside. Zoe was scared at first about being near a volcano, but soon got over her fear and was real amused about seeing a volcano.

In Redding we visited with Jason’s Dad and Step Mom and we checked out the SunDial Bridge on the Sacramento River. That was cool, but probably a better site at night. The floor of the bridge completely lights up at night. We were also hoping to visit Whiskeytown Lake, but due to the fires the visibility was bad and the beach area was being used as a base camp for firefighters.

Lassen Volcanic National Park July 3, 2008

Lassen was a wonderful surprise. We weren’t expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised. Lassen was beautiful, and we are looking forward to coming back and spending a full day or two. Will give more details yesterday….oops I mean later…Can you tell I’m tired???

Burney Falls Is AMAZING!!! July 2, 2008

Zoe was able to visit with her Great Grandma Alma, and see the 8th Wonder of The World…Burney Falls.

We all agreed that this was the most beautiful sight we’ve seen yet! The Falls were absolutely amazing, with water flowing in every direction, lush green vegetation, wild flowers, huge trees…It was all just breath taking! We had seen the Falls once before when Zoe was about a year old, but we just looked from the view point up top. Today we did the short hike down to the bottom, and boy was it a treat!!! The view from below is 10X better than the viewpoint above.  I think that Burney Falls will definately be one of our favorites!

Boating on Englebright June 30, 2008

Jason has had a great week back at home. He started the week up catching up with an old friend/coach who was a very influential role model through the high school years. He was even able to play some basketball with the high school kids he is currently coaching. Very fun for Jason! Then he had high hopes for a Softball tournament this weekend, but a bad bout of the flu or food poisong cut that short. He played 2 games Friday night, and 2 games Saturday morning before he had to throw in the towel. The flu bug had gotten the best of him and he came home and crashed for the rest of the day. :(  Luckily Sunday he was feeling well enough for one last lake trip before we headed out. Unfortunately that meant we didn’t get to go to church this morning (we didn’t want to risk spreading the flu bug to anyone at Church), but we had a great day on the lake enjoying God’s amazing creation! A surprise to us all Jason was feeling good enough to get himself up on some skis and we all enjoyed watching that…And this time I have pictures! Since the bug only lasted 24 hours, we’re kinda leaning toward the bug being food poisoning??? He ate potato salad that nobody else ate…So locals, you may want to steer clear of the Potato Salad at Sunflower!

Unfortunately due to the drought and excessive forest fires, Englebright wasn’t near as beautiful as it usually is, but still nice Zoe loved splashing and playing in the water with her cousins.

Santa Cruz and Yosemite Pics June 22, 2008

Santa Cruz and Yosemite Pics

Welcome Baby Tristan Davis Cox June 21, 2008

Our very cute little nephew entered into the world June 19, 2008 at 1:29am.

Exactly 4 years and 4 days after his big cousin Zoe Jane.

 

Yosemite June 21, 2008

Place…

Yosemite

 

Location…

Groveland, California

 

Where we stayed…

 Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes

 

What we saw…

Huge trees, El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Squirrels, a Stellar Jay (bird), Butterflies, Deer (we actually got within 2 feet of a beautiful little fawn), a Grey Fox, and amazing views from every direction.

 

Miles Hiked…

We hiked to Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Falls, and Merced Grove. Almost 5 miles total.

 

Our favorite thing about it…

The enormous trees were amazing, as were the waterfalls and lush green foliage everywhere…We don’t see a lot of that in Utah. Zoe of course loved having her cousins along and they were able to complete the Junior Ranger Handbook and be officially sworn in as Junior Rangers (Zoe is officially a Little Cub). We really enjoyed our campsite too. Right across the street from our trailer site, we were able to swim in a beautiful lake. Nothing could feel better after a long day in the park, and we were able to get some more use out of our Body Boards too. J  

 

What we didn’t like…

The road up was hot, long, rough, windy, and straight up hill. Apparently our GPS failed to take note that we were pulling a trailer. We later were informed that the route we took wasn’t meant for trucks and trailers; I guess back in the day the road was used for pack mules to bring goods back and forth. But our Denali was a trooper, and did a great job getting us up safely. I’m sure that God had His hand in that! Also we didn’t have cell phone service, so we missed that call alerting us that little baby Tristan was deciding he was ready to enter into the world. We were driving in everyday for cell phone service to check in with Aunt Fallon and to our surprise when we called Thursday morning, Tristan was already here!

 

Things we’d do differently next time…

Yosemite is great. I wish that we would have hiked more, but we were there mid week so on some of the trails we were the only ones. I couldn’t help but to be leery and bear aware. Our plan on the hike was that if we seen a bear, Jason had the bear mace and I had a big stick and we would stall it, while Justice walked the girls back to the car, and we gave Justice the car keys. Apparently that was all unnecessary, because on the last day I learned from the Park Ranger that Yosemite unlike Yellowstone only has Black Bears who are non aggressive and actually scared of human contact versus the Grizzly Bear. We learned at Yellowstone that your best line of defense with a Grizzly is to play dead. I don’t think I’d be able to do that, do you?

 

What Zoe had to say about it…

Zoe just said, “This is such a beautiful day” A LOT! We are so glad that she has developed such an eye and appreciation for God’s wonders at such a young age.

 

Praise The Lord…I have a new camera! June 21, 2008

We made some calls and found a Walmart that had my camera. We stopped in San Jose on the way to Yosemite and wouldn’t you know it … They were clearancing out my exact same model  Cannon Rebel  for $440 and they only had  one left (keep in mind that I paid $1200 for the exact same camera 4 years ago)!  Thank you Lord for blessing me and making my day J Thank you to my hubby too, who forked out the cash J

I can’t wait to share the blessing … I hope to get super cool pictures to share soon!