Volleyball Camp

Two years ago during the summer Ashlee and Mikayla attended a volleyball camp, this summer Mikayla has been bored and looking for something to do, so I signed her up for another volleyball camp at a high school here in Turlock.  Ashlee had other events going on throughout the week that would conflict, so just Mikayla did it. Plus her friend Allison, ended up joining her the second day and did it with her throughout the week.  She loved it.  I think she has found something else that she enjoys and is good at.  The camp was taught by the high school volleyball coach and other girls on the high school volleyball team.  The high school girls said that Mikayla can serve the ball harder than they can!

The Cabin Under the Pines, Natural Bridges, Big Trees and White Pine Lake

As soon as the girls got out of school, and all the last day of school activities were cleaned up at school, we headed up to Dan and Teresa's wonderful cabin for a wonderful 3 day trip.  The cabin is so nice, peaceful, and relaxing.  We love going there. The only problem is, no one ever wants to come home!!! On our last night there Mikayla said, "The only thing I don't like about coming here is having to go home; but I do like our house Mom, I like my room and my stuff."
We enjoyed the outdoors most of this trip.  We spent the majority of our time outside.  We ate all our meals outside, relaxed in the spa, laid on the hammock, roasted smores, went hiking, went swimming, etc.
Friday we packed a picnic lunch and went on a 2 mile hike (1 mile there and 1 mile back) to a place called Natural Bridges.  Natural Bridges is a cave that you can swim in.  Pretty neat place, we just did not know what to expect, so we did not come prepared with swimming suits,water shoes, and flotation devices.  Here is what the place looked like, from the outside of the cave.

John, Ashlee and Mikayla-this is where we ate our lunch. 

It was a pretty hot day and the hike was all in the sun, up hill on the way back to the car.  John and the girls were ready to get some inner tubes and go swimming, so we stopped and got some inner tubes and went to White Pine Lake.
John, Ashlee and Mikayla playing in the lake.

John, Mikayla and Ashlee trying to see if they could make it to the other side of the lake.  John decided to turn around, he was afraid his $2 inner tube would go flat and that he would have to swim back!

John and the girls trying to link up and float down the lake. It did not work.

When John and the girls decided to get out of the lake, these three visitors followed behind them.  The girls started feeding them Wheat Thins and either the crackers were too hard or they made the ducks thirsty; because the ducks would grab the Wheat Thins, waddle into the lake, grab some water and come back for more.

Saturday we invited my grandpa to come up to go hiking in Big Trees with us and have a picnic.  Since we had done the usual hike in Big Trees we decided to go on a different hike in the park.  John asked a ranger at the ranger station about the different hikes and she recommended one, so we decided to try that one.  Needless to say, it was not anything great.  We were all ready to go find the ranger and ask her what was so great about that hike.  The hike was longer than the one we went on the day before, but it was cooler and easier in my opinion.  There were times though, were it felt like you were just going in one big circle and were never going to see your car again.  Every time we stopped walking mosquito's attacked us.

Creek at the beginning and end of trail

Mikayla-the leader of our hike.  She likes to just go, you have to keep reminding her to not get too far ahead.

The Hike Critics gave this hike 2 thumbs down.  They did not care for this hike.  The whole point of this hike is suppose to be this grove.  But when you get there, it is basically empty.  Not much to see, and if this sign was not there, you probably would miss it.

We took a selfie.  John and my grandpa decided to take the trail to the "Railroad Tree"  the girls and I decided to keep on going.  Besides, if we stopped we got attacked by mosquito's.

At the end of the hike we had a picnic lunch and then headed to the logging museum.  After the Museum we headed back to White Pine Lake.  The girls wanted to swim one last time, before heading home the next day.

Ashlee and Mikayla at the Logging Museum.

We had a very nice trip.  We love the cabin.  It's so peaceful and relaxing.  Thank you Teresa and Dan. 

Last Day of School

One of the most anticipated days of the year occurred today, the last day of school was today.  The last day of school is only half a day.  The morning starts off with two assemblies broken down by grade levels.  Since Ashlee is in Middle School and Mikayla is in Elementary School we attended both assemblies. This will be the last time we have to do this, because after today, we no longer have a child in elementary school.  Yikes! The girls are growing up so fast!

Ashlee and Mikayla both received awards during the assemblies for Gold Honor Roll.  They both have straight A's.  We are proud of them and their accomplishments.

Ashlee and Hannah

Ashlee second from left and all the seven graders with Gold Honor Roll.

Mikayla

Mikayla and her teacher Mr. Sundy

Mikayla is third from the left.  All the fifth graders in her class that received Gold Honor Roll with their teacher Mr. Sundy and the principal Mr. Viss

After the assemblies, they have various carnival like activities for the kids to do, a BBQ hot dog lunch for all the student's and their families, snow cones and popcorn.  This year they also got a photo booth for the kids to use, so that was neat and different.  John was the snow cone maker for 2 hours straight, he grinded the ice and put it in cups while myself, and a couple other parents put the syrup on them.

Next school year will be filled with changes.  Both girls will be in middle school, Mikayla will go to sixth grade camp and Ashlee will be graduating from 8th grade and moving on to high school.  On top of all this, our middle school will be facing lots of changes as well.  All of the middle school teachers, with the exception of 2, left our school to take jobs else where, so we will have that adjustment too; and of course we will be dealing with the Common Core adjustment too.  I am not too happy about this new curriculum and all these changes, so we will see how things go......

Hailee's 8th Grade Grauation

Tonight we attended my niece, Hailee's, 8th grade graduation.  She graduated from the same school that her great grandma, grandpa, dad, and countless great aunts, great uncles, cousins and other relatives attended.  This school seems to have a lot of generations attend it, so for part of their graduation ceremony, they did a ceremony where the graduates spoke about their past generations of family members, and awarded them with a mug with the school logo on it.  Hailee was the 4th generation in her family to graduate from this school.

My Grandma Irene (Hailee's Great Grandma) was there put it was easier for Hailee to walk to her, it all happened so quickly that I didn't get a picture.  This is Hailee awarding my Dad (her grandpa) with his mug.  My dad was lucky enough to be there.  A few days before this, he was in the hospital, he had his second heart attack in less than a year.