Last Camping Trip of the Summer

We camped at Big Springs in Mammoth this past weekend. Arrived Friday afternoon, set up camp, and relaxed. Did a couple of geocaches and went to some of our favorite spots on Saturday. It rained constantly all Saturday night and into the day on Sunday until we left at around 3 p.m. For more pictures, please see our dropshots site.

July Camping Trip

We headed off to Mammoth once again (our trailer is up there for the summer), and this time camped at an RV park with a big group of Jeff's co-workers. Beautiful warm weather with no reason to use bug repellent this time!

Here is Isabelle with a "trap" she created (just like Les on the Discovery Channel's "Survivorman")
Another trap created by Isabelle...
On Friday we explored the area with the Cox family. Here is Isabelle ready for her first ride in their Ranger Polaris (she loved it)
Then she got to ride in a quad on the way back down the trail
We introduced the Coxes to some geocachingThe girls at the end of a long but fun day
On Saturday, we went again with the Cox Family and this time went to Hot Creek
And then for a soak in a hot tub
Dinner on Saturday evening with everyone in the park Relaxing in camp before packing up to head home
What a blessing--Melina slept most of the way home!!
Isabelle stays occupied on long car trips with the girls' birthday present--a dual DVD player

First Camping Trip of the Summer

For our first camping trip of Summer 2009, we camped at Big Springs, one of our favorite campgrounds above Mammoth. Lots and lots of bugs--poor Isabelle--just like me as a child--she got eaten up!! (unfortunately we were a little too late with the bug repellent the first evening we were there)
On our first full day, we did a geocache near Lake Crowley (we were the first to find it) and then spent the afternoon fishing at Convict Lake
Our friends, the Pachecos, joined us a couple days later and we had lots of fun spending time together, doing some geocaching, and swimming at Gull Lake.
at a geocache spot overlooking June Lake
lots and lots of moths

Last camping trip of the season...

We went to Mammoth the Wednesday after Labor Day and stayed through Sunday. On the way, we stopped in Big Pine and visited with Aunt Mary T. who was visiting Aunt Connie and Uncle Mike. We had a great visit and also got to see Aunt Connie and Uncle Mike's new kitchen--it was beautiful!

We camped above the Owens River and went to sleep each night listening to the tranquil sound of the river. The fishing, in general, was pretty terrible, but the weather was gorgeous and the relaxation was great! We did some more exploring for the lost cement mine, did some hiking with the Pacheco's who camped with us, and overall, had a wonderful time.

We had our trailer in Mammoth for the summer at the Mammoth Mountain RV Park but brought it home this trip. While we'd like to make another camping trip to Tuttle Creek in Lone Pine next month, with the cost of gas and the time and effort needed to get the trailer ready (packing for 2 kids is exhausting!), we will probably just make it a day trip instead.

I am supposed to sleep somewhere in this bed!

On our hike around Convict Lake. Ginger's husband, Donald, took us off the main trail a little, but we saw this beautiful creek above the lake.

Out of the front carrier for a quick rest and snack.

Enjoying some time at the park. While Isabelle pushed Melina, Melina would just laugh and laugh--they both enjoyed it so much!

We explored the Inyo Craters. See the mountain ridge behind us? We were on top of that ridge last month with Uncle Mike looking for the lost cement mine. At that time, I looked down onto the craters we are now in, wondered what it was, so it was fun to be in the area we had so recently viewed from above.

Mammoth...until next summer...

Camping Trip

We spent the weekend in Mammoth. We didn't have anything specific planned and ended up not doing much, just a lot of relaxing and watching the girls play. Our normal days in Ridgecrest are usually hectic and scheduled, so it was very nice to just sit and do nothing. Even during the relaxation, we were still able to have dinner at our favorite restaurant, do some exploring of the area (we're looking for the "lost cement mine"--more on that later), and even a little fishing. I am still reeling a little from this picture of Melina--did we actually let her get that dirty??? Poor Isabelle being the first child never would have been able to play in the dirt like this, but we simply stuck Melina in the dish tub and used the outside shower to get her clean with hardly a cry on her part. Melina really enjoyed filling this green toy in her hand with pebbles and sand and then pouring it out, over and over.





Isabelle had some fun too. We went to Deadman Creek where Jeff and I hiked when we were dating. There was a really nice pool of water in the creek that looked very inviting, so Isabelle got to go swimming. And to her amazement, she found lots of dead caterpillars in the water too, which are now in our freezer!!--yuck! :).