Seven Lakes Basin--Young women

Even though the forecast was looking bleak we forged ahead with our plans to hike Seven Lakes Basin with the young women.  We had planned it and by golly it was going to happen.  

Jessica, Leslie, Nikki, Chloe, Camille, Sadie, Jenette, Nathan, Alejandra, Arynne, Mark

A waterfall along the trail.

One of the girls was having back pack issue so we took a break while Nathan resolved the problem.  Everyone did an awesome job on the crazy thigh killing trail up to Deer Lake.  It was 4 miles.  So far it hadn't really rained much along the way.

The "butt" tree along the trail.

Once the tents were up it rained off and on.  It was enough rain to realize one of the tents was not good in the rain.  Nathan fixed it up the best he could and I think it quit leaking some.  Another tent had issues but it was more that the girls weren't closing the door when they left.  

The girls fixing dinner.  It was yummy.

We walked around the lake a few times.  The girls played games in their tents and then we had a devotional.  

Once evening came it rained more and continued most of the night.  I didn't sleep at all cause I was worried about how cold and wet the girls might be getting.  In the morning there were a few wet sleeping bags.  One in particular that was really wet.  As much as it bothered us to give up on the rest of the trip it was decided that we better head back to the vehicles to get home.  It would have been a another miserable night for a few of the girls if we had stayed.  I didn't want anyone to have a horrible experience and then never want to attend another hike with us.  

Breakfast of champions?? Oatmeal, hot chocolate or cider.

We were loaded up and ready to head back by 8am.  We told the girls we could have a slumber party at  our house that night.  

I sure do like this guy a lot.  

Everyone fell asleep on the way back home.  

Our yard was a mess when everyone put their stuff out to dry.  It was nice cause the sun was shining with a slight wind so most things dried in no time.  

A few of the girls braided Chloe's hair.  

We still had a few girls make the dinner that was planned for that night.  It was a fun group to be with.  

Evening of the 4th

After spending the day making peg legs and other things out of wood we took to the water to watch fireworks.  I was getting a bit impatient cause I didn't know it wasn't supposed to start till 10:30 but it ended up being worth the wait.  We do live in a beautiful area.  

PEG LEG

Josiah has been fascinated with pirates and their peg legs.  The first picture is his prototype with the plunger but it wasn't good enough.  Then Nathan helped him with the next model.  It looks tiring to me to use it.  He was even starting to get a few blisters on his knee from using it.  

Lena Lake

Our usual, once school is out, activity (canoeing to Blake Island) came to a screeching halt this year with a nonfunctional truck so we did the next best thing instead.   Although, I do think hiking is the ultimate outdoor activity.   I was so impressed with everyone on this back packing trip.  Elijah insisted on carrying his own sleeping bag and clothes.  He did it all three miles up and then back the next day without a single complaint.  

As were were hiking up the trail I had this overwhelming feeling of love for this family of mine.  I am one blessed gal to have Nathan and these four kids of ours.  They are so fun to hang out with.  

It is rare that we go anywhere where we can have a fire so all of us were excited to finally have smores.  However the mom of the group left the most important part of the smores on the counter at home.  What is a fire without marshmallows?  We ended up eating graham crackers with chocolate.  Bummer.

This is Josiah's experiment.  He was boiling water inside a paper bowl.  

If you don't come home filthy from camping you didn't have any fun at all is my opinion.  

I was trying to set the timer on my phone to take a picture of us and the lake but as you can see it wasn't successful.  You can't see the lake and I wasn't patient enough to stand there wondering if it was even taking.  

I moved behind Josiah because I thought it took.

Then on the third shot I was coming closer to the phone. 

I gave up and decided that I didn't' need to be in the picture.  

This downed tree was on a steep part of the trail that the boys went down. 

It was tiring hiking and nearly everyone crashed. 

Mt. Walker

 Climbing up Mt. Walker was the mutual activity tonight.  This is our 2nd pre-hike.  This mountain does have a road to drive on that takes you up to the top but we went the hard way.  It was a rough hike but nobody gave up even though they wanted to.  Our boys came along too.  Elijah talked the ear off of his friend (and his mom) the whole way up and the whole way back.  It was great.  He didn't complain once about the hike. 

Alejandra, Sadie, Arynne

McKenna, Britttany

Chloe, Nikki, Haylei

Rebecca, Jarom, Jessica, Jenette

The tree dilemma

This is what our backyard looked liked before we moved in.  There were so many plants and bushes growing everywhere.  Notice the trees near the back of this picture.  There were 10 cedar trees lining our parking area at the time.  

This picture also shows those trees near the van.

Well those trees were looking worse all of the time so we did eight of them in one summer.  We were thinking if there weren't so many they might do better.  Last summer we ended up getting rid of the one nearest the fence.  

This left one lonely tree but it still wasn't doing well so Saturday it fell.  I was looking back at these old pictures and thought about how much change our place has gone through.  I so miss the shade of those trees but in other ways its nice to have it more open.   The other reason we did it was that we will have two new neighbors soon. It was going to be easier to do it now than later with them around.  

No more trees.

This porch area is still a work in progress.  

This is our backyard now.