4th of July weekend part I

I never get tired of feasting my eyes on this!:

Pictures don't even do it justice (especially when they're taken with my cell phone!)

We arrived on a Friday evening. Saturday, we gathered up as many people as were able to go and hiked into Van Patten Lake:

I think we succeeded in getting a pretty good sized group together because Shawn and I were bringing up the rear with Pace and met some hikers coming down the trail.  They said, "It's just like a freeway going up there today!"  Hahaha - it took me a second to realize they were talking about our group:) Here was part of the freeway:

The only adults were Shawn, me and my sister Katie.  I am so glad that she got to come!  I haven't been able to see her as much as I would like to the last few years as she worked on getting a Master's Degree; she's been so incredibly busy.  She just finished though!  I don't know how she accomplished all that she did - she was teaching school full time, going to school full time and has eight children.  They definitely weren't easy times for her, and I am proud of her!

Anyway... there was a lot of this brown stuff hanging from the trees.  I don't know what it was:

But later I met up with my nephews Isaac and David, and they had completely transformed themselves with it! I thought it was pretty creative of them:)

Btw - I just found out this morning that Isaac got his mission call to the Nicaragua Managua South mission, and will be speaking spanish! He's got a great missionary look here;)

And all of the kids got to play in the snow:

Pace needed lots of rests:

Anne and Belle:

When we reached the lake we ate lunch and mosquitos ate us!

The little kids started climbing all the rocks; this is Nolan:

The older kids started leaping off of the rocks into the water:

Some of the cute observers: