We wrapped up the last days of August this summer at Ahrash's family cabin in Strawberry, in the lower Sierras. The weather and scenery were fantastic, we did lots of hiking, playing the the river, and Dahrius had his first introduction to Monopoly (he won both times we played, as Baba/Monty/dad was his financial consultant).
Here we are swimming at Pinecrest Lake with some friends who also happened to be up there at their family cabin the same weekend.
Drying off at the lake among the pines. Ranier was already done with his swim and dressed.
At the cabin. Mom and the boys.
Dahrius having some tea and a snack out on the cabin's deck.
Ranier had great fun climbing and maneuvering around on the rocks.
...as did Dahrius.
Much hiking around. Ranier seems to enjoy his view from up high.
Here Ranier was swinging his weight around and "rocking the boat," which delighted him...though daddy didn't enjoy it quite so much.
Both boys spent many hours just throwing rocks into the river...and sticks...and leaves, and anything else that seemed reasonable.
Ranier had so much fun just climbing and exploring along these big rocks.
One of our days there we drove up for about 40 min. (mostly along a dirt road) to the Emigrant Wilderness, where we had a stunningly gorgeous hike around 9000 ft with astounding views. Dahrius so impressed fellow hikers on the trail (he ended up hiking nearly 5 miles), that one man offered him slices of fresh watermelon if he made it all the way to Powell lake (our destination). Apparently that was sufficient incentive to make it all the way, and it was a pretty good deal for us, too! Here's a view from along the way.
Here we are at lovely Powell lake, cooling our toes in the water.
Ranier was a little snack-o-vore with now one of his favorite words being, "naaaa" (imagine him saying it at 250 decibels) for "snack." He says it with gusto, and he will pretty much snack continuously, if the food is available.
Dahrius, on the other hand, wouldn't stop exploring the lake and the area to sit down for a snack.
Here's our little hiker posing on top of a big boulder....with more views, as well.
The boys liked hiding in the broom closet at the cabin--pretty cute! These are views from above.
Our happy "rider."
Another day we took a trek to hike among the "Ancient Dwarves," which are essentiallyery old, but small trees that can find themselves growing in what looks like a bare rock or a small crack in a boulder. Very cool. Snack time (we have a lot of those).
Here is a pretty good view of what looks like a baby tree (growing out of the crack in this rock), but is likely to be a very old tree. Impressive!
Meal/snack in the cabin, with our monopoly game set up on the other end of the table.
It was nice to have Monty/Baba/dad along for much of the trip. One day we took a hike around part of Pinecrest lake. Here are the 3 generations of Bissell boys.
As you can see, the boys were being very good helpers as we packed up to leave.
Our last day, we hiked a bit and played in the river. The kids loved splashing around, and we all took dips one a few occasions.
Hooray! Can't wait to go back next summer.
Fall is officially here, and the weather is lovely. It has been sunny, warm and clear. Dahrius is happy to be back at school where he gets to see his friends a lot, and learn about numbers, birds, the solar system, and this week the letter "a."
We also got a new couch! The boys are testing it out, and we predict it will get A LOT of heavy use. We'll see how long it stays white...
ALso, I decided to make a Peter Pan costume for Halloween this year for Dahrius. I was thinking I'd save $$, and it would be a fun project. So I started this with no pattern, and have spent far more hours, so far, undoing my mistakes (like sewing on a sleeve inside out) than making progress. Plus, Dahrius has been "helping" and while I was gone, he used the scissors to cut some holes in his costume and to cut up the thread carefully threaded into the sewing machine. What was I thinking!!!??!??! We'll see...there's still time to buy, if necessary.
