Redwoods '15

We took our normal summer adventure once again. It's a weird feeling having no idea where we will be next year and not knowing if we will be able to continue this tradition.

We stayed in our normal campground, but instead of a campsite filled with redwoods we had gorgeous mossy maples instead.

There was a little creek bed behind our site that the kids loved to explore. To climb down they had to go over a semi-burned log which made for some really clean adventures. I can't believe how much this kid is growing up.

Ellie was crushed to not see any banana slugs in our campsite. Ironically, within one minute of her complaint Aeryn started to find them all over the little creek bed. The girls ran around and found at least a half dozen in less than a minute. Usually, we find solid yellow slugs, but this time we were lucky and found several spotted "overripe banana" slugs.

Jim attempted to share the banana slug joy with Tate. He was not impressed. You can see his trepidation in the first picture, and if you look closely at his hand in the second picture you'll see he's still stiff from trying to swat the thing out of Jim's hand. I've never seen him so uncertain about something. He really did not like them.

He did like the camp chairs and s'mores fixings though. I seldom got to sit in my own chair because it seems all the kids like adult chairs better.

I can't believe how big these girls are getting. This overlook looks out toward the Pacific ocean but it took a great deal of concentration to identify where the clouds ended and the water began.

I love these people. They carry my heart with them everywhere they go. As a kid I dreamed that family life could be this great, but I didn't really believe it. It's not all sunshine and roses of course, but I think that is part of what makes it so great; It's completely real.

T was fairly sleepy as we finished our walk through Stout Grove. I'm not sure he was very impressed with the trees, but he endured it well even with it being the middle of nap time.

My boys are so cute. I have a feeling these guys will have an extra special bond. Since they will be surrounded by so much estrogen they will have to band together to stay sane.

How much longer will we be able to fit in our tree? The family pictures here have sure changed a lot over the years. It's strange to think that in a year we'd have to fit another human into this shot.