Breakfast at Hash House A Go Go

Epic Camping Trip ver 3.0

Every year all my Washington and Oregon friends head south, and all of my California friends head north and we meet somewhere in the middle and have an epic camping trip.

This year we went to Jedediah Smith state park in the Redwoods up in northern California.

Here are some pictures

Chara is certified!

no, not crazy

Chara is a certified trauma nurse!!

She is super smart and passed the really really hard test on the first try.

Congratulate her next time you see her, and hopefully its on in the ER

Ben

Backpacking to the Devil's Punchbowl

Now that summer is here (even though we are still in full June gloom mode) I hope you will take the opportunity to get outside and have an adventure.

We threw some gear in our packs, called some friends and went out on a last minute backpacking adventure to Cedar Creek Falls and the Devil's Punchbowl just outside of Julian.



The hike in was easy as it was all downhill. We got a little lost and took a couple slightly dangerous shortcuts but thats all part of the fun.



We camped out by the creek and gazed at the stars that night.





The next day we hiked down to the bottom of the falls and swam in the punchbowl. The water felt so good and the rope swing was a blast.



The hike home was some work. It was all uphill and in the heat of the afternoon. We brought lots of water and took some breaks to let the breeze cool us off.

We stopped just outside of Julian to get some amazing sandwiches and found a fudge place that sold jalapeno fudge which was ridiculously good so we bought some.

Once we got home, showered and unpacked we were exhausted. We had plans to go visit family up in LA but that turned into napping on the couch with our puppies.

We had a blast and I hope you take some time to have a last minute adventure this summer. Just throw some food and water in a bag and go for a hike. Get outside and enjoy the beauty.

Ben..

See all the photos from the hike

spring is coming...

The weather hasn't fully caught up yet, but spring is coming.
My garden has grown like crazy!
I finally posted some pics of the garden project at my new site http://www.trulysimple.com/

Cowboy Monty

no we didn't buy the hat.

A visit with Scotty

Our friend Scotty is moving down to SoCal with us and he came down to visit us and to interview at the college near us. We had a great visit

Monty Likes Scotty

Went to Moonlight beach for some fun and smores

throwing the ball around

nice sunset

hanging around the campfire

3 pretty girls

Big Family Easter

naptime

Meet Monty

This is our new dog Monty.

He is terribly ferocious

He likes leafs

and he's awfully cute

Meet our new dog Monty.

Sledding with the family on Valentines Day

We all went up to the mountains to go sledding on Valentines day.

6 kids + 8 adults + $2 inner tubes = the most fun we have ever had.

These are the most fun pictures you'll ever see.






Chara took all of these photos and they are all great. The rest of the pictures are on facebook.