Labor Day at the cabin and quick trip to Yosemite

Earlier in the summer we checked out the Grand Canyon (remember this and this?), and drove home through Yosemite NP. Since we had to buy two park passes for that one trip, we decided to spend a little extra dolla dolla bills and buy the annual National Parks pass instead. The thought was we would go back to Yosemite later in the summer. When I went to make reservations for a Yosemite trip, the park was booked solid. So we moved onto plan B which was to explore two parks neither of us had been before: Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

We kicked off our final trip of the summer by spending Labor Day weekend at the cabin. Luke's college buddy, Pat and his girlfriend joined us for the weekend. Mitch and two of his friends also came up. Mitch brought his boat up and we checked out New Melones Lake on Saturday. The rest of the weekend was spent cooling off in the lake, fishing, and lots of dominoes. Very relaxing and beautiful time in Arnold as always!

Pat and Luke

Luke wakeboarding

Pat cooking up our delicious dinner

Not a trip to the cabin without a campfire

Intense dominoe game

Stanislaus River

Luke fishing

How I spent most of my time

From there, the plan was to go to Cherry Lake and then Sequoia NP. Thank goodness for my amazing husband who checked Yosemite camping availability in the off chance there was a cancelation. Guess what? There was! We booked one night in Yosemite Valley as fast as my fingers could place the reservation. From the cabin, we headed towards Yosemite, spending one night at Cherry Lake. Carol and Greg spent a few nights there earlier in the summer with the Idaho Youngs and highly recommended it. The lake was quite beautiful, but we were anxious to get to Yosemite so didn’t spend much time exploring Cherry Lake (plus the hundreds of bees swarming around camp made us hit the road quickly).

We had exactly 24 hours to spend in Yosemite – nowhere near enough time, but better than nothing! After finding our campsite, we made some lunch and hopped on our bikes and set off for the Mist Trail. The weather was beyond perfect. It was warm, not too hot, and we were looking forward to having the mist cool us off on our hike to Nevada Falls. Unfortunately, due to low snow fall last winter and it being late in the summer, the Mist Trail was more like the Not-So-Misty Trail.

Lunch spot

Hiking the Mist Trail

Vernal Falls

Top of Nevada Falls

Evening bike ride

Mirror Lake

Half Dome

The next morning we rode our bikes around the valley floor taking in the splendor and beauty of Yosemite.

Exploring the valley

Namaste

Our quick trip to Yosemite was amazing, we will definitely try to go back soon.

Next stop on our trip was Sequoia NP the land of big trees.

Our Growing Family

It's never a dull moment around our house and things just got a bit more interesting. We now have five chickens (although we think one may be a rooster).

We have been talking about getting chickens for a few months, and thanks to Megan and Dusty who got baby chicks and housed them until they were big enough to be outside, we finally got some.

Once the decision was made to get chickens, it was time to get the tree house out of the tree and make the coop. Luke has been wanting to remove the tree house ever since we moved in and he got his chance! He came up with a brilliant plan to lower the tree house onto a ramp and slowly move it down the ramp with an electric winch. I'll freely admit, there was a moment during the removal process that I was convinced the tree house was going to come crashing down and shatter into many pieces, but the project manager didn't give up and amazed us all by bringing it down in one piece.

Figuring out how best to remove the house

Kids, don't try this at home

Electric winch holding tree house in place

Down she comes

Success!

Moving it to the new location

We spent the next weekend building the run and getting the coop secure and chicken ready. A huge thanks to Luke for building such a safe and amazing home for the chickens. I really had no idea what all went into building a chicken coop!

Chicken's new home

Laying boxes

The chicken palace!

Trying to get comfortable holding the chickens

They seem to like their new home. Hopefully we will start getting eggs soon!