Lennon's 6th Grade Promotion

One big thing that happened for us this year is that Lennon promoted from 6th grade. It was a great ceremony and it was fun to see Lennon and his friends.

 

Lennon and his mommy! Dad could not make it because he was still teaching school.

Lennon with a couple of his friends.

Lennon and his teacher Ms. Smith. She was an awesome teacher!

Lennon and his friend Ronnie. Ronnie and Lennon worked on the robot for MESA together.

 

Lennon and some more of his friends. These guys were in pretty much the same class since Kindergarten or first grade. It's been fun watching them grow up together.

 Here is some of them in first grade. Aren't they so cute!

 This is Ronnie and Lennon. They did a break dancing routine for the talent show.

This is also from first grade. Their Halloween party.

Playing in a Big Pile of Leaves

Step 1: gather the leaves

 Step 2: Jump

 

 

 

Mountain Bike Survival Episode

Read the riveting tale of one man's brush with disaster on the bike trail here. And yes, I am that man. And yes, there is a picture.

Yosemite Falls and Then Some

Our first view of the falls

The view at the base of the falls

The trailhead for Upper Falls

View of the Valley from a little ways up. You can see some of the flooding in the meadows.

One of the many great views of the Upper Falls along the trail

Two Yosemite icons

Two future Yosemite icons?

View from the top of the Upper Falls

The team

Rachel found the most comfortable spot during our lunch break

After lunch we kept on moving forward. (This is Yosemite Creek, the source of the falls.)

View from Yosemite Point

Close up of Half Dome. Note the snow patch on top.

Fording Indian Canyon Creek (we think) before deciding to turn around and head back the way we came. We weren't sure about snow conditions further along the trail and decided to play it safe.

Gun show on the way back down

Field Trip to the Donut Store

Meghan was supposed to go on a field trip yesterday but it was cancelled last week. She was pretty upset, so I asked her what we could do that would be just as fun as going on a field trip. She thought for a second and replied, "Go to the donut store." That was do able.

I had vague plans to go buy donuts, but didn't really think too much about it (I was blogging). Meghan, however, did continue to think about those delicious circular delights, and her plans were much more concrete. She got some paper and a marker and began writing. When she asked me how to spell Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday, I asked her what she was doing. She was creating a calendar so she could keep track of the days she had left until D day.

Every morning she would update her calendar, putting an X through that day's box. Clearly, I would have to make good on my promise.

Donut day arrived yesterday:

 

Here's a bonus feature, filmed and narrated during the trip by the Donut Queen herself (look for a cameo appearance by her thumb:

Wild Plum Loop Trail

Here are the outtakes of our Memorial Day Hike of the Wild Plum Loop Trail up past Sierra City off of Highway 49. You can see the highlight reel and read a brief report of the hike here.

 First shot of my favorite view

We really wanted these to be bear tracks (but bear tracks have 5 toes and a bigger paw)

One of our encounters with Haypress Creek

At this point on the trail Abby converted to Islam. I blame the doll she got at Target that in between baby noises proclaimed that Islam is the light.

Bridge over Haypress Creek marked the midpoint of our hike (at least mileage wise. It was mostly downhill on the way back)

Sour Gummy Worms

That's a big snowball

I wish I could photoshop those electricity poles out of the picture (and bring the brightness down a little on the mountain in the background). It would make a sweet picture

Lennon enjoyed pulling the moss off of this whatever this structure is.

Abby came home with a backpack full of rocks. Meghan, on the other hand, was more selective. She brought home a circle rock, a rectangle rock, and a triangle rock.