Campin' again

I love all the places you can see when you have a trailer to pull to them.  It keeps the cost affordable!  We hit the road in our trailer's third voyage... second since it's interior redo.  This time we headed for Mammoth and Yosemite.

Here are some highlights from Mammoth:

All three kids loved the bus ride to the Devil's Postpile/ Rainbow Fall trailhead.

It was the start of a love affair between Hipster and the transit bus.  It became his favorite thing to do during the entire trip!  ;)

They were excited as we started on the trail.

Peach loves the outdoors as well.  This was her second hike... her first in our new Ergo.  Can I just say how much we love Ergo?  This carrier was perfect for hiking.  :)

Love.  Seriously. 

Devil's Postpile

Makes a person feel small!

These little trees were like "Forest Children".

Me and the Parentals

I'll post more later!

Late post... Pop up trailer redo

Meet PUP.  Ballerina is in the photo to give ya a sense of size.  You may also spot a pant-less little dude in there too if you look hard enough... LOL.

 PUP was in need of some serious updating.  I wanted to find something cheery, modern, and cozy feeling.  This is in great condition... the canvas and bones are well kept and sturdy.  All I had to do was improve the cosmetic aspects.  

As you can see, the curtains were a drab ivory and the cushions were very dated in the color and diamond pattern they had goin' on.  

This is the bed area.

And here is my after:

I dyed the curtains a pearl grey color, made a new flag valance, covered the old cushions, added sheers to the windows (that were dip dyed with a lemon yellow) and added a couple comfy throw pillows to make the seats cozy.  I also added a table cloth to soften the look and add a grounding color/place for the eyes to rest.

It's such a small space that a tiny little tealight candle is all I need to make it smell lovely in there.  ;)

My husband was amazing and redid the floors for me.  We used peel and stick vinyl that looks like wood.  It's the perfect, inexpensive update.  The whole project was done with just one box of the stuff.  (It pays to live small..... literally)

A little chalkboard paint later and the kids had a fun spot to draw pictures or get creamed by me in tic tac toe.  

All in all, it was a  pretty easy update project.  Eventually, I would like to paint the cabinets, but it will do like this for a while.  

Now we can hit the outdoors in style.  

Next week, we'll be in Yosemite.  It's gonna be fun!

Also, if you're on Instagram or Twitter, hashtag your photos of your kids in the outdoors with #backpacksnotbarbies so we can enjoy our kids enjoying nature together!  

See you on the trails!!!!

^Little Hipster^

Living Desert

Yesterday, our family was blessed to be taken to the Living Desert.  It's such a neat place... very much like the Wild Animal Park.  They're in the business of rehabilitating injured animals and giving them a home if they are not re-releasable into the wild.  We saw some great animals yesterday.  Both Ballerina and Hipster had a great time.

This is us before the Animal Show.  It was pretty neat to see some of the animals so close.  

Here are some other shots from the day.

The day tuckered us all out... but this one just couldn't make it home.  Sweetie pie.  

Thank you to our family for a lovely day.

For more about the Living Desert, go here.

Spring Photo contest.

"Spring"

Hens!

The hens and the dog are becoming fast friends.  It's nice... while she's out there with the chickens, it keeps them safe from other predators.  Here's a bit of video I grabbed while they were peckin' around.

I love how adorable lil' Hipster's voice is in this.  He's such a doll.... if I do say so myself.  :)

Let's hope we start gettin' eggs soon!  

Wordless Wednesday

Hiking Slushy Meadows

Final Yosemite recap.

Finally got around to making this.

Yosemite Series Part 2

Day Two:

Sunday started super early for Josh, J and me.  We were up and packing our backpacks at 5:30.  C slept through it all.  It had been decided the night before, that she would take on a lesser hike with her G-ma and the rest of the non-half domers.

The Half Dome group consisted of myself, Joshua, my bro Garrett, and my parents.  Oh yea... and J in the ERGO.

We started our hike along the river and I decided to stretch a bit before we began.  Good thing I did too... the hike gets right into it.  We had a very long, steep, uphill trek right off the bat.

When we first started, Josh was sportin' out tot.  We eventually discovered that the backpack I had on was heavier and traded.  He's so nice to me....

The first milestone you hit is the crossover bridge at the foot of Vernal Falls.  It's super pretty and we were able to take a couple pictures here and use the restroom.  

At this point, the mist trail begins.  Here is a description from Yahoo Travel:

"This hike is also known as the Mist Trail because it passes right beside Vernal Falls, which in the spring blows a heavy mist everywhere. This 1.4 mile roundtrip hike is considered a moderate hike, with a steep 400-foot elevation gain in just over a mile. It is recommended that you wear shoes that grip as the path can be slippery. You can see the rushing water from the Vernal Falls Footbridge as well as the top of the falls in the distance. This is probably the busiest and most crowded hike in the Valley, small wonder given the loveliness of the trail. Plan on spending an hour or two on your walk. The trail may be closed in winter."



Once you reach the top, you can (while safely standing behind the guard rail) peek over the top of the falls.  We posed for pictures here too.

We paused here for some snacks.  Funny story.... I didn't notice till the last second, but J was holding a pretzel out to feed a squirrel.  When I looked and saw how close it was, I was worried it would bite him.  The squirrels are fearless up there.  They tell you not to feed them, because it teaches them not to be afraid of humans.  It's that fear, though, that keeps them a safe distance from us.  Well.... I guess plenty of people don't follow that rule, and we had a very brave squirrel come for a snack.  I had an open bag of snack mix in my hand when I swiped at him and yelled, "NO".  Yea.. snack mix everywhere.  Dang squirrel ended up with a feast.  

Now, on a side note, this is the spot where the three hikers went over the falls on that Tuesday.  They climbed the rails to get photos and when one slipped, two more attempted a rescue.  They all three were swept over the falls.  

Lesson:  Enjoy the beauty of nature without taking risks.  Keep their families in prayer ok?

Moving on from that point, the hike intensity mellowed a bit for us.  Funny... I said to my mom, "hey.. this isn't so bad... I could do this for a while..."
The weather was perfect for us.  Even though much of the next portion of the hike was in direct sunlight, it wasn't so hot that we were miserable.  And the trek up to Nevada Falls (the falls above Vernal) wasn't super misty.  It was the easiest part for sure.  Once we made it to the base of Nevada, we paused for more photos and to give the J man a snack.

You can see that the ground is mostly flat at this point.

A bit of upward hiking and we hit the top of the falls.

I saw this cool babywearing tourist family and I had to snap a photo.  I zoomed waaayyy in so that they wouldn't notice and think I was a creep-o.  

I'll stop there for now.. It's getting late and my sleeping boy on my lap needs to get put in bed.  Stay tuned for the rest!