Vacation with Erin & Nick

We went to Big Basin Redwoods State Park for a few days while Erin and Nick were here. On day one, we drove (2 cars, 7 people, 3 dogs) to Seacliff State Beach, where we ate lunch, played in the water and enjoyed the cooler temperatures. That evening, we drove to Big Basin and camped for two nights and a day. On the third day, we left camp early and went back to Seacliff State Beach where the boys fished and the girls hung out.

After lunch, but before getting completely soaked.

Syrah standing guard over her family at the beach. She loved seeing all the people, playing in the water (well, near the water), playing with her doggie cousins (Widget and Gracie) and running on the beach with each of us. She has been to the beach before, and always has a great time. We were a little more cautious this time because there were so many people on the beach, but she still was a happy dog. Many people commented about how well behaved she was, and naturally about how cute she is. One nice thing about Syrah is that she rarely barks when we're out in public, and she's very obedient. You can see Johnny and Joe in the background of this photo, near the water. They had a blast. I made them change out of their shorts into their bathing suits because it was clear that there was no keeping them from getting completely soaked. Johnny kept finding cool rocks and bringing them to me. He also discovered sea glass this trip, and he collected quite a few of them while on this trip.

 Erin and Nick celebrated their five year anniversary on July 7th. They were married on 7/7/07. It's hard to believe it's been five years this year. Now that Erin has graduated from college, they are thinking about starting a family. Nick still has several years left of school since he's interested in a medical profession. They are waiting to hear what programs he has been accepted into, so they'll still be in Davis at least until December.

They make a cute couple, don't they? We're not sure where they will end up (location), but it sure was a lot of fun hanging out with them during this week. You can see from this photo that Erin has a fun-loving disposition, and the kids LOVE being with her. Nick is learning to roll with the madness in our family, and he's a great guy. The kids love him, too!

Nick brought fishing gear which he used to take the boys fishing on the last day of the trip.





Erin and Kelly hanging out by the pier at Seacliff Beach. We sure have a lot of beautiful girls in our family!

Just before this little vacation, I took the girls to get a pedicure, so they all had cute little toes for the beach. I would have had mine done, too, but they didn't have anyone available when we arrived (even though I made an appointment). We go to a beauty school where the prices are cheap!!

This is the road leading to Big Basin. It was about a 40 minute drive from Santa Cruz up to the mountains. Johnny, Joe and Kelly rode up with me and thought it was a really beautiful drive. The roads got a bit curvy. There are several small towns along the way, tons of trees, a really neat bridge (the train up to Felton goes over that bridge), and the fire station where my old van overheated on our last visit and we were rescued (late at night) by some fire fighters who cooled our engine.



This is how we kept Syrah from throwing up in the car. We kept the window down during the curvy section and let her look out of the window. Joe was afraid of her jumping out of the car, so he kept a good hold on her.

I'll post more photos of the Big Basin part of the trip as soon as Erin and Nick share theirs with me. Apparently, Kelly didn't find many things worthy of photographing with our camera, though she did use Nick's camera quite a bit up there.

We had two tents. The site I selected was a little isolated, but near running water and fairly close to the bathrooms. It was nice not to have campers right up next to us. There was a trail that we could get immediate access to from our campsite, though we couldn't take the dogs on the trail. We walked up to headquarters and the store, about a mile, with the dogs. We also made food at our campsite, enjoyed visits from raccoons, and ate smores. (What's camping without smores??)

The boys enjoying a little fishing time. This was a big week for Joe...he learned how to slaughter turkeys AND catch and prepare a fish for cooking. The boys stayed behind with Erin and Nick while I left about ten to take Kelly back to Fresno to have her wisdom teeth removed at 2 pm.