our vacation in california

i dont know why it posted the end of this post first  :( if you want to see it in order scroll down to where you see "this is the start" sorry

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this is the General Sherman tree it is said to be the largest over all tree in the world its circumfrence is 103 ft around its 275 ft tall. in comparason its like a mouse looking up to a 6foot tall person!

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a huge limb that fell from the tree in 2006

there was a river that ran across the way from our campsite so we decide to fallow it up one day

even tho it was cold the kids could not resist putting their feet in 

gathering fire wood for the night

arienana doing some charcoal nature journalism using a piece of wood that she burnt a little in the fire. it turned out to be a nice tool for drawing

it was getting cold as the sun was getting ready to go down

we had a wonderful time camping in the sequoias and on the way out back down the mountain we were blessed with the chance to see a bear as it walked out in front of us and climbed up the mountain next to us

this the start of the post

our trip to California started off with getting to see some friends and family. this is me and my best friend since third grade Cassandra.

then we got to see grandma gg and grandpa woody auntie jeanette aunt bevererly and uncle sal

then we were off to the beach with grandma and grandpa and aunt mary and her kids jared josh and jackson. the kids hit it off together really nicely. the beach was AMAZING! perfect weather and warm(ish) water and Nobody else there

abby and kyah collected many beautiful sea shells

marques and josh

after our time visiting family we headed to the sequoia national forest!

Hot chocolate time!!

the deer that came right threw our camp ground to get their breakfast

these trees are Amazing so huge and beautiful Gods creation is breathtaking !!

this was a piece cut from the center of a tree that had to be cut down

awhile ago my sister gave us two tv`s for the car(so nice!!) all we needed was a dvd player and to install them. Well in preparation for our up coming California trip we finally got a dvd player and my husband and son gavynn installed the screens yay!

there are two like this (which is really nice for a 15 passeneger van) they fold down when in use

some science and natue study

So we are doing astronomy this year for science and lately we have been learning about the sun. Our experiment today was to use a magnified glass to concentrate the suns heat so that we could melt some chocolate ( yes we sacrificed some perfectly good chocolate in the name of science)

the kids thought it was very interesting an after the chocolate was all melted they moved on to sticks and leaves they could not believe how awesome it was when it began to smoke and then a small flame ...awesome!

we have learned some interasting facts about the sun like did you know 1 MILLION earths can fit in the sun !!wow! and how the sun is perfectly distanced from the earth if it was the tiniest bit closer everything would burn up. and if it was slightly farther away everything would freeze just another example of an amazing GOD and his creation!                                                 

an in-promptitude Nature study! gavynn spotted a web and thought it might be neat to see what happens if he dropped a ant into the web. Well the ant got stuck and all of a sudden this big spider comes out of hiding and start wrapping the ant up we could see the web coming out as it quickly worked. they dropped in another ant and it working it right in with the other and when it was finished wrapping it it drug its lunch off to a hiding spot inside the cinder block after it finished wrapping up 3 or 4 ants and carried them all to its hiding spot then we got to see the spider dig in an eat (or suck out the blood and stuff) of one of the ants. it must have wanted to save the rest for later!my pictures are not very good by the kids thought it was quite interesting to watch. maybe ill have them draw what they saw in their journals alittle later!                                                    

the guys go golfing

Uncle mike was driving thru az on his way back to Georgia from Ca and stopped in to say hi! It has been a long time since we have seen uncle mike.We had a nice lunch out and then the guys headed out for a game of golf. Cousin Andrew happened to be visiting uncle rick also and they were all able to meet up to go golfing the guys had alot of fun catching up and playing..Uncle rick,raulie Andrew marques and..hey uncle mike the cameras up here

speed racer

camera guy gavynn takes a selfie

the boys spotted this snake sunning him self on the course the snake took off as soon as it spotted the boys