we're off!

we're off! we're off in a motor car!! 60 bobbies are after us and we don't know where we are!! (hmm, maybe you have to be English to know this song..........?)

anyway, it was our first roadtrip in the "neeeeeeeeeew" car :) a Kodak moment for sure :)


a few wrong turns later, a near collision with a snake slithering across the road, not to mention several squirrels and 3 cows... and we arrived in Sequoia!! we bought an annual pass because we are like a totally outdoorsy hikey kind of family :)

Father captured me in a candid moment :)


look at the size of these trees! (that is a real life child next to the tree for comparison)

we all had sore necks from looking up at the majestic trees!

we decided in a moment of temporary insanity to go and find the biggest tree.... ohhh, not just any old biggest tree - but the biggest tree on EARTH :| i mean who wouldn't want to see this?!! so we set off with a spring in our step (in unsensible shoes, with no sunblock or water. no map either ;)


we loved the big trees soooo much we hugged them!


and we started to wonder why the path leading to the biggest tree in the world was so quiet... curious :| surely we were not the only people in the world who wanted to see the biggest tree in the world... it made no sense :|

we hiked for HOURS (and HOURS!!)

smiles started to fade..... and we had to quote our family motto "team work makes the dream work" over and over to motivate the chilluns :)

we took a little sit down to wonder if we should turn back and be total quitters.... (while worrying that bears might find us and eat us and no-one would discover our carcasses till we had rotted away... but we refused to give up and die! darnit, we have something to live for now - a BRAND NEW CAR!!!!!!)


finally a glimmer of hope - human beans and a sharpei on the trail - also heading to the biggest tree on earth :)

smiles returned to our faces :) bears most likely weren't going to eat us after all!!!

we even found a map confirming that we were only one (effing) mile from the stupid big tree

Aaron did his best to motivate us :|



annnnd...... we made it!! this is it: the biggest tree on God's green earth!!!*

* psst... don't all the trees before this one look waaaay bigger...? i wasn't very impressed with General Sherman's tree, truth be told :|

however, as it is the biggest tree on earth... it actually has a SHUTTLE BUS that runs right to it (we did not know this.....) Sam was unimpressed by the lameness of his parents :)


however, being awesome kind parents, we appeased our children and caught said bus back down the mountain :)

and they loved us once again :) (although they refused to smile ;)


we stopped for icecream :)

and a picture with a large bull food truck


this morning we picked peaches and nectarines and blueberries and ollalieberries and boysenberries






and, being a vegetarian, i wanted to give some to this lovely cow :) however, the cow didn't seem able to swallow the fruit... she just kept chewing and chewing and chewing... and i started to worry that i had given her something she isn't supposed to eat. so i waited and waited for her to stop chewing - for like 20 minutes... then i remembered that cows chew cud (or something) and she was probably just doing that... right....? at least i hope... or i'm the world's most awful vegetarian for killing a perfectly happy cow by sharing my peaches with her :(

next we went to the very first HOBBY LOBBY in the west!! and it was awesome! and it's coming to Temecula very soon (not soon enough though...)

we saw this fearsome truck on the freeway home :)

and Magic Mountain: the ghettoest place on earth (after Knotts Berry Farm :)


and then we got stuck in horrible 'southland' traffic and the vacation was officially over :| but our petsitter did a WONDERFUL job and our pets were all fluffy, fed and happy when we got home :) it's official, we're keeping her!

off to bed to catch up on some shows and start planning the next vacation :) latest obsession: airbnb.com (LOVE IT!!!!) xoxox