Sequoia Family Vacation Part 2

The second full day we were at Three Rivers my awesome dad went out early and scouted a place in that crazy beautiful river that had little pools where the current wasn't very swift at all!  It's like he just knew there was a place, somewhere, amongst all this river, that we could swim in in the 100 degree heat. It was like the river was taunting us, luckily, my dad saved the day and we had an absolute BLAST playing in this river!! The water was crystal clear, but not freezing, there weren't any bugs or nasty moss or spiders, the rocks were smooth except where there was sand, it was SO great!! It was about 4 feet deep in some areas and the kids loved to jump in, it was really the best! I even loved it, and I never love swimming in nature. My boys were in HEAVEN. Except Cal, he was NOT happy 80% of the time, he was terrified, but mystified. He wanted to get in, but he didn't. In the same breath.

We found a current that ran down the edge of one of the pools, the boys loved to "slide" down it. The amount of excited squeals, laughter, and smiling was paramount.

 

 

 

 I love these pictures.

 

  

The poses in the picture below are just too much. Too cute! Those boys were in a really good mood.

 

Sadly Justin didn't think he was going to want to get in the river so he didn't bring his swim shorts with him, and he didn't want to get the ones he was wearing wet. But that made it so we got some fantastic pictures!

 

I told Jaxton to "pose" for a picture, I don't know what he is doing, but it is so darling. Rod found this big rock, that was the final game (as it seems to always be) at the river--who could throw in the biggest rock. Grampa won. 

 

Later that morning we left to go to the closest public pool, it was about 30 minutes away, on a freeway! So much better then windy switch-backs for 50 minutes!!

The pool was actually a High School Pool that they opened from noon to 3pm for public use. And boy did they have rules. It was INSANE. I was walking in there with Calvin, my 2 yr old and some puddle jumpers (floaties). They quickly told me that puddle jumpers, nor any floatation device of any kind is allowed in their pool. I was appalled saying I had a 2 year old that couldn't reach in the 3 1/2 ft! (3 1/2ft is were their pool started, and it quickly moved to 5 feet and then to 18 feet at the other side of the pool with the diving boards. So it was a deep pool.) Anyway, they said the floaties were "dangerous" because kids get accustomed to wearing them and then drown when they don't have them. hm.. I see your point, but he is 2, in my opinion it's dangerous to NOT have floaties at this point in his life.

Those life gaurds blew their whistles more than any other pool I have ever been to, "DON'T RUN!!" "WALK" "DON'T TOUCH THAT" "GET HIM OFF YOUR BACK!!"

That last one was yelled repeatedly while crazed whistling was occurring at my trouble making MOTHER (53yrs old) when she had Calvin on her back. "He will choke you!" What??? "Or he will fall off and drown without you knowing!" Seriously?? We could only hold Calvin a certain way, in front of us, for all of us to not die in that pool. 

They had to ask Justin (32yrs old) to stop holding his breath for such long periods of time, (he was timing himself to see how long he could go) because it "looked like he might be passing out under the water". Okay...

The pool was still so refreshing and just what we needed in that blistering heat, despite the crazed lifeguards and management. Jaxton had an absolute blast going off the diving board almost the whole entire time. AND Rod swam a FULL lap in the pool without ANY help and without ANY swim lesson's ever!!! I was so proud of the self taught super-boy!! So that is another huge positive!! That is 2 boys down, 1 to go. And Calvin has a LONG way to go...! He is not as into the water as my other two. He was more then happy to be held, front ways, by adults the entire swim session.

On the way home we stopped by this amazing Mexican/Spanish ice cream place. The dude made all his own ice-cream!!  It was delish and definitely a highlight. 

My mom made amazing sphegetti that night and we watched the British Baking show. That was all super wonderful. We were all charged up to make the long awful journey back to the Sequoias the next day for our final assent.

We got $18 tickets (PER PERSON) to go to Crystal Caves. Unbeknownst to us, this adds another 30 minutes of switch backs AFTER the first set. We had an exact time we had to be there and we somehow made it. It took about an hour and a half. Yuck. We listened to "My Dad is Fat" in the car and that helped.

So here are some pictures from the expensive cave at the cost of an hour of extra switch-backs. Woot!

  

It was amazingly cool in tempurature in that cave. That was a really neat aspect. It was a cool cave. But it wasn't THAT cool. I would never do it again. Even so, it is so popular, that park must be making BANK off all these crazy tourists ready to pay top dollar to see a cave.

 

 

 

This is what it looked like inside. Pretty cool. My cutie Jaxton called the formations on the right quesadilla chips.

 After about 50 minutes we came out of the cave and were able to hang out at the waterfall that was nearby. That was VERY pretty. And free, and I didn't have to drive any switchbacks. Awesome.

  

 

 I LOVE these pictures of Cal and my dad. It was such a cute sequence. Cal wanted an picture with my dad specifically, and so my dad obliged. I told them to smile and Cal just smiles at my dad, my dad finally realizes and then smiles at Cal, then Cal turns to the camera while my dad is still smiling at him, and then they both finally get both eyes forward. They are pretty cute together.

  

 

 

 I LOVE these pictures of Cal. Again, he wanted his picture taken. The little ham.

 

We drove the 30 min. of switchbacks BACK to the place where we can park our car and look at the Sequioas. Today we were going to go on the Big Trees Trail. That trail did NOT disappoint!! You will be able to see from the pictures how amazing everything is, but you really can't know, it's so much grander in person--the pictures do not do justice at all. But they are still cool and my kids are darn cute. So are my parents...! :)

 

There are quite a few fallen trees around, and sometimes there is a fallen redwood. And THAT is fun. Because then you can climb all over it's HUGE, TALL trunk! That is what we are doing in these pictures. It was awesome.

 

 

This is just one little section of the base, where the roots are. This tree is HUGE.

 I LOVE this picture of Jax. You can see the red wood of the Sequoias in the back ground amongst other trees. I love it.

 

Jax wanted a picture with Grampa too! :)

 

I tried to take a picture looking up--it just doesn't show you how cool it was.

 Here are some action shots of Jaxton jumping from one tree to another.

  

More of the fallen Redwood.

 

  See?! Look at this! My kids are literally walking into the hollowed out insides of a giant sequoia! The are so massive!

 

All the trails were nicely paved, (well, all the ones we went on--which is 2...)

 

How pretty!

You might need to zoom on these pictures to see everyone in the different pictures. This was a giant boulder, (rocks, BIG rocks, were EVERYWHERE in this part of the world!) The boulder had fallen into the huge Sequoia, but the sequoia is just growing around it, unfazed. You will see how big it is when the people get on top of the boulder. Zoom in, every picture has people in it.

 

 

 

 Calvin found a massive pine cone!!

 I'm trying to take a picture of the beautiful scenery, it's not working out.

 

 

 Aw, me and my mom!! I love her. Oh man, I'm SO glad my parents were with us!! That made everything SO much nicer. 

Rod showing me the aunt he was killing. I don't like that...

 

 Again, there is no way to show you how big these trees actually are. It feels very magical and majestic when you are there.

 

Calvin wanted a picture on this stump. I love his cheesy face!!

 

 We left Three Rivers the next day, but not before eating extremely over-priced, very mediocre food at a place called Ol' Buckaroo. I wish that didn't happen. ANYWAY, we decided to stay in St. George with my parents instead of driving all the way through. I'm so glad we did. We ate amazing food at Viva Chicken got the kids pizza and we played in the heated pools until bedtime!! And then we did it again in the morning! A win for everyone!!

Also, how good looking are my parents?? I made them take this picture because I wanted them to see how amazing they look at 53 & 56. Seriously?!

 

It was excited for Calvin initially because they had an actual baby pool that only went to 2 feet. So that was awesome. 

   

Jax and Rod could literally swim ALL DAY LONG and be as happy as clams. I need to remember that next time I plan a vacation. They NEED water close by.

 

The Vacation:

I think everyone had a pretty good time.

 Because I planned the whole thing and had some preconceived notions in my head with certain expectations I was somewhat disappointed with the whole trip, but I think we managed to make it all work out. It wasn't a bad trip at all, it just was different then what I had thought it would be, and that's okay. We made some really good memories and saw some really amazing things. Also, I only have pictures of the good things, so that might be all anyone remembers.