Fathers' Day Weekend

So, the same as last year, we headed up the mountain to Kings' Canyon National Park as soon as Audrey was done with school last Thursday. I went to Audrey's classroom a couple minutes before they finished up and got to see her sit for her last "carpet time" as Mrs. Elkins passed out their report cards. She also gave each child a compliment as she handed it to them. To Audrey she said, "Thanks for being such a good writer." I chuckled to myself...not because Audrey isn't a good writer; she is! It just made me think of the card she made for Mrs. Elkins the night before. She started with a blank piece of paper (Audrey goes through massive amounts of paper each week...don't fret, we recycle it all) and folded it in half. Wrote "Thank You" with a heart on the front. Inside she wrote "I love you" on one side, and "I liked being a student in your class." on the other, and signed her name at the bottom. But then she decided she needed to write more. So she got a piece of lined paper and made a list on it, titled, "Things I will miss about first grade". She listed about 15 items, most of them spelled correctly, like recess, reading, math facts, when you read Junie B. to us, and seeing friends. She then taped the list into the card and folded them together. What a writer!

Well, Audrey said goodbye to her teacher, her friends, and her 1st grade classroom, and we walked home to a fully packed mini-van, ready for camping! We had a great five days in the mountains! We were joined by lots of friends (the Schlesselmans, the McNeelys, the Ogawas, Randy's mom and brother, the Lipmans, Terron, and the Neufelds). People came and went throughout the weekend, but on Saturday night we had a group taco salad dinner with everyone...all 33 of us! Throughout the week we did normal camping stuff...eating, relaxing, lots of hiking, card games, smores around the campfire, and even some bike riding too! Father's Day we enjoyed a family hike to Panoramic Point (and more than halfway to the fire look-out) in the morning, a late lunch of steak, rice and salad. And then a special trip into Hume Lake to see a friend that is working there for the summer (thanks Emily for letting us drop by)! We packed up Tuesday morning and said goodbye to our favorite campground once again. Hopefully we'll be back up sooner than later!