Well, life is settling back in after a wonderful 5 days up in mountains! Randy managed to get some time off in the midst of a very busy work schedule to get away as a family for a little rest and relaxation up in Kings' Canyon National Park. We had a great time and hope you can tell from all the pictures.
Aaah! Is that a bear? No...a racoon in our campsite the first night! We'd never seen a raccoon in Kings' Canyon before. Randy chased him out of the campsite repeatedly by throwing rocks near him, then at him. But he kept coming back...he just wanted to lick the kids' carseats clean...YUK! We eventually just put them back in the van for fear he might rip them up with his claws. We'll take our chances with a bear breaking into our van instead.
Violet is loving her babyfood...brown rice cereal and all kinds of veggies!
What would camping be without a balance beam routine from Audrey..."I'm a good gymnastic, huh?"
And, of course, you HAVE to walk to the Big Trees! We made the trek twice...Violet in the backpack (she fell asleep both times on the walk back), and the four of us walking. Isaac complained a bit on the walks back but managed to make it all the way back without being carried at all!
Violet, in her swing, where she spent a lot of her outside time.
It was perfect weather...not so hot that you got sweaty, but warm enough that the evenings weren't freezing cold. A campfire EVERY night was a must, though!
The last night we roasted marshmallows with the kids. They had requested them before we went and were so excited! Isaac loved 'em, Audrey kept saying she needed a graham cracker to put them in. After telling her a couple times, "If you don't like them plain, how do you know you'll like them with the graham cracker?" she tried it...then "accidentally" dropped the rest of it in the dirt. She'll grow into them...or we'll just bring all the smores stuff next time.
There's been a lot going on in the Mack household in the last two weeks...all of the kids had some important first time events. Audrey lost her first tooth (bottom left) last Wednesday, June 14th, and her second one two days later while swimming at the Chandlers' house. She came straight up out of the water and said it had fallen out! The amazing thing is, Jeff saw it floating right next to him and pulled it out of the water for her to take home and put under her pillow. She was very proud of herself! And I was very thankful they FINALLY came out...she's had her new, big ones coming in behind her baby teeth for a couple weeks now. So that was Audrey's big event. 
Violet has had three big things this past week...as you can see, she got her first bath in the big bathtub last Wednesday. She also got to go swimming for the first time last Thursday, in the Ogawa's pool, and LOVED it! With the triple digits these past couple days she's gotten in with me two more times since. She kicks and squeels the whole time! She also got her first tooth breaking through (bottom left) last Friday, June 23. She's been drooling and chomping on all kinds of things for weeks and finally it broke through. 
Isaac's big event was going to Vacation Bible School for the first time this past week. The first day was a little rough...he wanted to go in the nursery a little ways into it (and that was OK). Tuesday and Wednesday he made it a little longer. Thursday he was pretty exhausted and ended up staying home with me...but he was good to go on Friday and stayed with his class the whole time. Here's a picture of him singing with his class. This was also a fun week because Grandma Janice and Grandpa Bruce were here on vacation for a whole week. I'll post some pictures of the kids with them some other time (my dad used his camera most of the time so I have to wait for his pics to come). There's also been some crazy household "stuff" that's been going on in the last couple days...but I'll save that for a later post as well, when everything's repaired I'll show you the process. Hope everyone out there is doing well and staying cool. Here's hoping for only double digits for the 4th of July!
