06-08-11 We'll start without them...

So, still no pictures. And come to think of it, I'll probably just put them on facebook anyway, so you won't see them here. That said, I might as well start the recap. After I'm done with that, I'll probably start on my Yosemite site reviews and checklist.

So, starting Saturday, we drove down to Bass Lake, where we were staying during our trip. A bit of a drive, but General Conference CD's are a great way to pass the time. Anyway, once we got there we were in for a bit of a surprise. The place we were staying was AMAZING. It's a kind of time share thing that Tom's parents have, only it has several locations and you use points to make reservations.

There were three units, so the Hinds, Rosers, and Robarts each had their own space, with the Aunts each staying with one of the families. The units themselves though? Crazy. They were two bedrooms, two and a half baths, completely with laundry machines and a fully functioning kitchen. There were two twin sized beds, and king or queen (whatever it was in the master bedroom), as well as a murphy bed in front room. Very cool.

We did a little shuffling once we got there, moving a lot of stuff from the other units into the Hinds', where we would be doing most of our gathering. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and playing games, just enjoying a little time to get settled in.

Sunday, we got up and went to church. And let me just say, any ward close to somewhere like Yosemite must be impossible to plan for. I mean, just look at the number of people who are there each week just visiting. How do you guess how many will be there? Anyway, I liked how they did it. They had a fairly small chapel with an overflow in the cultural hall, complete with a projector so the speaker could be seen more clearly.

The people were nice too; you could definitely tell they were used to spending a good portion of time recognizing visitors during lessons. So, that was good. The lessons were about the same as you would find anywhere. The Bishop had just had a training meeting with a couple General Authorities though, so he shared some of that with us. (I even got to get a copy of the notes he took. ^^)

After that, it was more games, more hanging out. While that was happening, though, we did get to have a pretty fun game of hide and seek. Now, the resort where we were staying had pretty efficiently stuffed everything into those units. Not a whole lot of empty space like you might want for hide and seek, but we had a blast with it. We had people in closets, stuffed with the murphy bed, hiding behind furniture, and even a few people in the kitchen cabinets. But the best hiding spot by far was Tom's.

He lifted up the couch cushion and hid under it, with Ruth sitting casually on top. The funny part: It took the kids nearly ten minutes to find him, even though he was right there in plain sight. Hilarious. There should be a video of it somewhere. Maybe even more than one. It was good.

Memorial day was pretty nice too. We would usually have spent it at Mount Vernon, but that's a bit of a drive from where we were staying, so we had to improvise. Tom found this great video online that talked about the story behind the national anthem, and since we couldn't find a service nearby, it made a really nice substitution. Well... Until we got to the end and learned that someone was using it for a political campaign. It was still nice though. After that, we went down to the lake, then changed our minds (which had really been made up even before we got there) and went swimming at the pool. That was nice. I still don't know why I'm so bad with chlorine. I open my eyes too much.

After that, we went geocaching, which oddly enough led us to a cemetery. Well... Next to a cemetery. But we ended up walking through it anyway. It was nice to stop and think about Memorial day is all about.

Then we were off again. We found one across from a Starbucks, although the log was missing from the cache when we got there. After that we found one that was hidden quite cleverly in a bridge near a store called the Purple Cow. Yeah, it's like it was made for our family. The store owner was really helpful too. He gave us clues and talked a bit. While we were there we got to see them making those cool hand carved wooden bears. Really cool.

With those wonderful adventures over, and with Memorial weekend coming to a close, we headed back to the resort to get ready for the real highlight. Yosemite. But that recap will wait until later. Once we got back, Ryan, Rori, Andrew on a hike up a mountain next to the lake before dinner. It was about half way to the trailhead when we realized the hike might be a little longer than we had once thought. So, we set a turnaround time and plunged into the trees. It was still a nice hike. We eventually got a pretty good view of the lake, even if it was infested with mosquitoes. Good times. Good times...

That just about sums it up. Next I'll be talking about Yosemite, so it should be pretty good. Until then, the job hunt continues! See ya.