Ladd Photos

We spent most of today in Grant Grove, visiting the General Grant tree and hiking around the trails in the grove. The boys also had fun playing in the little bit of snow still on the ground.

We spent the entire day hiking, first heading up to Moro Rock, a giant dome-shaped granite formation above the Giant Forest. We stopped along the way to eat lunch by Hanging Rock, hanging out on the side of a granite cliff with some lizards.

Once we got up to Moro Rock, we still had to climb the 600 steps that were carved into the granite, to get to the very top. A first Connor acted scared, but then it was like a switch flipped, and he became a little dare devil, practically running up the steps.

After enjoying the breath-taking views and getting back down to the ground, we went on a long hike through the giant trees in Crescent Meadows. We were all completely exhausted by the time we got back to our car. All-in-all, we at least hiked 9 miles this day.

Beetle Rock is a fun place to climb around on and enjoy the views. Gavin loved coming here when he was a toddler. We even threw around the baseball a little bit.

Earlier in the day, we went for a hike in the snow. The boys had run throwing chunks of it into a creek:

It snowed more than an inch overnight! So, we decided to go have fun in the snow. We had snowball fights and built the first snowman the boys or I had ever built. I named him “Snowy McSnowface”.

After our fun in the snow, we went for a hike around Round Meadow. Then we headed to Congress Trail, visiting trees like McKinley, The President, and the House and Senate groups.

We even saw some animal tracks on the various trails we hiked down. It was freezing out, but a beautiful winter wonderland we will remember for a long time to come.

After 5 nights in Sequoia, it was time to say goodbye. We drove down to the Foothills area of the park on our way out. We had lunch by Hospital Rock and then viewed the pictographs created by the local Potwisha Native-Americans.

We stopped by the Foothills Visitor Center so the boys could turn in their Junior Ranger workbooks. The boys also begged me to take a picture of “Woody”, a stick they insisted on bringing home as a souvenir. Then it was time to hit the road for a very long drive back home to San Diego.

The boys had games at the exact same time… so we spent a lot of time running back and forth between fields.

Instead of a party, Gavin wanted to catch an Angels game to celebrate his birthday. We got to see Mike Trout hit a two run home run. Unfortunately, those were the only runs the Angels scored. They ended up losing the game with a score of 4-2.

We went to Petco Park for Little League Day again this year. The boys really enjoy parading onto the field with their teams before the game, and they got to run the bases afterwards. The Mets creamed the Padres, 14 to 2, and I got to see Adrian Gonzalez (on the Mets this season) hit a home run.

The first graders performed a collection of classic Disney tunes for their annual performance. Connor even had a small speaking part between two of the songs.

We had a little celebration at Eddie and Sally’s house for the boys’ birthdays.

The fourth grade kids started off by playing 3 songs on their recorders. Then they did a play with lots of songs about the gold rush, called “Gold Dust or Bust”.

Rockin’ the recorder:

A few songs from their play:

My wife was awarded Turtleback’s Volunteer of the year at the Friday Flag assembly. Her friend CJ made sure she was at school, by saying she had some tax documents she needed Aliciana to review after the assembly. So, Aliciana was surprised when she got the award.

I also got videos of the kids doing their class cheers during the assembly:

We started off with a visit with the Tigers, then took a walkabout in the new Australia section of the Safari Park. As part of the new area, there is an enclosure you can walk around in with some kangaroos and wallabies. I got some great pictures of the little (and not so little) guys.