Summertime...

Even though summer hasn't officially started, but we had the annual summer party at the Neville's on saturday.  The theme for this year was "The Oasis".  Here are some pictures.

There and Back again...

     Well Yosemite finally came and went.  It was by far the most memorable trip up there that I've ever had.  That isn't too hard to accomplish seeing as how the only thing that I remember from the first family trip up there was our campsite and some teenager who always said "no D".
     We left Friday afternoon and with stops in Fresno and Oakhurst, we arrived at our campground just after 10 pm.  We set up camp real quick and then got to bed.  Despite my best effort, I didn't fall asleep until well after 12, woke up various times at night, and then woke up for good at 4:30, only to have to sit and wait until the alarm went off at 5:15.  We get ready for the day and eat a quick breakfast and then we were off.  We had a 30 minute drive or so to get to the actual trail head from our campground, but it wasn't bad at all. 
     Yosemite is a very beautiful place, especially when you don't have all these people around.  I've always liked pictures of scenery a lot more than pictures of people.  Anyway...
     The hike up wasn't that bad.  I actually thought it was going to be a bit worse, but that's probably because we waited every so often so that we could all relatively be together.  I hiked with my camera around my neck just so I wouldn't have to get it out whenever I saw something.  I knew I'd be taking a lot of pictures so I saved myself some time.
     After we get roughly halfway to El Cap, (at Upper Yosemite fall), we chilled and had lunch.  After a nice break we kept on hiking.  We were told that there would be snow, so it wasn't a surprise to see the snow there.  I was kind of surprised to see how much snow there was though.  I went looking for the trail for about 30 mins and came up with nothing.  It's amazing how well knee to waist deep snow can hide a trail.
    That being said we decided to go back down into the valley and do some other short trails.  Those consisted of the Lower Yosemite fall and Vernal falls. 
     We made it back to our campground, made a great spaghetti dinner and had a decent campfire, which consisted of Emerson discovering his new favorite campfire treat... roasted star-bursts. 
     While I didn't get to the top of El Cap, I got a season pass to Yosemite and WILL conquer that mountain, hopefully before picking seasons starts.

El Cap at 7 am.

Emerson, Berlin, Ken, Janna and I right before we started the hike

The group with U.Y.F. in the background

U.Y.F. from the top

Janna and I from the U.Y.F. look out.

Snow!

The snow that stopped us from reaching El Cap

Half dome and other parts of the valley from the Y.F. trail

Mr. Blue Bird

Vernal Falls

Once you're lost you never will be found...

Well I guess I better report about the last few goings on in my life.  About a month ago or so I went down to Disneyland with some of the kids from the Institute.  We did one of those service project days (made blankets) and got tickets to whichever park we wanted.  I hadn't been to Disneyland since Grad night '01.  It was fun and we got to ride everything that we wanted to.  We even had the chance to be in the VoluntEARS parade.  Something they do to honor the volunteers right before the big parade comes out.

Here's a link if you should so desire to see a clip of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ3bFcGBUWY

I also went to the Blue Bayou, the restaurant on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  The BEST food at Disneyland... that's for sure.

I also finally decided to get a DSLR camera.  My brother Eric found a pretty decent deal on a T1i with a couple of lenses and seeing as how I've been casually looking for one for the past year or so, I jumped on it.  It's still not here, but I'm sure I will enjoy it when it comes.

This coming weekend I will be heading up to Yosemite to go hike El Capitan with some friends.  I can't believe that it's already here.  The past four Saturdays we've tried to go on small warm up hikes.  The past two Saturdays Ken and I have gone and done as much of the Millcreek trail as we could.  It's a trail that's just over 7 miles one way.  The first time we did about 10.5 miles round trip.  I had to be back in Bakersfield for a wedding reception later that night.  Even as it was, I was a bit late.  The trail isn't too wide, probably 1.5-2 ft.  We made it up and down with nothing noteworthy to report.  This past Saturday wasn't the same though.  We got a late start (4:30), but at least we came prepared with snacks and a flashlight.   On the way up I actually flicked two fleas off of my arm and hand.  That was the first time I'd seen ticks before.  around 7:20 or so we decided it would be a good idea to head back.  The trail back was an eventful one as I tripped over a piece of wood sticking up out the ground, Ken stepped in cow crap a number of times, we ran into a herd of cattle (15-20 cows with some calves) and Ken getting a tick embedded in his hip.  If only I would've brought my camera on the 2nd trip...

All in all, I think I'm as ready as I'm going to get for this weekend.