We had a Claassen family vacation together at Bass Lake. Ryan, Amy and Grace came out from Ohio. It was the first time we met Grace. The kids were super excited and had a fabulous time. Here are a few highlights:
- Hugging, kissing and "playing" with Grace. Samuel thought it was fun to meet Grace but he thought maybe she slept too much.
- Playing in the lake. Samuel swam basically the entire time we were down at the lake. He held several water raft meetings, jumped off the docks too many times to count, played simon says and marco polo until everyone was really tired.
- Oliver spent his entire lake experience on shore. He made himself a "little pool" where he sat in the mud for hours on end. He enjoyed building castles, cakes and tunnels. But was more entertained by stomping on them.
- Hiking in the Mariposa Big Trees Grove. One should think twice before taking a 2-year old on a hike. We picked up every rock on the ground, climbed all the fences, waved at everyone passing us on the trail and overall took our own sweet time to go the 2 miles.
- Blowing bubbles on the patio. Thanks to GG we had some awesome bubble blowing machines.
- Night camp fire roasting marshmellows and playing big booty. Nothing like your 4 and 2 year old yelling out "aaahhhh big booty, big booty, big booty". Thanks Uncle Ryan.
- Morning walks to the donut shop. Yum--donuts before returning home for homemade cinnamon rolls. Healthy was not part of our weekend plans.
- Oliver eating only fruit. Seriously that is all he ate for 4 days.
- Feeding the crackers to the ducks. Amazing how fast one duck becomes 15 ducks all wanting food from your unsuspecting 2 year old.
- Dance parties.
- Copious amount of snot from Samuel and Oliver. Here's to hoping nobody else got the snot train--especially Grace. Oliver really only knows how to kiss on the mouth so some germs may have been exchanged.
- Towel vest makes a comeback. A rather stylish towel vest was found in the closest and was the towel of choice for Ryan.
- Everyday after the lake Oliver made clear his dislike of showers. He still can't go into the bathroom without saying, "me no shower".
- Picnic at Wawona. Luckily we snagged a table just in time. The fresh snow melt in the river felt great and provided lots of rock throwing opportunties.
- Bop-It fun. Samuel has a little of my concentration skills and managed to get a much higher score than Kevin or Ryan (combined!).
Here are a few photos documenting our time together.
