A trip to the redwoods!

On Monday, my day off, we took the kids out of school for a field trip!  Late Sunday night we drove the two hours to Lois' and Mike's, so that in the morning we could all go to the Calaveras County "Big Trees" State Park.  HUUUGE redwoods.  Lois had taken Jonathan and I about six years ago, when we got back from Israel, but this time it was completely different.  John, Lois' grandson, came along, and he and Xander got along, as always, like two peas in a pod.

Being a big boy and holding his own water bottle.

Running off the path.

That's one big stump!

Screaming in their "outside voices" as loud as they could.

Lois ahead of us.  The term "big trees" is not a misnomer, these Sierra redwoods are the tallest and thickest trees in the world.  One of the biggest was clocked at three thousand years old.

My sister and the kiddos walking through a crevice of a tree trunk.

 This is one tree; the trunk rejoins into one much higher up.  The boys are, again, screaming.  It was a very loud day.

 Her model shot. :)

 Posing with Xanderbugs in another trunk.

 John loved her and wanted to pose too!

 This was not taken with a zoom lens; the deer really was that close.

 It turned its head when it heard the camera shutter on the last picture!

Walkin' along.

 Bottom of a fallen tree.

Reaching up to say hi. 

 Right after he toddled inside the tree.

 Tree-huggers.

 Ambling past me.

 This one was hollowed out by fire; the two older boys learned a ton about nature.

Cool artsy shot.

 The rearview camera of the minivan as we went to leave. :)

Lunch was Round Table pizza buffet... they had the COOLEST games there to play with after!

But of course, the games couldn't compare to the real thing, when Uncle Mike came home and let the kids sit on his CHP motorcycle.  The lights were a very big hit.

 Both of them laughing, and Ari clapping.

 Xander giggling in glee.

 A very serious discussion on motorcycles, with a little explorer in the background.

And THAT was last weekend!  What a fun life.