It’s hard to know where to start or how to capture our trip in a nut shell, but I will try.  Michaela and I had been training for this trip for over three months.  She faithfully got up with me early each morning to hike two miles up and down our hill and around our neighborhood, adding weight regularly to our packs.  This was to be an 8th grade graduation gift to her, although she had to work at it!

We flew out to CA on July 29th with my parents, closing their four week stay with us (BTW, Mom is doing great after her two cataract surgeries).  We landed in SF and stayed with my brother for two nights. Unfortunately Jeremy was unable to join us on the pack as originally planned, due to work.  We enjoyed In-N-Out, good coffee, and great Mexican food with him, though.

We headed for Yosemite on the 31st with a couple of stops along the way.  The first stop was to visit with my aunt, uncle and some cousins for a BBQ and family time.  Although our time was short, it was so good to see them again.  Uncle Marvin has battled cancer this last year and it was wonderful to see him up and about looking so good.  The second stop was to visit some supporters of my parents mission work.  They live only an hour away from Yosemite.  Oh, the beauty!

We arrived into the Park about 11 pm, but needed to wait in line all that night to be first in line when the ranger station opened at 7:30 am to give out wilderness permits.  The ladies tried to sleep in the car while Dad slept on the “porch” of the office.  I checked in on him a couple of times and he was quite cozy sleeping on his camping pad snuggled down in his sack.  By the time the office opened there were more than a dozen people in line and we thankfully received the permit for the trailhead we had requested.

We spent the day enjoying Yosemite Valley.  I have been there several times, but never tire of it’s beauty.  We had dinner and paid for our last showers.  We camped that night in a campground in Tuolemne Meadows.

Monday morning we were ready to head out on our much anticipated backpacking adventure.  We hiked roughly 8 miles in and about 4,000 ft up to our first stop at Evelyn Lake.  We weren’t very far in when we all stepped off the trail to allow a horse train to pass us.  Dad accidentally took a misstep and tumbled and rolled down a large rock with his 50 pound pack on.  It was quite scary, as we didn’t know how badly injured he was.  He said that his Special Forces training kicked into gear and he just fell and rolled as when he jumped from airplanes.  Fortunately he just scraped up his elbows and one knee.  Thank you God!  Our trip could have been cut so very short.

We spent three nights at Evelyn and took some day hikes around the area and spent a lot of time fishing.  Grandpa gave Michaela some good training and she enjoyed the thrill of the “hunt”.

On Thursday we hiked down a different trail back towards Tuolemne.  It was a lot of descent, and despite preparation and training, all of our calves were sore the next couple of days.  Fortunately my knee that had been giving me problems did great.  Hiking poles are a saver!

We spent two nights by Lyell Creek in the canyon and enjoyed some more spectacular views.  The mosquitoes were hardly present at the lower elevation and that was a welcome relief.  BUT, I missed the mountain top views.

On Saturday we hiked out the last four miles and it was mostly flat terrain.  It was a very nice ending to our other days on the trail.  It was great to get back to the car and find it intact as well as the few items we had left in the bear proof boxes.

We spent Saturday night and Sunday night with my aunt and uncle on the coast.  We enjoyed church service with them and then on Sunday night my aunt was part of a choir that gave an amazing concert.  They sang old negro spirituals.  It was also sort of a fundraiser for an incredible organization we learned about, Music Camp International.  (They do music camps for orphans in Eastern Europe with amazing results.  So impressive!)

Mom and Dad dropped us off at the airport on Monday afternoon.  Despite being ready to head home and see the rest of our family, it was hard to say goodbye.  We had a great six weeks with them, combining our time together in MO and CA.  What a very special treat for Michaela to experience a backpacking trip in Yosemite with her grandparents.

We arrived home about 10:30 pm and Chris had let the kids stay up to greet us.  What a wonderful sight to be home and give and receive lots of hugs and kisses.  Chris, you are too good to me.  I am so very blessed.  I didn’t do any fishing in Yosemite, but I’ve got the best catch of all here at home!  I love you!

I forewarned you that there would be a TON of photos.  I captioned most of them and they will fill in more parts of our time on the trip.  Believe me, I left out SO many pictures and stories.  Maybe I’ll blog some more as they come to mind.  I hope you enjoy seeing a bit of God’s amazing creation that we enjoyed!

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We had a great weekend with Eric, Kate, Elle, and Zane here.  With birthdays on Feb. 1, 8, and 15, as well as Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year today, we had good reason to celebrate.

Friday night we enjoyed watching Benjamin play basketball and score his first basket this season.  He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face!

On Saturday we made Valentine’s crafts and a Valentine’s/birthday cake.  We also made lanterns for Chinese New Year and made traditional dumplings to go with our feast of Egg Drop Soup and Fried Rice.  We also all enjoyed going to China Night at MU, a celebration of Chinese culture with music, dance, martial arts, and more.  We saw some beautiful performances.

Despite the late nights a good time was had by all.  It’s fun to see the kids playing together and enjoying each other.  We are blessed to have family that lives somewhat close by!

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day to all our friends and family!

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We woke up to a beautiful WHITE Christmas!  It had snowed during the night and we had about an inch of snow.  It continued to snow and blow the rest of the day.  It made it extra nice to be in our warm house all day with our family.  We opened the rest of our gifts in the morning and then had “adopted” grandparents over for our Christmas dinner.  It was nice to share our Christmas with them.  Carolyn brought the yummiest cheese cake!  We also got to talk to our family around the globe to wish them all Merry Christmas, wishing we could have been with each one of them.

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We had a wonderful afternoon and evening spending time together.  Of course the kids were anxious all day to open presents.  Our Christmas Eve service was very nice and was a special time to focus on the Greatest Gift of all.  Currently the boys are trying to stay up until midnight to celebrate the official start to Christmas, the three girls are sound asleep, and Chris is trying to set up his perfect Mii. 

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Ahhh, what a blessing to have family to spend a holiday weekend with.  We had uncles, aunts and cousins here for the last few days and had a great time.  The older kids (and grown “boys”) had fun on Uncle Kevin’s Wii and all have sore muscles now.  The cousins had fun together, especially Ami and Elle.  The ladies got to go out for lunch on Friday and do some bargain shopping.  And of course we had lots of yummy food!

We also started a new tradition this year of a family service project.  We made an assembly line and put together a whole bunch of burritos for the freezer of a dear family that is going through a very rough time right now.  They have two adopted children from China (Michaela and Benjamin’s ages) and the mom is fighting through the final stages of cancer.  The guys delivered the food this morning and helped do some needed yard work.  While our hope is in the Lord, our hearts are heavy for this wonderful Christian family.

As our Wolfe gathering sat around our Thanksgiving table and feasted, we took turns sharing what we were thankful for this year.  The blessings are numerous, but at the top of our list was the addition of two very special Wolfe boys, Zane and Elijah.  It was exactly a year ago that we received a video from our friends at PHF with the news that Elijah had been given our package and told that he had a forever family coming to get him soon.  I well remember sitting around the computer watching that video surrounded by family and crying tears of joy.  Wow, what a difference a year makes!  Thank you, Father!

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Kate surprised us with a call on Monday asking if they all could come visit over night on Wednesday.  Of course we said yes!  They arrived in time for lunch on Wednesday and we took today off school to enjoy more time with them before they left.  We had a great 24 hours together.  It was especially fun to spend time with Zane and get to know him more.  Elle and Ami had fun playing dress-up and getting toenails painted.  Unfortunately Elle hurt her foot by playing “Monkeys Jumping on the bed.”  Oops!  We are thankful for family that lives close enough to be able to visit and spend the night on short notice.  Thanks Kate and  Alicia for the good chats.

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We consider Dad our personal conservation agent and park ranger here at Wolfe State Park.  He enjoys the great outdoors and works to help us keep our woods in great shape whenever he is here.  He also seems to add something for the birds each time (feeders, bird bath heater, birdhouses, etc.).  We appreciate all your hard work, Dad.  The house and woods are empty without you.  Miss you already!

Here is a slideshow of just a few of Dad’s pictures while with us this summer.

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Today was more of the same with processing shoes (cutting off tags, banding together, sorting, packing), but we also got to work on socks today.  Each orphan that receives a new pair of shoes is also given a new pair of socks.  We cut more tags off and paired socks together, then sorted them by size.  The kids did a great job again today.  We accomplished a lot and know that ultimately our work these last two days will have a great impact on many children in need.  We hope that our own children’s hearts and lives have also been impacted by our shoe mission.

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It was exciting to load up this morning and head over to Buckner to deliver our shoes and begin to work.  We processed loads and loads of shoes.  We cut off tags, took out stuffing, unknotted laces, rubber-banded shoes together and sorted, sorted, sorted.  The kids really took off with their various assignments and enjoyed working together.  They know how to have fun doing about anything!  Now they are all enjoying playing in the pool.  We’ll get up and do the same thing all over again tomorrow.

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Our group took one day for fun and sight-seeing before doing our mission work for the next two days.  We spent most of the day at the Fort Worth Stockyards.  Texas surely has their own culture and despite the heat we experienced a cattle drive, a maze, a shootout, a Wild West show, ropin’, and Cowboy Church.

The church service was at high noon and was a neat experience.  It was a very laid back yet meaningful service.  Our group of 19 easily doubled the attendance of shop workers and regulars.  We sang some old time hymns, partook of communion and read scripture.  They also had a Sunday School for the kids and made crafts.  At the end of the service they presented each of the kids with a very nice hardback Bible!  Each child’s name was called and they came forward to accept the Bible from the preacher.  We were very impressed with their friendliness and genuineness.

After a day in and out of the heat we had a fun dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  It was an event in and of itself.  Then it was back to the hotel for swimming.  I think everyone will sleep well tonight!  We are looking forward to doing what we came to do tomorrow…delivering our shoes and volunteering in the warehouse.

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