Twitchell Family Vacation

Since Jayson just got home from his mission we planned a family trip site seeing through part of his mission. We rented two big vans so that we could all travel together. The first day we just drove for 12 hours with 3 kids and 4 babies.They actually did pretty good. I sat right by Stockton for the whole trip and entertained him. For the most part he only cried when he was tired. He slept for a lot of the drive. We went to Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Donner Pass, and through Reno.

Just starting out our long drive!

We stopped at Lee Vining right before driving through Yosemite.

Yosemite National Park

The Pioneer History Center was awesome. It was a little village where the Pioneers would stay on their way up to see the national park. It was a long drive and took days for the pioneers to travel on horse and buggy.

Blacksmith

Carriage parking

They have rides in this wagon.
Kim and Bryley

Jenny, Bret, Bryan, and Tyler

The whole clan!

The mountains were beautiful! The pictures don't do it justice.

This poor boy just had to nap on dad's shoulder

Yosemite has a few forests of Redwood trees. 

This shows how big around Redwood trees are and how old they are.

On the road again!

We hiked down to some of the Redwood trees.
All the guys with all the babies!

Here is one of the Redwoods that fell over.

And one that you can even walk through.

This view was just amazing!

This is another hike down to see another grove of Redwood trees.

We wore Stockton out!

The drive through Yosemite was pretty but the road would wind all the way through the mountains. I think we all got a little car sick and felt like this at one point or another!

Pit stop at a park to let the kids play.
Stockton loved the swings!

Swimming at the hotel

Next we went to Lake Tahoe

The water was a little cold but felt good to dip your toes in.

Babies everywhere! They were in Heaven in the sand.

We rented paddle boats and went out on the water.

Then we went up to see Donner's Pass.

To reach California from the East Pioneer emigrants had to get their wagons over this mountain range. The Donner party found the route blocked by snow and was forced to spend the winter in a cabin that stood near where this monument is built. Of the 81 emigrants, only 45 of them survived. Some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive.

We celebrated Jayson's 21st birthday on the trip and ate at Olive Garden for dinner.

The Reno Temple is beautiful!
I wish we could have spent more time here.

On our way home we drove across Nevada and stopped at a park in Elko for lunch.
They had neat park and the kids had a blast!

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