Celebrating Memorial Day at the River!

Happy Memorial Day! Today, John and I packed up all the kids plus two and headed up to John's favorite river spot up in King's Canyon. Good thing John packed those extra barf bags, because we needed them on the way up. :)

We stopped at Boyden Caverns for lunch.

We ate various kinds of peanut butter sandwiches--- some had honey, some had strawberry jam, and some had grape jelly. Of course Adam's was straight peanut butter. The kids washed the sandwiches down with Capri-suns, water, and a few kids shared Pepsis.

We hung out for a while before getting back into the van and continuing onto our destination.

Dennis looked so cute helping his Daddy wheel the ice-chest. He really thought he was making John's job easier. It really was too cute.

We found our spot, and John made sure to park far away from it as to not draw attention to his favorite rock. However, the walk was very nice.

Caleb was not real excited to be going on this trip today because he has really become "cautious" over the last year or so and thinks jumping off a rock into the icy cold river is just plain dangerous and not to mention dumb. But John and I believe in doing things as a family-- a whole family, and so Caleb really had no choice in the matter. Sooooo..... he decided to be on Dennis patrol--- and did a phenomenal job of keeping watch over his baby brother.

I love how Dennis is hugging Caleb in this picture. Just precious to this Mama's eyes.

John, Julia, Vika, Sveta, Annalyn, William, and Adam all jumped off this rock.

You could hear Sveta's squeals as she jumped off the rock echoing in the canyon!

King's Canyon is really a gorgeous place. John and I have been coming up here since before we had kids, and I came here with my family growing up.

Dennis was not always happy to be in our arms. He wanted to go exploring but it just wasn't the time or place for a two year old to be let loose.

Rachel looks beautiful in this picture. She was content laying on this rock the whole time we were there.

John and Julia tried to talk more kids into jumping off. The water was just too cold for them.

Here is Julia jumping off for the fifth time!

Anna in front of the King's River.

Can you see the beautiful waterfall in the background?

The kids finished up the chips before piling back into the van for the drive home.

One of them was so kind to take this photo of John and I before we left.