Bass Lake 2016!

Well gosh dang, family trips are just the absolute bomb diggity. We just got home from a long weekend trip with the Paplia clan and I have to say, it was the BEST!

So we left home at 5:30 on Thursday morning (without closing our garage door, may I add -__- ). Chad left to get breakfast burritos while I packed up the rest of the goods and (hey hey hey), sneak in my pregnancy workout DVD, then we woke our sleeping cuties and told them IT WAS TIME TO GO! VACATION! WOOOOO!

Bass Lake (where my family would vacation growing up! It was a momentous trip: Gina and I would be bringing our kiddos with us to where our parents took THEIR kiddos - and my mom's parents even took her when she was a youngin!) is about a 4 hour drive from home, but we wanted to go the extra little bit and see some awesome Yosemite sights given that we would be so close. So we actually opted for the 5.5 hour drive to the national park, and because duh, we had to do it big, decided to explore Glacier Point (the the most scenic point of the place). After driving the winding roads all the way up the mountain, we found that we would have to wait in a long line for a bus to take us the rest of the way. We thought, "Hey it's all good! We are about 20 minutes into vacation, we can stand to wait a little longer for the bus!" but with the heat, it actually kind of sucked. There was even this really negative guy standing behind us! He was such a party pooper! His poor kids must really loathe family vaca's with his commentary constantly being voiced: "this sucks." "...who's idea was this?" "...we've got about 45 minutes left to go." "...well I'm just going to look at my phone because we HAVE to wait." - annoying man.

But we were fine! Just happy to be there, we were!

 ^^^In-line shenanigans.

^^^29 weeks!

 So I loved Glacier Point's amazing viewpoints, but Y'ALL. Those cliffs got me SO NERVOUS! I felt like one of the kids was going to go plummeting off at any moment. All of the youngins there were rock jumping from one large boulder to the next while their parents oo'd and ahh'd at the sights - my eyes were glued to Carter and Kota because I felt certain this was where they were going to fly off into Yosemite Valley. Terrifying! I felt like kind of a poop being so worried about them, but then I saw another mom yelling at her kids to stop jumping around like maniacs, so I felt better - haha!

So Glacier Point was a great highlight! Next it was off to Oakhurst to grab a few last minute goodies for our cabin and then it was BASS LAKE TIME!

 As soon as we got there, everyone quickly said hello to our cabin-mates (the sister and her family) and my parents who's cabin was down the way a bit, then we quickly changed into bathing suits and hit the pool. It was all so beautiful! Love it there.

The next morning we were all rarin' to go - IT WAS PONTOON BOAT DAY! Chad, Bear and my dad headed to Miller's Landing to pick up the rental while Gina, my mom and I hung with the 5 kiddos. Once they picked us up, we let loose the tube and got to extreme sportin' it up! The kids loved it. I seriously wish I could have tubed but being a 7 month pregnant whale of a human doesn't exactly allow for much wake-bouncin'. But anyway, that was a great day. Tons of great food, fun jumping off the boat and swimming. I'm pretty sure Carter is a professional chocolate ice cream-guzzler. That kid can seriously put away some frozen goodness.

 ^^^That night - THAT FREAKIN' NIGHT - the food. The FOOOOOOOOOOOOD! It's been said before and will be said again: traveling with a professionally trained chef is the way to go, my friend. There simply is no other option. Every trip we take with my sister and her family is THE BEST because we get fed like kings. It's simply UNBELIEVABLE.

But anyhoo. Boat day 2 was right around the corner! I didn't bring my humongous DSLR because instead of a tame pontoon boat, the boys got A SPEED BOAT! Yes! My parents opted to stay at the resort for this day, so us kids went wild with the toy.

 So I have to admit, I really wasn't all that excited for this day when we were in the planning stages of the whole thing. Chad and Bear were stoked on the idea of taking the kids out on a speed boat, but I legitimately was like "Well... I know my parents USED to water ski and such, but Gina has never done it in her life and obviously the kids would be doing it for the first time. I'm 7 months pregnant so won't be tubing OR wake boarding/water skiing... what is the point of this fast thing?" I thought it would be a great thing to do in the future but for this year? 5 kids ages 7 and under? I just didn't really get it. BUT I WAS WRONG! This was the coolest boat ever. Not only was it very relaxing because we were closer to the actual water as opposed to being propped higher in the pontoon boat, but there was SO MUCH STORAGE, so all of our coolers and whatnot were not within sight. The kids LOVED it and the speed was actually freakin' awesome. Carter got out there to wake board but didn't quite make it up, and then my niece tried and she got up for a few seconds! It was an absolute blast! We only ordered it for half the day but next year I want to get it for longer. It was soooooooo fun!

^^^Each family took a night to prepare dinner. First it was Bear and Gina with that amaze balls fettucini alfredo dish, then my parents did enchiladas and for the final night we made carne asada tacos. Such great food! We were all overly stuffed by the end.

^^^Okay, how cool is this picture???? It's one of those photos where I feel like we'll look at it when we're all in our 80's and be like "Hey look at us at Bass Lake in our 20's!" Totally one of those pictures the kids will look at one day and be like "Look at how young our parents were! Is Mom/Aunt Nicole pregnant with Gracie? I think she is!" So cool!

So yes, it was a great vacation if there ever was one. We loved every second! I was pretty impressed that Gracie let me hang in there as long as she did, and I'm dang glad that our kids are awesome. Seriously, what a life!!!!!

And last but not least, this picture has to be included...

^^^Hahaha! This is from when Chad was haulin' on the way to Yosemite and got pulled over! He went a strong 4 weeks in the new Chevy before getting a ticket. Carter and Kota were straight up LECTURING him when the cop was writing the dang thing! The whole reason he was going fast was to get in front of this slow lady, so Kota told Chad VERY POINTEDLY, "Daddy, it doesn't matter who goes first! We all have to share the road! You should have let that lady go ahead of you!" Hahahaha! The cop almost felt bad for us though, because he struck up a nice conversation with the four of us about visiting Yosemite and traveling to Bass Lake afterward. He even commanded Chad to roll down the back window so he could give Carter knuckles! Bahahaha!

So hilarious and awesome!