The Tranmer Family Scrapbook » snapshots of our daily life, in words and photos

{Typical Day} May 31, 2014 | Around Camp

Day 3 is always one of the best when it comes to trips. Such a fun and relaxing day! We hung out around camp and then drove around a little and explored Fawnskin. We’d love to buy a piece of property up here. It’s all a little pricey still, but hopefully some day… if we stay in California, which is where our future appears to be headed. Big Bear is such a haven for me. I’m growing to love it more and more. California’s big sell is it’s diversity. Ocean, desert, mountains all within a 2 hour radius. It’s pretty neat. And thankfully our (Daddy’s and my) shared adventurous spirit means that we take advantage of all of it, as much as we can. You will not be desert children who grow up not going anywhere. We are going to show you as much of this beautiful country as God allows. I’m so grateful for the opportunities we have in this nation, to see and do so much. Freedom. May this land always be as beautiful and free as it is today. God Bless the USA, land of National Parks, National Forests, maintained trails, campgrounds, rest stops with clean bathrooms, highways connecting thousands of towns in a thousands of terrains. I love this country. California is only the beginning. We have so much to show you guys! And in just a couple of days, we’ll be heading out on our first major road trip with the camper…. all the way up to Washington, hitting the Ocean, Seattle, Oroville and Yellowstone on the way home. Woohoo!!!

If I can give you guys advice for some day, for some day when you have a husband, Adela, and for when you have a wife, Josiah, for when you have families. Share your passions with each other. If your spouse loves something, choose to love it with them. Daddy and I fight sometimes. We don’t have a perfect relationship, but we love each other and we are BEST friends. When Daddy likes to do something, I do it with him, even if it’s not my first choice. Being with him, and sharing things with him that he loves, it binds us together. He does the same for me. Doing something that is not your favorite with someone you love allows you to grow, find new loves and passions. There is so much blessing in simply sharing life experience, all life experience, with your spouse. Daddy’s and my passions have grown together because we’ve allowed them to. Do that with your spouses. Be best friends and share life together. It’s fun. And it’s such a blessing to be able to bring your kids into it!

I also want to not that the silly picture of me was taken by Adela. I’ve been teaching you to use my camera a little bit here and there, and you get a big kick of it. Something I have a passion for that I get to share with you. I think you pretty much rocked that composition, girl! I think pretty soon, I’ll be breaking out my D50 for you. That’s actually a really good idea… 🙂

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{Typical Day} May 30, 2014 | Four Miles

Today we started out with a 4 mile hike up the a Pacific Crest Trail junction and had lunch with a view of Big Bear Lake. It was gorgeous, woods and flowers and peekaboos of the lakes as we climbed in elevation. Adela learned to walk with a walking stick and Josiah fell asleep and rubbed his chin raw on the pack again. We need to figure out how to prevent that in the future! Then we headed back to camp for some camper’s stew, one of our favorites. I don’t think we’ve ever gone camping (me and Daddy) in a place where fires were permitted, without making some version of this meal. It really hits the spot after all that exercise. And while dinner was cooking we worked more on your steering/pedaling skills, Adela. You get a bike when you master doing both at the same time. You’re getting better, but you still require a bit of guidance.

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{Typical Day} May 29, 2014 | Hannah Flats Camping

Some more firsts for us during this first camping trip of the summer – first dry camping with our trailer, first mountain camping as a foursome, and for you kids, the first fire pit, and Adela’s first roasted hotdogs and marshmallows for s’mores. This was great. It’s easy to fall a little more in love with California when you have perfect weather, sunny blue skies, beautiful back roads lined with wild flowers and tall evergreens, and access to trails with gorgeous mountain and lake views. My soul needs this. I have grown to love the desert, true. And Cali mountains don’t compare to those in Washington, but this is growing on me, a lot. I’ve enjoyed the parking lot camping we’ve done with full hook ups at the beach as well. But this is something different, closer to “real” camping. Dirtier, quieter, wilder, closer to nature. I’m a fan. And having the camper rather than a tent is nice. I’m not 18 anymore. Some comfort is good. 🙂 And it was great being able to throw you guys in the bath after a couple of days of the dirt and sweat.

We started out the trip with a stop at the Big Bear Discovery Center, traveled a couple miles on a dirt road, and arrived at our Hannah Flats camping site. Then we spent about 15 minutes attempting to shoehorn the camper into an impossible site. Campgrounds like to line roadways with obstacles to keep drivers where they need to be. But this place was ridiculous. There were stone pillars every couple of feet lining the already narrow road.  You could see all over where people had run them over or dug them out so that they could get through. Somebody got the math wrong. Some of those turns aren’t possible with a trailer. But Daddy is a good driver. It was a little tense, but he did the impossible and successfully parked us. I was immediately in love. There was heavenly light all around us, and hardly any neighbors since we arrived on a Thursday night before the weekend crowd. Adela helped us gather firewood and Josiah, you manned the camp chairs. You love those things. Standing up. Sitting down. Moving it. Sitting down again. So cute.

You guys are growing up in an age where people don’t go 5 seconds without electronics. At the risk of sounding old, it was nice to unplug. No electricity, no TV, no computers. We had our phones, but we were out of range for data which made me secretly cheer. I think we forget how much of life there is to live, to experience to do without all those screens in our life. Seriously. It’s therapeutic.2_2V-WEB

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{Typical Day} May 27, 2014 – Little Blue Truck

This is something I want to remember. It’s the first book you ever fell in love with, Jo. Little Blue Truck. Beep, beep, beep! You point your finger and push the truck and Daddy or I say the beeps, and you grin and stare and wait for us to turn the page and do it again. It’s adorable. You’ve also fallen in love in Goodnight Moon. This is the age when books start to get interesting and it’s awesome to see that little lightbulb, the love of a good story, start to flicker. We’ve already read this one about 100 times. I’m sure we have a couple thousand more to go. I don’t mind.

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