text: ARTFULIFE: Gold Lake
  Life has been so busy lately. Sometimes it's hard to take the time I need to enjoy my family. Don't get me wrong, I spend a ton of time with the kids on a daily basis. It's just I find myself preoccupied with the day to day tasks that I sometimes wonder, how much of my time am I really giving to the people that matter most?
  So when Dean suggested we head to California & spend an afternoon at Gold Lake I was excited. We'd like to do more activities like this with the kids. So we packed up a lunch, I juiced (more on my 30 day juice fast in an upcoming post) a Mean Green for later, then we packed up the car & headed out on our family adventure.
  Nothing says lazy afternoon at the lake like a picnic lunch.
  The water was surprisingly warm. When I say warm I'm being kind of sarcastic. The kids could handle it but I couldn't hang, lol!
  What a view! Oh wait, that's my cute husband, haahaa!
  Dean brought the fishing gear & Aris had a heyday with all the little plastic worms.
  If she'd had her way I would have photographed her with that worm all afternoon. She's such a little goofball.
  Dean getting a little fishing in.
  What's this? I honestly have no idea other than the fact that Aris, Zoe & I were attacked by the nastiest bugs on this planet. Nope these weren't mosquitoes. They were these black gnat looking bugs. The only reason I even knew we had been bitten is the drops of blood. You couldn't feel them bite. They didn't even itch until the day after. Let me tell you, they were crawling in the girls hair & all over their necks. I had to dunk poor Zoe under the water to get them all off. She got the worst out of all of us. If anyone knows what these bugs are I'd love to know. I'm still creeped out by the whole thing & pretty much convinced that they are alien bugs from another universe. I have knots on my neck from where I was bitten. Hopefully I don't have bugs nesting in my neck that will pop out one night during dinner, you know, like in the movie Alien? Anywho....they were rally gross.
  I just had a friend inform me these are black flies that bit us. Horrible little things. Next time we'll bring the off.
  After the bug incident we packed up the kids & drove up the road to Fraizer Falls. We didn't know what to expect because neither of us had ever been there before. It was 14 miles up the road but totally worth the detour. Once you reach the small parking lot it's a 1/2 mile hike to the falls. Perfect for little legs.
  I find it fascinating that we can drive an hour & a half away & see totally different scenery. I love living out west. The path to the falls was full of so much beauty.
  The back of the falls from a little bridge.
  We hit the top right before the sun was starting to set. It was so hard to capture with my camera lens how truly high up we were or how beautiful the falls were.
  There were so many different kinds of rock formations mixed in with the trees.
  Do you see Dean? He hiked to the edge of the top of the fall with Zoe. Next time I'll be doing the same. Maybe then I can get a better shot of it.
  The girls came home with pockets full of rocks from the trail.
  We let the girls do a little rock climbing.
  We made it back to our car just as the sun was setting. It was such a perfect ending to a perfect family adventure.
  Posted by Artfulife at 2:48 PM
  except the flies. they're nasty things.
  What a perfect family day, except for those nasty bugs. I love to spend days like that with my family. Gorgeous photos.