The clinic and hospital hosted a welcome reception for our family a few days after Danny started work. The announcement for the reception was in the newspaper and on the bank signs. We were starting to feel like local celebrities! Over 100 people came to introduce themselves to us and welcome us to the town. The hard part now is remembering everyone's name, but we do feel very welcomed! 
Swimming is one of Wyatt and Colter's favorite summertime activities. Danny took them swimming at a couple of hotel pools while we were on vacation, so they were both very excited to have a pool in our backyard when we returned to Dimmitt!
We were in the car for about 50 hours during these two weeks. The boys are great travelers and enjoyed it most of the time. Here are some of the things we overheard during the trip...
We saw lots of wildlife around our campsite - jackrabbits, lizards and owls. The temperature was actually quite pleasant and the boys had fun walking around and exploring. 
The next morning we drove down into the valley. When we got to the visitor's center at 10:00 am the temperature was already 106. When we left 30 minutes later it was up to 108! We drove down to Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the US), took a picture and then headed for cooler weather!
Our last day in Yosemite we hiked to Bridalveil Falls and spent some time at the Happy Isles Nature Center. Wyatt loved the exhibit with all of the animal sounds and 
tracks.
The Griffis Family - Danny, Jen, Wyatt and Colter
We drove down to Yosemite Valley, parked the cars and spent the day exploring "The Valley." We shopped at the Ansel Adams Gallery, ate ice cream at Curry Village, hiked to Lower Yosemite Falls, ate pizza at Degnans and, most importantly, took showers and washed clothes at Housekeeping Camp. The kids also went to a "Wee Wild Ones" Ranger program where they learned about butterflies. It was a great day!
We ended the day with a drive up to Glacier Point where Danny took some pictures of the valley with the full moon. You can see Yosemite Falls and the lights of Yosemite Valley in the picture above.
Wyatt and Anna spent quite a while walking around the campsite looking a trees and rocks through their binoculars. But they thought it was really funny when they discovered they could look at each other through the binoculars! 
This was our campsite at Toulumne Meadows Campground. It had just opened that day for the summer season. Wyatt and Colter enjoyed using the rocks as roads for their cars!
Danny took this picture at sunset from an overlook near our campsite.
The Yosemite High Country is famous for two things - beautiful scenery and large mosquitoes. We thought we were prepared for the mosquitoes, but we were wrong! As we hiked closer to the campsite they began to swarm. By the time we set up the tent they were so thick we could barely see what we were doing. We had brought repellent, but it was only helping for 15 or 20 minutes and then we'd need to reapply. We spent most of the evening inside the tents trying to keep ourselves, and most importantly the kids, from being eaten alive! We decided to cut our backpacking trip short by a day and hike back down the next morning.
Wyatt has been fascinated with waterfalls for the last several months. He loved the fact that there seemed to be a waterfall around every bend in the trail! Colter called them "wa-wa-fa."
Danny took this moonlight picture of the waterfall near our campsite. It was almost a full moon that evening.
The next morning we headed out for our three-day, two-night backpacking trip to Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp. It was going to be a 6-mile hike to the campsite, but everything we had read about the hike said that the views were worth the walk, so we were ready to go!
Kara and Colter enjoyed the walk in their backpack carriers. Wyatt and Anna walked most of the way (notice Wyatt's hiking stick, backpack and hat!) and then rode on Brad or Danny's shoulders when they got too tired. They were excellent little hikers!
