Yosemite

Mike's boss took some time off a few weeks ago and suggested Mike take his family to Yosemite while he was gone, so off we went!  We had a wonderful trip!  It was nice to be there during the week rather than on the weekend.  We left early in the morning so we could get two full days in the park (it's about 3 hours away).  We had the car all packed the night before so we could just plop them in the van in their jammies in the morning.

Our first stop at the park was a distant view of one of the waterfalls.  We got the kids dressed and went out to take a peek. 

It wasn't long before the kids (mostly Eliza) wanted to get in.  We were the only ones who didn't get the memo about bringing a swimming suit, so all our swimming on this trip was fully clothed.  We knew the water would be snow run-off, so we figured it wouldn't be anything we'd want to swim in.  Eliza, on the other hand, does not feel the cold.  She may be shivering and have blue lips, but she will still say, "It's mostly warm.  It's just a little bit cold."  She wanted to swim in every body of water we saw.

Our first hike was to Lower Yosemite Falls.  I originally took the picture below because I thought it was cute that the kids were holding hands with Daddy.  As it turned out, this was one of the few times that one of us (usually Mike) wasn't carrying one (or two) of the kids.

You can see Lower Yosemite Falls in the shot below.  Nevermind getting the kids to look at the camera.

Before I had kids I was pretty invincible.  I was much braver and took more risks.  Now that I have kids I am cautious and worried.  Eliza wanted to go down and touch the water coming off Lower Yosemite Falls.  After hearing about the 3 tourist who were swept over Vernal Falls less than a week before our visit (they had crossed a barrier and were out on a slippery rock, so they could take a picture), I was especially paranoid.  Still, Mike took both kids (in flip flops, no less) down on the rocks so they could touch the water.  It was quite unnerving for me.  He kept assuring me that he was not going to let one of our kids fall in the water, but this Mama still worried.  Finally I got them to come back to me.  

We stopped to explore a hollowed out fallen tree.  Someone hiking by offered to take a family picture for us, the only one we got on the trip.

We knew we wouldn't be able to take the kids on any technical or strenuous hikes, so Mike thought it would be fine to let the kids wear their flip flops the first day (after having to take their shoes and socks off 5 minutes after putting them on so they could swim at the first spot).  He forgot to consider their off-trail explorations.  Eliza continued quite a ways up this rock pile before being convinced to come back down.  Caleb was right behind her.

We really enjoyed the hike up to Mirror Lake.  Caleb had fallen asleep on my lap on the shuttle bus up to the Mirror Lake trailhead.  Mike carried him until he woke up.

 Eliza was thrilled to swim again.  She didn't hesitate to get completely wet in the ice cold water.  Caleb was a little more hesitant, but still went in up to his chest.  I was content to dip my toes in and then be the photographer.  Eliza got so brave that she jumped off a big rock into the water.

Below is the view of Half Dome from Mirror Lake.

All the camping at Yosemite was full, which actually turned out to be fabulous!  I talked to a ranger just inside the gate about other camping venues and she said that if we didn't mind not having facilities we could camp anywhere in the national forest area just outside the park as long as it was far enough off the road and we had a fire permit.  We found an awesome spot, completely secluded that was huge and beautiful.  It was far enough away from camping in the park (and in a different climate) that I wasn't even paranoid about bears.  And it was free!

The kids love to camp!  They had so much fun finding sticks and giant pine cones to put in the fire.  The only downside was that the mosquitoes were pretty thick for the first couple of hours at night and in the morning.  Poor little Caleb (and the rest of us, too) got eaten alive.

Eliza and Caleb really enjoyed gathering huge sugar pine cones as fuel for our morning fire.  Eliza was having so much fun that she made up a song about it.

Our second day in the park, we were sure to put tennis shoes on the kiddos.  We also decided to bring the umbrella stroller along (the kids asked to be carried way too much the first day).   We walked around near the Visitors' Center and learned about the Native people who inhabited Yosemite before the white people came.

We went to a very kid-friendly Nature Center up by Happy Isles.  Here the kids plopped down on the ground to examine the animal footprints.

We hiked the Happy Isles trail and found some shady water to wade in.  Eliza loved exploring and getting wet. 

Caleb loved finding rocks to throw into the water.  After tossing each rock in he'd say "Big splash!"  The water was freezing, but he would keep going in after big rocks.

We decided to try the hike up to Vernal Falls around nap time.  It is paved or gravel the whole way since it is the trailhead for many of the other hikes in the main area of the park. Since it was paved, we thought the unbrella stroller would work great.  I pushed Caleb who quickly fell asleep, while Mike carried Eliza.  The trail is a pretty steep uphill the entire mile and a half or so.  We didn't see any other strollers on our way up.  I'm sure I looked pretty ridiculous being all pregnant pushing a 2-year-old up such a steep incline.

On the way back we decided it was too dangerous to use the stroller with the steep downhill (one small slip and the stroller would go over a cliff), so Mike carried both kids nearly the whole way.

We had a fabulous trip!