It was August in September for us this year. Pehrson's school is year round and he has 3, 2-3 week breaks. But this August he was down in San Diego doing that externship and since he is pretty much doing all clinical work now he sets his own schedule and decided that he needed a little break. And we wanted him to hang out with us for a week too. So we decided to go visit Pehrson's Parents in Sacramento (as posted below) and then go camping with just our little fam for a couple days in Yosemite.
Five words: PICTURES DON'T DO IT JUSTICE! This place is breathtaking. I can't believe I'd never gone here before. As much as I love the Ocean, there is something about mountains that make you feel one with Nature. And this place didn't disappoint. The only negative was that since we went in September a lot of the waterfalls and lakes were dry. And I mean dry. But the weather was perfect! So it just gives us a better reason to make another trip up there in the spring to see Yosemite at it's prime.
The kids were troopers! Beck and Jade both loved hiking! And I learned that the mountains are a little boys best playground. Rocks. Dirt. Animals. Fire. Sticks. Beck was in heaven. The first thing he said every morning was "bire!" (aka Fire) haha
I don't even want to tell you how many pictures I took. Everywhere I looked I wanted to capture. So here comes a whole lot of pictures.
Setting up camp at Lower Pines. (Of course the backpack came on the trip!)
This is what the bottom of Mirror lake looks like dry. HA
Everything is a slide to this kid.
Our cute happy campers!
We had some good food. Hobo dinners. Shiskabobs. Lil smokies. We cooked eggs one morning and of course finished off each night roasting starburst.
We went on a couple hikes (4 to be exact) 2 easy. 2 hard. And we got lots of comments about how we "had our hands full" we either had people say to us. "that is SO great, starting them young!" or "wow! they are gonna be hikers for sure" OR we would just get the "you guys are crazy" stares. It was definitely harder hiking with kids strapped to us. And we were all sweaty! But it was worth it and we definitely earned an extra starburst each night. HA
We hiked to the top of Vernal Falls and Emerald pool. Which we thought was cool cause of the waterfall but later we went into a gift shop and saw a picture of what Vernal Falls really looked like and died laughing cause we saw just a fraction of what it should look like. Still pretty though.
These all probably look the same to you. But seriously it was so gorgeous.
We found a little river to play in...so refreshing. Especially since we had no showers! Yikes.
Jade-3 1/2 months
"Pound it"
Love this one!
Here is lower Yosemite Falls...again dryer than dry. ha But the rocks were cool!
Beck had a staring contest with a deer.
These two really were so great.
And slept right next to us in the tent until it got a little cold and then we pulled them in bed.
We finished the last day doing the 4 mile hike trail. It was literally straight up the side of a mountain with super steep switchbacks the whole way. But the views were gorgeous.
We wore this kid out.
And one for the memory books. A diaper change in the middle of the trail.
I realized how important family vacations are. A time to be alone with each other without any distractions. Families need this. Time away to remember what's really important in life.
To be with Just Us.
Yosemite thanks for being so good to us. We had too much fun. We will be back for sure! But next time I want to see all that water I hear about!
