Yosemite 2011

May 2011. This year Dave, Andy, and Becca stayed home and I just took Alaina and Ryan with me to Yosemite. We had beautiful weather and saw lots of wildlife. Alaina and I attempted to fish...but with barbless hooks and no bait allowed, we didn't do too well. We lost several lures, though.

We hiked up the Mist Trail wth the Clements and went to the top of Vernal Falls. We got pretty wet and it felt great. Several people died on the trail a few days before we were there and several more died after...it is pretty slippery. One guy said, "Respect the water."

Ryan only wanted to do what Blair was doing, so he didn't hike with us and I didn't fight him on it. I am just glad he was enjoying being in nature. We had our traditional church service outside on Sunday and I bore my testimony. I am grateful we can have church anywhere we are.

Yosemite May 2010

We made our annual trip to Yosemite with friends from church. It is so beautiful and peaceful there. This year we hiked a new trail and loved it. It even snowed! It was the coldest time we've had there and we brought a space heater to the housekeeping tent/cabins. I know it's kind of cheating, but it was awesome!

We really did get pretty close to this bear, but my camera does have a decent zoom...

Andy loves to climb and I gave up trying to keep him off the giant boulders. And we didn't even have any injuries!

Yosemite 2009

 

I love our family tradition of going to Yosemite the weekend before Memorial Day. It's not yet too hot or too crowded, but it is warm enough and the waterfalls are always perfect. We always meet up with 6-10 other families and stay in the Housekeeping 'tent cabins'. It is the best of both worlds because it's comfortable camping with electricity and toilets, but not a hotel.

 

 

There was a guy in front of El Capitan that let us look in his telescope at the climbers that were on day 3 of a 7 day climb to the top. He gave us so much information -- from the way climbers get all of their gear up, to how they sleep, and yes, he even told us how they go to the bathroom! I think I prefer a port-a-potty.

 

If you click on the picture you can zoom in and see three climbers. Scary! Last year we only brought Ryan's little bike and rented bikes for the rest of us. He decided it was too hard and I ended up carrying his bike WHILE riding mine! This year we brought all of our bikes for the first time and rode a 7+ mile loop around the valley floor and this time, Ryan was out in front of us all. It was so fun to watch all of the kids and realize that we have "arrived" at a point where we can all do things like this together.

 

We always have a potluck on Saturday night and eat all together. Alaina took this picture of me with flaming buttocks. What can I say, it is still hot after all these years :)!