Vacation (Part II): Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is beautiful! we got there Wed. afternoon after a six hour drive from southern California and were ready to get going. On Thursday, we hiked to Nevada falls. My little girls do not do well on hikes. Gabriela usually is the worst about it, but she was actually great. I think she was the first one out of the group to make it to the falls. Sophia however wanted to be in the backpack and Julianne wanted to walk. That's a problem because Julianne gets too busy doing this, that she forgets to walk.

We all finally made it.

After reaching the falls, we stopped for lunch, and ate on these massive boulders. If your kids like to climb rocks...then this is the place for you. They are everywhere and are humongous.

Have you ever seen a tree sitting on his bum?

On Thursday, we hiked to Yosemite Falls. This is the tallest waterfall in the U.S. and the fifth in the world.

More rock climbing.

I told you they were big!When you got to the base of the falls, it's like being stuck in a rain storm. The air is completely full of mist. Sophia loved it and kept wanting to run across the bridge. Julianne didn't know what to think. And as for Gabriela, well, she made it across and didn't look back.

Miguel turned into a mountain man on the trip. He grew a nice prickly beard. We even got to see some of his wisdom manifest itself in those grey hairs. 

 

It was picnic lunches every day. Here are all of our lovely neighbors and friends.

On Saturday, we biked up to Mirror Lake and the kids had a chance to get wet. They loved it and it was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. They were kids just getting to be kids. It was timeless.

I tried to get a family pictures, but Julianne would not cooperate, as you can see.

My kids' personalities really came out when it came to the freezing water. Sophia is my adventerous one and she would get nervous and think it was cold, but she pushed through for the chance to play. She was jumping off rocks and was really brave. Gabriela is more cautious and does it more out of peer pressure than her own benefit. She doesn't want to be left out. All of the kids had made it out to this log, as seen above, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it and was really nervous. With a little coaxing, we managed to convince her to do it for a picture. She made it out there, got up on on the log, and took the picture. However, when she tried to get down, she slipped and fell completely under the water. She came up spattering and screaming, declaring that she almost drowned. I tried to play it up like, "way to go, that was awesome! Give me a high five!" We stripped her down and all of the other kiddos and put them in the sun to dry out. It was really fun.

We visited Bridalveil falls and it was an experience to be had. The waterfall was so full it was flooding the river and all of the sidewalks. You had to walk in water up to your ankles and fast moving to get to the base. It was raining down on us and there were multiple rainbows as you looked up at the falls. I have another picture that I'll have to post later. Sophis, once again, thought it was awesome.

On our way home from Glacier Point and Bridalveil Falls, we stopped to turn in the girls Junior Ranger papers. The Ranger was great in making them feel special. They sat up on the big desk, said a pledge, signed their names into a large record book, and then he made the entire visiors center give them a round of applause. Sophia was really embarrassed, but they were really proud of themselves.

P.S.: my kids are totally mismatched, becaue I ran out of clothes by the end of the trip. They are wearing whatever was left in their bags and wasn't soaking wet from earlier in the day.

We had a lot of fun, but would reccomend this trip for school aged kids. It's a lot of hiking and biking, and unless you really love to tote your kids on your back, carry them in your arms, or push them on their bikes, it's better to wait till they are older.