Yosemite

Tunnel view: El Cap, Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls

Yosemite will be one of those trips we talk about forever.

We’ve been dreaming about doing a trip there for a long time, but it never made it to the top of our list. It was also on Morgan’s list, and she really wanted to go before they move their family far away to Texaco. One thing led to another, and we booked a VRBO for 18 people, lol. What can I say, we love our family. Yosemite is tricky to get to because it’s a national park- it’s quite a ways up into the mountains and you either stay outside the park or pay a million dollars to stay at one of the few park-owned hotels inside the boundaries. VRBO was the perfect solution to that- we were inside the national park, just about 30 minutes from tunnel view. We all got to stay in a big cabin together, the kids had maximum cousin time, and we were right in the mountains!

*sidetote* Something you might not know about me… I’m semi obsessed with the culture of climbing. I’ve read every book on Everest ever published, seen all the movies, I stalk blogs about K2, listed to podcasts by speed climbers and record setters. It really is a weird obsession and I’m 100% okay to admit that. Anyway, Yosemite is legendary for climbing, maybe the best big wall climbing in the world and it was like Christmas morning for me for basically three full days. Bless my family for listening to me tell them really lame facts constantly and pretending to be interested.

Doesn’t it look like a painting!? It was amazing.

AMAZING.

Ready for day one.

We had a rough list of things we wanted to do/see- we packed a picnic in everyday and basically explored with the kids. IT WAS SO FUN. A totally different kind of vacation than we are used to, but so much fun, the kids loved it. We had gorgeous weather (warmer than we thought but that was nice) and the waterfalls were totally full after they experienced floods a few weeks before our trip.

izzies hat lol

Yosemite Falls!

We hiked up a bit and got soaked.

Me, forcing my kid to take a picture with half dome

this kid loooooves Grandpa

this is the old yosemite lodge built in the late 1920’s
BIG fireplace
also lol Isabelle with binnoculars

Merced River, perfect picnic spot

These babies are one year and one day apart!

Mirror Lake

This day was so fun- we hiked up to Mirror Lake under the shadow of Half Dome. Bless the kids- they were such troopers- they did really well and once we got to the freezing water they stripped down and played around. Something I want to remember forever is naked Archer wearing someone’s extra sweatshirt and literally nothing else. One of my favorite memories.