Yosemite

We've been trying to squeeze in a trip to Yosemite all spring.  We finally made it, hoping to miss the summer crowds by going the weekend before Memorial Day (turns out everyone else had the same thoughts--it was packed!) This view of the foothills leading up to Yosemite was ours for a solid hour as we crept along toward the gate to the park with hundreds of other cars.

With all the rain we got this year, we knew it would be a great year and Daddy-o is always yearning to get back to this place that was such a huge part of his growing up.

The water did not disappoint. The Merced River was crazy.

And Yosemite Falls was at its best. Nothing like the trickle we saw 4 years ago when we were last here.

Along with the walk from where we parked, past the base of Yosemite Falls, to the museum, we also hiked up to Mirror Lake from The Majestic Hotel.

It's a couple miles, which seemed like a good distance.

These three adventurers were excited to explore.

Until this one wasn't anymore, about 1/2 a mile into it. This kid--sometimes he does okay when we have to walk places, but the majority of the time, he starts to complain way to quickly. It didn't help that he had seen ice cream at the hotel and decided he needed to have some right then, but we didn't comply.

We did bribe him with the ice cream. I asked him to do 20 more minutes--maybe a mile, if we could push him, so he could do most of the hike up to the lake. I'm trying to work on his endurance and hate to give in too quickly. Those were the most painful 20 minutes of the entire day. He wasn't supposed to whine or cry while hiking and we had some questionable moments that we chose to pretend we could hear. Bean was an amazing sister and not only hung back to walk with him, but helped him count out the last 5 minutes to distract him from all the pain and suffering he was enduring.

Ah, sweet reward #1. A ride on Daddy-o's shoulders. And the promise of ice cream when we got back down to the store in the valley.

The rest of us enjoyed the walk. We got some fun views of Half Dome along the way.

And got to watch a slack-liner up at the top. You can just barely make out the line between the point and the rock below. I can't even imagine how terrified I would be trying something like that (which I would never do because I can't stay up on a slack line that is a foot off the ground, either.)

I didn't get a picture of it, but on the way down from the lake, I pulled out the Ergo, which Peanut still fits in, and he got to ride down which made his day. Not only did he not have to walk, but with his mouth right by my ears, he also had my undivided attention for a couple miles. And he took full advantage of that time to outline his career plans. One of his jobs he wants is to have a restaurant, and he planned out his menu down to the type of paper it will be printed on, his sign for out front, who will get the supplies for these things, which parts of the actual building he will do himself (because he also wants to be a construction worker, as well as a doctor and owner of a hospital--this boy will be busy!) and what his wife will do while he is busy taking care of his parts. He was cracking me up with both the non-stop talking, and some of the words he uses. He also completely wore me out. I can still handle carrying him for miles, but listening to him talk for hours makes me tired.

Another highlight--we found dogwoods! I've been missing all the dogwood trees this spring and was so excited to see some in the park.

A few more pictures from our day surrounded by all this amazing beauty:

So glad we went exploring, even if the crowds were crazy, poor Bug got carsick on the way home and threw up, and Peanut whined more than any child ever should. There was plenty to enjoy between the less exciting parts, and these adventures will be favorite family memories, I'm sure.

Going Back to the Source

 

We drive over the Catawba River every now and then down by Charlotte, but Friday, we hiked up to the falls where the whole river begins.

 

It was a perfect summer day with friends. a 2.5 mile round trip climb that involved a little climbing over fallen trees and crossing the river on rocks to keep it exciting. And even though it was still warm, the fact that it was so shady, and that it isn't quite as humid up in the mountains made a nice break from the heat we've had in Charlotte the last couple weeks.

 

 

And then there was the reward of a swim in a nice cool pool at the top.

 

This little peanut did amazingly well and walked the whole thing.

 

 

He's such a ham for the camera (and excuse the terrible picture quality on some of these--I only had my phone and it was struggling with focusing.)

 

The kids had so much fun playing in the water.

 

Watching them play is like watching some sort of Lord of the Flies civilization at times.

  

The rock monkeys--they climbed around for about an hour after lunch, playing on the rocks,

 and finding wildlife, like this crawdad.

 

The falls were gorgeous.

There were a lot of fun places to explore along the trail, too.

 

It's a fabulous hike to do with kids.

 

After the hike, we drove into Asheville for some ice cream (and to wander around the Grove Park Inn in our dirty hiking clothes cause we're classy like that ;) ).

 

I'll take this view any day. The Blue Ridge Mountains are beautiful.

 

 These kids are crazy. But so fun.

 

And look who we found on the way home. We had just introduced our kids to The Goonies (thanks to VidAngel, which, if you haven't heard of it, is a great website for watching movies, especially if you want to be able to edit them. Our kids aren't ready for all the swearing in a lot of these 80's movies.) So this mural was a fun find.

 

Watch out--these kids are going places!

Fall Photos

Every fall, I watch the leaves change colors and want to get some good pictures of the kids with the color of fall behind them. And every year, our fall schedule is packed, it rains on the free afternoons that we do have, and I keep not getting good fall pictures.

 

I still haven't managed a dedicated photo shoot, but I did take advantage of a couple beautiful days that the kids had off from school and we had outside plans. We headed up to our favorite apple orchard one day to get our Gold Rush apples.

And some silly pictures of the kids,

 

as well as a beautiful view of the mountains.

They have a gorgeous property up in Flat Rock, NC.

These three kids.

Sometimes they look like they love each other ;)

And sometimes they even hold still.

Back to their exploring. It was a quick trip, but a nice couple hours.

 

Then, there was an afternoon out at our friends farm where everyone was able to run wild for hours. These 5 kids have such a good time together.

 

They've been friends since these two were toddlers and it's so fun to see them still running around together, creating worlds and adventures and exploring.

 

I love seeing Peanut tagging along. He's big enough now that he wants to be part of the game, and these kids are pretty good at making sure he's included. 

These kids are warriors!

 

 

And yet they can be so sweet.

 

And of course we can't forget the 4-legged friends.

 

We had such a fantastic afternoon, hiking and playing.

These kids really are amazing friends. We were so lucky to have met them 7 years ago when we first moved to Charlotte.

 

They are all so curious, so inventive, so fun.

 

So I haven't gotten my picture perfect photo shoot, but I've got plenty of documentation of these three monkeys having fun this fall.