Where To Begin

Last post was in October! Ack! For awhile there, there really wasn't anything new going on. I've been tired beyond belief so haven't done much of anything. My days consist mostly of schooling Elizabeth, napping, then trying to get with it enough to make dinner. Then it's bed time and I start all over the next day. Yah, pretty boring.
I do have some note worthy items though so thought I'd catch up a bit. It's spring break, so not much pressure to get anything done :) I like that.

Today, Rob started a new job! He now works for Harmonic. I am so thrilled he was able to change companies! He'd been feeling like Cognex wasn't the right place anymore for a little while. He'd followed a couple job leads last year but nothing came through so we figured it just wasn't time for him to move on yet. He reapplied at one place this past January. It was one I was hoping he'd get last year. It's just down the road. His commute to Cognex, though not terribly long, was long enough to make our evenings even crazier than they normally were. He'd barely have time to walk in, scarf something done, then run off again to our various activities. We weren't getting very many family dinners with him that was for sure, and that was frustrating. Let alone being able to spend any real time with him. Anyway, we hadn't heard anything from the company so assumed that it wasn't going to pan out again. Rob was very surprised to get a phone call mid-February from the hiring manager telling him he'd like to set up an interview. He went, thought it went well, and sure enough a couple days later recieved an offer. In the mean time he had a friend who works there send him insurance information. We have to be very careful about insurance since Elizabeth needs good insurance coverage. We had pretty good insurance with Cognex and figured we'd never find any better. Imagine our surprise when we found out that not only would it be cheaper per month but included better coverage!! So really, how could Rob turn it down? Closer, better pay, and better insurance!! WOW! Rob accepted the offer. The biggest thing for me was the commute. Harmonic is located on the way to Hwy 26 which is on the way to all our doctor visits, mine and Elizabeth's. No more hours wasted just in drive time to try and get to E's CF visits! He was losing so much work time, thus using his PTO, just in trying to get to and from Doernbecher. Now I can just drive by, pick him on the way there, then drop him off on the way back and it shouldn't interfer too much with his work day! LOVELY! Not to mention I'll get to see him for lunches again :) I am so HAPPY about the change!!

We were able to get away one last time without the kids on Monday night. I have a friend in Washougal, WA who kept the kids for us. Our kids are all great friends and it's always nice to get them together! Our other dear friends, Lance and Heather, had given us a bed and breakfast gift certificate for Christmas and we wanted to use it before the baby entered the picture :) We found a place in Camas, WA, called the Fairgate Inn, not too far from our friend's place. It was our first time to a B and B so we weren't sure what to expect. We LOVED it! We had looked at all the rooms online and found one that was decorated in purple and gold. Naturally I went with that one.

So glad we did, it really was the most romantic of all the rooms in my opinion and so tastefully done. I would so love to do my own room up like that one! We stayed in all evening except to run out and grab some snacks later. I'm just not up for wandering around and exploring these days, everything hurts. We had brought the lap top so we sat around watching Netflix movies all evening. We never let ourselves watch anything at home so this was our treat, haha! We were the only couple staying there that night and the Inn keeper, wish I could remember her name, told us we had free reign of the house and to enjoy. All the other rooms were unlocked so we looked at each one, each of them decorated beautifully in a different theme. We were also told since we were the only ones we could upgrade to one of the bigger rooms for free if we wanted. But I really did just love that purple room so we kept it. She told us breakfast would be served at 9 am and then left us alone for the rest of the night. We explored the other rooms downstairs for a bit, huge library, beautiful sitting room with a baby grand, and a lovely dining room.

We got up at 8 (even managed to sleep in!! So great!) and got ready and headed down to the dining room. The same lady we talked to the day before met us down there and let us know breakfast would soon be ready. She was also the cook :) She brought out these really yummy pancakes, some kind of multigrain, covered in bananas and candied pecans. Grapes on the side. So delicious!! I had no idea there would be a 2nd course and had eaten the whole thing and was totally stuffed. Can't eat much at one sitting these days! So when she brought out another plate of food I almost died! This plate had an omelet, ham slices, and fried potatoes. So dang GOOD! I couldn't eat it all. We got our hostess to stay and chat with us. Was fun to get to know her and how she came to be at the Fairgate.

After that we had about an hour before we had to leave to pick up the kids. Spent it watching this show on TLC called "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant". Wow, that is the way to go. Find out that those horrible pains are labor pains and you are having a baby and you didn't even know. I'd sure take it over feeling like crap for 9 months :) Blows my mind that someone can be pregnant and not even know until they either drop the baby out or end up in the ER for pains they didn't know were labor pains. Just seems impossible! I think it would be GREAT! HA!

Then ran out to pick up the kids and headed towards home to get some much needed haircuts :) It was just a short time away but was so very nice to sit and enjoy the quiet together! Looking forward to trying out other B and B's in the future, and hope to make it back to the Fairgate! We would totally recommend it to anyone.

Our summer vacation to Mt. Hood

Missed my post for June. I might have to add another post later to tell what happened in June but for now I'm going to focus on our trip before I forget everything :)

Not that I could forget our time on Mt Hood. We have lived here since May 2001 and have only been up to Mt Hood once, and that was last year. It's not that far away but usually, if Rob has any time off I want to head to the beach, I love the ocean. So we decided this year we would stay close to home and go spend some time on Mt Hood. In November we reserved an A-frame cabin that looked pretty nice and had been looking forward to it ever since.

We left town on Monday, July 5th and made our way up the mountain and into, way into, the woods where the cabin was located. The farther in we drove the more excited I got cause no one was going to be able to find us! No wi-fi, no cell service, just us and the woods. We finally found the A-frame and piled out of the car to go check it out.

This is the view from the back.

The inside was nice, you could tell the owners were trying to slowly update it. They had started with the kitchen and small family room on the main floor. Nice bamboo flooring and such. The inside consisted of the main floor, two lofts and a basement bedroom. When first reading the description Rob and I figured we'd take the downstairs room since it was away from the kids. After getting there and seeing how creepy it was down there we decided it was perfect for the two older boys :) I know, horrible parents, hahaha. They weren't happy. Elizabeth and Seth got the beds in the highest loft and Rob and I took the middle loft. We got there Monday night with enough time to unload, look around and head back out to the store a few miles away to pick up groceries.

This is the stream just out the back door of the cabin. Not sure what Jonathan's problem is, I think this was taken after he found out about his creepy bedroom. He was a bit grouchy after that.

We got back and had dinner, watched a movie and then settled down to sleep. Sleeping in a different place has always been hard for me but for some reason it was even harder here. It was so DARK and so QUIET I couldn't sleep. Sad, huh? I'm used to some light coming in from outside and we keep a fan going for white noise. I forgot the stupid fan. After about four hours of off-and-on sleep it was finally time to get up and get moving. The boys survived their first night in the creepy bedroom and had decided it wasn't that bad :) After a yummy pancake breakfast we took off.

We like to go geocaching when we go on our vacations and we had decided the best way to check out Mt Hood was to look for some caches and see where they took us. The first led us to Trillium Lake. For one I love the Trillium flower and I just love the word "Trillium" :) So I was excited to find out there was a lake up there with that name. We found the first cache, and after letting the kids fight over who got what out of it, we moved onto the lake. It's beautiful there. Good place to take a family as it had a nice path around the lake and picnic benches in the woods to sit and eat at. All this with a gorgeous view of Mt Hood itself.

Sadly the path around the lake was blocked off at one point as they are fixing it up (will be done by end of July) so we weren't able to go all the way around but we intend to go back. Instead we grabbed our lunch and sat down to eat. Afterwards, we wandered a bit then jumped back in the car to find the next cache.

This one led us to the Old Highway 26. I didn't even know there was one. I love finding out the history of places we go so this one was a fun one for me. The kids thought it was pretty cool too. There is a small spot on the road with one of those Historical Markers one sees off freeways all over the country. This one marks the trail head to the old road and the remnants of the trail the settlers took their wagons on to get here. After a short climb up the trail you come to a real road, yellow line, cement and all, that has become totally overgrown. Trees are fallen all over the place. It was fun to imagine the old antique cars we love to see at car shows driving along this road. It was definitely a more picturesque drive and I'm sure people were forced to enjoy the scenery around them more since I bet those older cars didn't go very fast up those hills :) Anyway, at one point up the road there is another trail that shoots off up the hill and since we hadn't found the cache yet we decided to take it. You can see here in the picture the old highway is to the right and the trail is to the left.

After hiking a ways up you come to the sign that tells you it was the old trail the wagons came over on. Ug!! I could not imagine that one. It was steep and there is no way it was ever smooth enough for wagon wheels. I had to admire the dedication of those early people to come over to settle this area, and then had to think how grateful I was that I live now with all our modern conveniences. We followed the trail until it ended, at another part of the old highway. We still hadn't found the cache and it seemed we missed it so we headed back down the old road again to see if it was off the road. We eventually found the cache and headed back down to the car.

We let Seth find this one since the older kids always jump in and find it before he ever has a chance. He was pretty proud of himself :)

After a fun day of geocaching and hiking we headed back to the cabin to chill. The kids were excited that the weather had finally warmed up enough to go play in the stream so they got their suites on and Rob took them all down to get wet and cool off. I stayed behind and enjoyed a few moments of quiet and read a book :)

We finished off the day with dinner and one of the games in the cabin. Just before everyone went their separate ways to bed Nathaniel found this huge carpenter ant crawling across the floor. He was good and picked it up and threw it outside. He hates killing things. You'll see later why I would even mention this ant :)

The next day we decided to check out Government Camp. We had no idea that they run a bit of theme park up there for something to do during the summer. We had driven through the day before and the kids begged us to let them hang out there one of the days we were there. I'm glad we choose Wednesday. It was gorgeous out and there was a nice breeze coming down off the mountain so we stayed cool at the same time. Naturally I forgot the sunscreen so we all got burnt but surprisingly not too bad. At this point I'm just going to post pics of our time there, they can tell the story :)

The Alpine Slide.

We went home that day totally exhausted but everyone had a great time!

Later that night we were winding down when we notice some more carpenter ants. It wasn't just one this time that managed to find it's way in, there were several, crawling all over the main living area. EEewwww!! I know they don't do anything but they are just big and gross to see. I'm not a big fan of bugs so blech! Anyway, we figured at this point they would just stay on the main level and we wouldn't have to worry about them. They were obviously coming from somewhere inside the cabin. We told everyone not to worry about it and to head to bed. As I was getting ready I looked over at the slanted underside of the roof over by my side of the bed. There were three of those suckers crawling on the wall!! Yuck!! Rob quickly got rid of them for me and I calmed down and started reading my book. 10 mins later there were two more. That was one spot they were coming from, the pipe to the wood stove downstairs exited the cabin right there. The owners had yet to really fix the wall/roof where they ran the pipe through so it was open to the insulation and the outside. Of course that was one area the little buggers were living! Needless to say I didn't fall asleep for a loooong time after the lights went out cause I could just imagine them crawling out of that hole and up to the ceiling and then falling on me. I never did notice the bed skirt on the bed, they didn't have to go that far. Sure enough a few hours after I managed to fall asleep I woke up freaking out cause one was in my ear!! I'm surprised I didn't scream :) Rob flipped on the light and got rid of it. The light went out and again I just laid there waiting for them to come back. Not long after I fell asleep again one went crawling up my arm. Well, that was it. It was 5 in the morning, I sure as heck wasn't going to get anymore sleep. It was light enough at this point to see the wall and I just sat there staring at it waiting for them to come out, trying not to cry. I was so tired at that point. The not-sleeping-well had finally caught up to me. The gross factor of the bugs didn't help any either. The kids finally started stirring so we got everyone up and ready. I was determined to get another hike in. At this point I was sure we would just come back after the hike and pack up and leave a day early. I wasn't about to spend another night with them crawling on me. The final decision to leave was made when I ran down to get some clothes out of the dryer and there was a dead one in the lint screen. That is totally gross and then we knew they were downstairs and getting into our clothes. Gag!!

After everyone was ready we headed out to hike up to Mirror Lake. Our hiking book made it sound fairly easy, we knew it was steeper than some but it didn't sound too hard. I'm the one who was pushing to do it, I really wanted to see this lake. Well, after 3 nights of little sleep, a really hot day, humid air under all the trees, I was the biggest complainer of all. I asked Rob several times if we just shouldn't turn around. He just kept pushing us up the hill. By the time we reached the lake at the top of the hill I was soaked with sweat and extremely grouchy. I'm usually the one having to tell the kids to hush and deal and I was the one this time making the most noise. The book promised a gorgeous view of the mountain top and a pretty lake. Eh, it was ok, but then I probably wasn't in the right frame of mind to care at that point. I really thought there'd be somewhere nice to sit and rest, but there wasn't. We finally pulled off the trail around the lake and sat under a tree on the roots and ate lunch. I just wanted to sit there and enjoy the cool and quiet. You would know a huge family group decided our spot was a good spot to stop too. They were loud and obnoxious, of course anything at that point would have pissed me off, and I just wanted them to go away! Hardly saw anyone the entire hike up and down but here was this group of 10 or so who just had to sit with us. Grrrrr! We hurried and finished our lunch and left them behind. We finished the loop around the lake and headed back down.

I have to say the kids did great :) Maybe because it was disturbing to them to have Mom be the one cursing under her breath and begging to turn around!

We headed back to the cabin and finished up some laundry and packed up to leave. The ants were even more numerous by the time we left, about 7:30 pm. I'm glad we didn't stay. We had to shake everything out and make sure we didn't take any of them home with us. So far, so good. I haven't seen any around our house. Needless to say we all were so grateful to be back in our own beds and we all slept very well :)

Friday we woke up to sunshine and since Rob still had the day off we decided to head the other direction and go to the beach. That was a smart move. It was gorgeous!! Warm enough for the kids to go play in the ocean (and Rob, he can't resist the water) and I sat in a chair to soak up the rays, read a book and really relaxed. It was lovely!

Yosemite

Yesterday we got back from a wonderful trip down to Yosemite Nat'l Park in California. This was our first major family vacation. We are looking forward to going back in the future :)
The following is a recap of our trip, it's long. It's more for me to get this recorded before I forget everything, but I hope to share some tips for anyone who ever gets a chance to go. And I hope you do!

Our trip started with a two-day drive down to the park. We left Saturday June 27th and arrived in Redding, CA that night. I do NOT recommend the Howard Johnson on Bechelli. I hate reserving rooms online and then finding out it's not the best. We walked into a room that was old and not well updated. We figured it was one night we could live with it but then Rob walked into the bathroom to find it flooded so he immediatly went down to complain. The manager was nice enough to move us and the room was actually much better. For the one night it was fine but we won't be back. We finished our drive the next day, Sunday the 28th. We had decided to take Yosemite Ave which shot off from Stockton I believe. It looked like a straight shot on the map. What we didn't do was zoom in to look at the route when we were in Google. We came up on Priest Rd, I think, and saw the worst grade ever to go up. In fact it's so bad they have a sign telling you to shut off your AC in your car so that you don't overheat your engine. That was a long, long climb, and steep! I was getting a bit nervous as the temp gauge started creeping up in the car. But our van made it just fine and we got to the top.
But then we had to keep climbing and climbing and climbing. Finally, we hit the entrance to the park. After we got through the Tioga entrance and bought our pass we continued on. Drove through the trees for a bit, then all of a sudden those drop away and you are looking straight down into one of the valleys. I figured out a long time ago I'm afraid of heights. I can handle an airplane but I can't handle looking over edges that just drop down 100's of feet. Lucky me I was on the side of the car that got to look over that edge. Throw in a narrow, windy, curvy road with another steep grade, going downhill this time, and I was a nervous wreck. I was very relieved when we finally hit the valley floor and made our turn to our hotel. During this time we were seeing all the huge walls of rock and the massive boulders. We were in total awe. This makes me laugh now since we hadn't even seen the real attractions yet. We followed the Merced River back out of the park to our hotel. We stayed in the Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal. This place I would definitley recommend. It was 2 miles outside the park but the rooms were spacious with a kitchenette and we lucked out and got the room right above one of the many swimming pools :) We got unloaded and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Monday morning we woke up anxious to go explore the park. I wanted to hike every trail we possibly could and see every sight we possibly could. With four kids though I knew we were limited in what we could do. The ranger had given us a great resource, a paper they put out with all the sights to see and activities planned at various locations so we scanned that and decided we wanted to see the Mariposa Groves outside of Wawona in the southern part of the park. These groves have some of the tallest/biggest sequoia trees in the world. Rob and I love trees so we thought this would be cool to start with.
We got loaded up then started back up the river. I made Rob stop several times because the river was so beautiful to look at.
Again the massive boulders were all over the place and I had to stop to admire it all. I wanted to stop everywhere we went and take pictures of everything. I just could not get over the enormity of it all. Again, we still hadn't see the real sights so I was in for a surprise. We found the road leading to Wawona and started up it. About 1/2 way up is a view point so again I made Rob stop. Totally breathtaking. I can't even begin to describe how it felt to be standing there looking out over the valley at El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Fall, and the other peaks I can't remember names to. It was truly amazing and at that point I was so grateful to God and His creations and so grateful that I could stand there with my family and witness the magnifisence of it. My pictures cannot do it justice.
We arrived in Wawona and got on one of the free shuttles to the groves. Here is my first tip: Get out early. We didn't, so we were jammed in this shuttle with tons of other people and had to stand for the drive which was several miles away. We made it to the start of the groves and were amazed by the sequoias in just the parking lot! HUGE and truly beautiful. Again, my pics just cannot do them justice. We got a map with all the famous trees listed on it and their locations and started up the hill to see them. Unfortunately, it was very hot that day, close to 100 I believe. We didn't plan accordingly for Elizabeth. Not sure if it's related to the CF but she dehydrates really fast, I'm guessing cause she sweats out her salts so much faster then we do. We had plenty of water but looking back I should have had something with electrolytes in it for her. Anyway, there is a bit of an elevation gain and she just peetered out really fast. We just are not used to that kind of heat. I think we made it to four of the famous trees. The ones I really wanted to see were at the very top, so we will have to go back someday to see them. Elizabeth just could go no farther so we had to turn around. We got to see the Fallen Monarch, Giant Grizzly (HUGE and about 1800 years old), The Bachelor and the Three Graces and one you could walk through and back in the day I'm sure could drive a smaller car through. They were very impressive and it's a hike I would totally recommend, just plan for the weather better then we did. They do have an open air tram you get on and they would drive you around to all the trees. The reason we didn't take that was because it was $25 an adult and $18 a child!! Ouch. So if that is more your style plan on spending a pretty penny for the trams. All the trams around the park were that much.
The Fallen Monarch
The Grizzly giant
The Bachelor and the Three Graces
California Tunnel Tree
This huge pinecone fell out of one of the trees and missed hitting Rob and Elizabeth by a few feet.
After the groves we headed back on the shuttle for Wawona and hung out there for a bit. We decided to go cross this old covered bridge Rob and had seen earlier.
I'm glad we did. I had forgotten I had read about the small town they had replicated in Wawona, it was on the other side of the bridge. They had these old log cabins set up like one of the old towns would have been.
There was even a homesteaders house that they had actually moved from another part of the park to this area. You can't go in any of them but you can look through the windows to see how they would have furnished the homes back then. Back then being late 1800's/early 1900's. We then headed back to the small river the bridge crossed to go soak our hot and tired feet in the icy water.
That felt so great after being on them all day!
Seth was totally content to sit there and throw rocks and splash the water. We hung out there for a bit then headed back down to our hotel. We all changed into swimsuites and headed to the pool to relax, after which we ate dinner then fell into bed exhausted :)
Tuesday we decided to check out the Yosemite Valley. If you are a resort type person this is the place for you. They have tons of activities at the various visitor centers, several trailheads that start here, shopping, etc. After checking out the visitors center we headed outside to look at the replica of an Indian village. They have an actual working ceremonial house, dug into the ground. As we were walking through, a man of Native American decent was telling someone else about how they still use it for ceremonial dances and other meetings. Several of the buildings were that way. We headed into the museum from there. It's small but interesting. In one corner they had a small exhibit set up with the tools women and men used to make baskets for water, food, fishing, etc. Sitting next to it was an old Native American woman we though was part of the exhibit. We weren't very close to it yet. All of a sudden she moved! Had to laugh at that. There was an elderly woman sitting there making baskets! You could ask her questions and she would gladly answer them and tell you stories. She was working on a small basket and we asked how long it took her to make one. It was cylindrical and only about 8 inches long and at it's widest maybe 6 inches. One month she had been working on it! She was using traditional tools, like a small antler from a white tail deer, to make the basket. We stood there for awhile listening to her. Jonathan was totally in awe of her. The sad story is the calvary showed up in the 1850's and wiped out 90% of the natives living in Yosemite. Those who survived have had to inter-marry so I don't think there are any left from just one tribe. I'm kicking myself now for not asking her what tribe/tribes she was from. We then decided we would do the short hike to the lower Yosemite Falls. Would have loved to go all the way to the top but it's like a 2700 ft elevation gain in 3.5 miles!! So brutal to young children, not to mention the parents :) The lower falls were pretty though and we had a nice little hike with the kids.
We even got rained on! That was very refreshing. We went back to the Village and explored around there for a bit. The Village has the best grocery store we found, I'd recommend using them for groceries. We found out about a bear walk so we hopped on the shuttle again and got off where we were supposed to meet the ranger. By this time though we were all so tired it was hard to make ourselves go. However, Jonathan was trying to complete some Jr Ranger requirements so we went to help him complete that.
We didn't stay for the whole thing but learned quite a bit about bears and how they were delt with over the years. We never did get to see a bear while we were there. Would have been cool :) Again we headed back totally exhausted and ready to chill in the pool!
Wednesday has to be everyone's favorite day there. I had bought a book the day before showing all the day hikes in Yosemite and we decided we'd do the one to Sentinal Dome and Taft's point since they started at the same point, just took off in opposite directions. We choose to head to Sentinal Dome first.
It wasn't too bad, very sunny but we had a really nice breeze going up there so that helped a lot. Elizabeth was able to complete the hike. At first you start out and can see the dome in the distance and wonder how the heck you are supposed to get to the top, it looks fairly intimidating. It is the 2nd highest point in Yosemite, Half Dome being the highest. We got going and were cruising along when I noticed I couldn't breath right. I knew I wasn't that out of shape. It was then I realized we were pretty high up and it was just hard to breath because of the elevation. Here in Aloha we are just a bit over sea level. Just ignored it and took deeper breaths and continued on. It was nice to find out that the trail actually took us to the back of the dome and up a ways already. We only had a little more to treck to get to the top.
Again, I had that queezy feeling since we were so very high up and I couldn't see the edges of the dome. Rob was totally content to walk all over with Seth on his back and that just made me sick. I finally had to stop watching him and go up farther and look at the park. The view was incredible!
Half Dome was completely visible, you could see Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, and way way down in to the valley. We found a marker in the stone that said we were at 8,117 ft elevation. Probably the highest I've ever been without being in a plane. No wonder it was so hard to breath :) My pictures aren't the greatest, I forgot to mention there was a lightening strike the week before that started a fire. They let the fires burn there, just keeping an eye on it until it burns out. Sadly it created a lot of smokey haze so was not a good time to get pictures of things in the distance. Just another reason to go back :) Just a side note, we saw a map of lightening strikes in Yosemite over the course of one year. A little yellow dot was used to mark the spot. There were so many it looked like Yosemite was all lit up. Also they say if you are on Half Dome and you see a thunder storm rolling in you are to get the heck out of there. Lightening always strikes the top of Half Dome! Anyway, we sat up there for awhile taking in the beauty around us. Again the feelings of appreciation for God's creations and the chance I had to sit there and be a part of it. I have seen some very beautiful places but so far nothing compares to what we saw in Yosemite. We grudgingly got up and headed back down the dome and back to the start of the trail. After grabbing some lunch back in the van we we went back to the trail and headed in the opposite direction from Sentinal Dome. This trail took us to Taft's Point. This side was nicer to walk through as it was more forested so more shaded.
Very pretty. A short ways in on the right is a pretty big pile of qaurtz. More boulders hidden in the trees. There was one spot where if you closed your eyes a bit you could totally imagine it as the spot where Bilbo Baggins met up with those trolls and Gandolf turned them to stone :) We got to a marshy area that at first we stopped to admire all the green until we realized we were in a mosquito nesting ground. Ug, walked out with quite a few bites. We ran through that area on the way back! The forest ends and you come out on some pretty rocky ground where the fissures are. At first we couldn't see them, until I almost walked into one! That freaked me out a bit. So this is where I got totally weak kneed and queezy. There were signs saying to keep total control of your children if you headed that way with them and the reason is the sheer drop offs and fissures. Down, down, down, 100's and 100's of feet to the valley floor. As we walked down we saw people sitting with their legs over the edge or crawling on their bellies to look over. That sight alone made me sick. Funny thing is I got up to the edge and I wanted to look over! I slowly scooted my feet over to it and for once freaked Rob out. All those times of him scarring me to death and I finally got him :) I had gotten up to about 6 inches from the edge to look over and I heard him suck in his breath and then he told me that was far enough. HA! We walked up to one overhang that had a small rail set up in the rock so you could look over all the way and get the full effect of looking down in the valley.
I think I would have handled it better if I didn't have to worry about my kids. They did fine but it's hard not to freak out about them doing something not so smart. We let each of them go up and look over then told them to go sit down a ways back and not to move. This is not a place for toddlers on the loose. I was so grateful Seth was in a backpack and totally content to be there. It was another amazing view. My knees were completely weak and I really did feel sick but I had to look. And as much as it scared me I want to go back and sit with my legs over the edge! We headed back totally wiped out but so amazed at what we saw. The kids loved it and they agree that that was their favorite hike! I'm so glad they enjoyed themselves. On our way back we continued up the road to Glacier Point. There is another overlook there. More crowded as it is a safer place to look over the edge down into the valley. A nice rock wall you can lean against and look over :)
Thursday was a more relaxed day. There was still so much we wanted to see but we were tired from the day before. We decided we'd go hike around Mirror Lake in the Valley. There are a few places I wish I could have seen back in the early 1900's and this was one of them. The lake is actually shrinking away and being renamed as Mirror Meadows.
There were signs around the area that showed the lake back in it's day with a boat house and even a dance floor built out over the lake for entertainment. No way you could take a boat out there now. We found out part of the loop trail was blocked off due to a rock fall that happened back in March. We took the longer part of it hoping to go see the rock slide. We made it most of the way in before we had to turn back. It was so humid under the trees and the mosquitos were too intense. We were being eaten alive and the kids were freaking out. We all received some pretty nasty bites. We went back to the lake and hung out there for a bit. View of Half Dome from the flat side.
Jonathan managed to get a butterfly to hang out on his finger for a bit. He couldn't stop talking about that experience :)
We headed back into the Village and stopped at the Ranger desk so that Joanthan could earn his Jr Ranger badge. He had to tell the Ranger what activities he completed in his book then recite the Jr Ranger oath.
He was pretty proud of himself :) After that we drove up to Bridalveil Fall as we hadn't seen that one yet up close. After a short but steep hike up to the base we all just kinda looked at it and thought "yeah, that's cool, let's go". Haha! After all the magnificent things we had seen this was just ok. Something to see :) We headed out and drove past El Capitan one last time, it's even more impressive from the ground,
and headed back to our hotel for the rest of the evening to pack and relax. I was sad that our time was over. There is so much left to be explored, four days was just not long enough. I'd like to go back for longer and take more time to do things. We felt like we had to cram as much as we could into each day and it just takes so long to get from one place to another. There was a whole other area of the park we didn't even get to touch as it was a good drive up north then east. We definitley want to go back, the kids are saying in five years :) We want to explore some other areas in the states first then come back to Yosemite.

By Wednesday the fire had made it's way down to one of the roads.


On Friday we managed to make it to Medford, Or before stopping for the night. Rob wanted to get home but we had just spent the last three hours listening to Seth cry and cry and I was done. That was his only melt down for the entire trip!! All the kids did so well, they all got along great and except for the groves hike very little complaining was heard from them. I think they have walked away with some great memories and I hope it's something they want to do with their families in the future.

So I kept a running list of tips in my head I wanted to share incase anyone reading wanted to go with their families too. I hope it helps!

Definitely reserve a family suite with a kitchenette if you aren't camping. I'm not a camper.The restaurants in the park are way over priced. The Valley grocery store was the best place for shopping. Prices weren't too atrocious, but it's only the best place to shop if you are staying in the Valley.

Expect to pay more for gas.

As I mentioned earlier, start your day as early as possible. You get the best parking and hardly anyone is out on the trails before noon. That and the heat, of course, is worse in the afternoon.

Plan your days around the shuttles if you can. Each area has it's own shuttle with maps of the stops.

For younger families the Valley was a great place as they had activities planned all day long every day with many of them geared towards kids and parents. But be warned during the peak season times there are a lot of people in the Valley. We much preferred being out on the trails farther out as we didn't run into too many people.

Next time I would try and get a room in the Valley. I loved were we stayed but it was outside the park and we put a ton of miles on the van driving in and out every day. Not to mention the lost time in driving around. The Valley is pretty central and staying there would make it easier to get around. They have a couple lodges and plenty of camping but reserve it as soon as possible. We reserved ours back in November and the Valley lodges were already full. Most of the campgrounds are by reservation only.

Carry hand sanitizer. I think only one bathroom we went in had soap :)

The trams that took you on tours of different areas of the parks would have been great. But we didn't know to plan the expense. I would recommend them for families with young kids as you get to see so much with little walking around. They get to go where cars aren't allowed. Just be sure to budget the high cost of them.

Getting a book with the day hikes in it was great. I'd buy one before even going though and decide beforehand which ones you wanted to do. You might be able to do a search on google for free maps, I don't know, haven't tried.

Provide journals for you kids. My dad gave the kids each a small journal to write in and they actually did :)

Use lots of sunscreen. We got burned even after lathering eveyrone in it because we didn't reapply. I guess we had sweated it off during the hike.

And finally, if going in late spring, early summer load up on mosquito repellent!! Not used to dealing with those little blood suckers so we didn't carry any. We paid for it :)