Yosemite

Tanner and I aren't always the best of planners. But when Tanner packed to come out west he brought all our camping stuff thinking that we may want to use it. The night before we left Oakland we debated whether we should head down to Yosemite. It wasn't until we got into the car the next day that we committed to going. We didn't have a reservation but we were lucky enough to find a campground right outside of Yosemite that had a spot. We ate a delicious dinner of bagels, lunch meat and watermelon. Because we hadn't planned ahead, the meals were a little lackluster. But it didn't dim the enthusiasm the kids had for camping. 

 After our dinner we hit up the creek to try to wear the kids out. They were really disappointed that I wouldn't let them get in their swimming suits but it was cold and I didn't think them starting the night off cold would be a good thing. 

We then took a walk around the campground and then went back to put Eliza to bed. While she was falling asleep we played Uno in the big tent and then told some stories. 

Our night went about as good as we expected it to. Eliza and I slept in Tanner's hiking tent and she either wanted to be nursing or sleeping in my sleeping bag. So I tried to huddle up under her baby blanket with my bottom half under my sleeping bag. Sometime after getting her to fall asleep I heard some movement in the other tent and then Tanner say, "Chet what are you doing? Chet, are you peeing?!" Yes, he was in fact peeing on his sleeping pad. Luckily Tanner was able to move his sleeping bag out of the way. I got a change of clothes for him out of the car and Tanner and I had one of those laugh to keep from crying moments. Chet had no recollection of it in the morning. I then went back to freeze to death while Eliza slept in my bed. 

By the way the kids acted in the morning they obviously got much better sleep then Tanner and I did. So so Chipper...and loud. I'm sure we were the least favorite family in the campground. Our children have no volume control and they were super excited about the fire Tanner had built. We had a great breakfast of bagels and lunch meat and some dry cheerios. Our kids don't remember the last time we camped so I think they just thought this was the normal way to eat while camping. 

 We packed up as quickly as we could and then headed into Yosemite. We stopped at Mariposa grove.  

A nice lady humored Tanner and took a bunch of pictures of us walking out of this tree. 

The kids had so much fun with Tanner on this hike. Austin started to get tired so Tanner tried to keep things interesting. They held hands and ran down the trail and Tanner would lift Austin over objects. Their laughs were so wonderful. 

After the hike we drove through the park and got to see El Capitan and Half Dome. We didn't stop because Eliza was sleeping and there's nothing like a sleeping baby to make you settle for a view out the window. It was so breathtakingly beautiful. The first couple hours of the drive back to my parents' was amazing. And then we got to the "roller coaster" road that I had remembered as a child. There were times when I wondered if that road really was as amazing as I remembered it and it totally was. The dips made our stomachs flip flop and we were screaming and laughing the whole time. It was so fun for my kids to get to experience that. 

Though impromptu, this trip was so fun and we will be going to Yosemite again. Maybe we'll plan ahead well enough to even eat some good food...