Yosemite- Day 2

Sharing a room with our children proved to be difficult. I know my children are early risers...they have always been that way. But as they have grown older, I have been able to make "early riser" policies in our home...such as, I don't care what time you wake up, you just may NOT come out of your room (except to use the restroom, and in that case, you do NOT announce it to the whole house, you just go QUICKLY and QUIETLY to the bathroom) until 6am. But when you are sharing a room with said-early-risers you become aware of what time their mental alarm clock goes off in their head. Sometimes that was 4:45am...but most of the time it was just after 5am. :0(

We did still make them lay in their bed until 6am, and then because Rick and I still wanted to (attempt) to catch some Zzzz's, we turned on the TV at 6am, but they still had to stay in their beds for another hour. These policies (lying quietly/still in their beds until 7am) didn't always hold true for the vacationing-excitable-little-ones...oh well...I tried. :0/

Day 2 of vacation was going to be our first day of actual adventures in Yosemite Park.

We let daddy sleep a little bit longer, so the early risers and I went down to one of the hotel restaurants for a fuel-packed-breakfast...



And then it was go-time!

Once we drove into the Yosemite Park, we still had a little over an hour drive until we got to our destination of the day...Yosemite Valley. It was a thrilling drive though...GORGEOUS forestry, stillness of life, and then we drove through a tunnel in a mountain...so exciting! Once we reached Yosemite Valley, we got out of our van, and immediately we were greeted by wild life in the little parking lot!!!





As neat as those deer were, our sensories were in over-drive and our eyes were quickly drawn away from the deer, and focused in on the INCREDIBLE massive mountains directly in front of us!



We were pulled toward them...we.must.go.explore.





Oh the things we saw...





The (dry) Lower Yosemite Falls...



More wildlife...



The old church (still in operation)...



We had a GREAT day together...















One other thing we explored in Yosemite Valley, was the Yosemite National Park Museum...



Just outside of the museum was an old Indian village complete with (original?) tee-pees, and an Indian Cheif's house/hut...



I was shocked to hear my kids report at the end of our trip, that the other (in addition to Bravo Farms) favorite thing they did on our vacation was to sit in these Indian tee-pees...WHAT!?!? I guess they are entitled to their own "favorite thing(s)"...but REALLY!? After EVERYTHING else we saw!?!? Sigh.

I had such an AWESOME day exploring Yosemite Valley!!!...



I LOVED watching an intrigued husband!!!...



It was so much fun watching Wyatt in awe of his surroundings...





And I so enjoyed seeing God's Beauty in God's Beauty...









Goodbye Yosemite...we will see some more of you tomorrow!

Yosemite- Day 1

If you don't count our 24 hour Las Vegas experience earlier this year, then this trip to Yosemite was the first time our little family-of-four has vacationed together! My husband isn't big on traveling...his favorite idea of vacationing is a "stay-cation". So while the kids and I have gone camping several times with friends and family, and we have vacationed in Big Bear a couple of times with family, Rick has always preferred to stay back at home while the three of us venture off.

However, there are a FEW places Rick WOULD like to explore in his lifetime...and Yosemite happened to be one of those places!

What a treat for the 4 of us to share an adventure together!

With some encouragement from my brother-in-law...shout-out to Desmon!...we decided to split up our Yosemite vacation a bit. Instead of spending all 7(ish) days in Yosemite, we decided to spend 4(ish) days in Yosemite, and then take 3(ish) days to drive back home, slowly making our way down the coast. I LOOOOVED this idea! Not only would we get to see Yosemite for the first time, but we would also get to see Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Simeon, and Santa Barbara all for the first time!!! SO EXCITING!!!

We have been planning, and anticipating this trip for almost a year...and FINALLY our week of vacation had arrived!!! :0)

Map Quest had said that our drive to Yosemite would take 7 hours, but with bathroom breaks, traffic, etc., our personal estimation was that it would take us about 9 hours. We wanted to avoid morning rush hour traffic in Los Angeles as much as possible, and so we left our house at 4:45am.

Our plan worked out great...we barely hit any traffic! And would you believe...no one ever needed a bathroom break!?!? We were making great time! We had been on the road for just over 5 hours, and we were only 45 minutes away from Yosemite...now I was beginning to think were making too good of time...our hotel wouldn't let us check-in at 11am, lol. So at 10am, when we kept passing signs for an upcoming rest-stop "Bravo Farms"...I thought, "Let's do it!"

This rest stop ended up being the coolest rest stop I have ever stopped at. Their claim to fame is that they are a cheese factory...we got to try a ton of delicious cheeses and we also got to see the different cheeses be made. In addition, Bravo farms had a restaurant, an extensive candy/gift shop, a gigantic back patio that had a bunch of old collectible items, (Coca-cola, and such)...





...a play house...



...random turkeys...



...and a fabulous ice cream parlor!...



I'm so glad we stopped at Bravo Farms! At the end of our trip, when I asked the kids, "What was your favorite thing we did on vacation?", they gave 2 answers...and Bravo Farms was one of them! (Their 2nd answer was even more random, but I'll save that one for another time.)

So after about an hour of "resting," we got back on the road, and made our way to Yosemite! :0) We were there in less than an hour, and arrived at our hotel just before noon. When we decided to go to Yosemite, my hunny made it very clear that he was not interested in camping...we would be hotel-ing it. It is super competitive to get a room at one of the 2 hotels located inside the actual Yosemite Park, and so even though I was ultra prepared, and attempted to book a room at the earliest chance they allowed, somehow I was still unsuccessful...all of the rooms were reserved. :0( But God has my back, and we ended up getting a room at an AWESOME hotel literally right outside the South Entrance of Yosemite. When I booked the room 6 months ago, I was just stoked that I was able to get any room at any hotel near Yosemite, but about a week before our trip, the kids asked me if our hotel had a swimming pool, and it dawned on me, "I have no idea???" So, I went on the hotel's website, and found out all kinds of cool things about our hotel! They did in fact have a pool...4 of them to be exact...1 of them being an indoor heated pool, and 1 of them being a "beach entrance style" kids pool! We were sooo excited!

After checking into our room...



...we headed down to the outdoor pools...









...over the next 3 days we would spend at least a couple of hours at the pool everyday...way more than I ever expected on a "wilderness" vacation!

And that's pretty much all we did on "Day 1"...lots of driving, and lots of swimming!

It may not look like it, but by the end of the day, especially because we had been awake since 4am, we were exhausted!!!



Good Night Yosemite...see you in the morning. :0)

B.Y. (Before Yosemite)

Sorry for the pause in blog posts...I have felt very unmotivated to blog, or take pictures for that matter...but my most loyal readers have warned me that I might start losing my "fan base" if I don't get caught up on my blog.

NOTE TO SELF: You must always keep a fan base!

So here's a summary of our last 2 weeks...

We were busy-builders-of-legos with our cousins...



We were extreme-jewelry-making-work-horses...





And, we were holding-"2-B's"-newborn-baby-for-several-hours-but-that-was-still-not-long-enough...



One of us had a shocking surprise makeover in the childcare at the gym...



Two of us enjoyed "Cuddle-fest 2012"...





And three of us got to enjoy the end of Sea World's Summer Nights with Grammy!...

















We are all back in Awanas now! Wyatt moved up to "TNT" (Truth in Training), Beatrice has one more year in "Cubbies", and I stayed serving in "Sparks"..."Co-Director" of Sparks, to be exact, lol. ;0) Here is my TNT-er on opening night of Awana...



The kids also started back in their performing arts classes/lessons this past week.

Wyatt is taking 5...yes, FIVE...classes this year! :-0 He is starting his 4th year of piano lessons, 3rd year of percussion movement & hip hop dance lessons, and his first year of swing dance lessons, and a "triple threat" class (Singing, Dancing, Acting). Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of Wyatt practicing/performing this week, but I will report that I was most excited/impressed by the swing dancing class...it was really neat seeing him dance in step with a partner, and doing lifts already with his partner!

My Beatrice was on a "timeout" from dancing last year, as she was very nonchalant about her dance class the prior 2 years. I just thought it was a lot of money and time spent at the class if she was indifferent to it. I figured we would give her a year off to mature, and see if she wanted to dance again the following year, or try something completely different??? Well, the year off from dancing (eventually) made quite an impression on her! In the last few months all she could talk about was how much she wanted to go back to dance class! I told her she still had to wait, but that if she still wanted to do it, she could start at the beginning of the next dancing season. (I also told her that she WOULD have to ACTUALLY DANCE at her dance class if she went, lol!) She was set on going back to dance class! On her first day of dance class, she woke up, and she excitedly told everyone individually in our house, "TODAY IS MY BIG DAY!!!" :0) She could not WAIT to put her dancing clothes on!...



When we got to the studio my girl had brought her A-game! She was no longer the (super cute) ballerina that was just staring aimlessly in the mirror while the other students were dancing...oh no, my little (still super cute) ballerina-tap-dancing daughter was the girl busting out the best moves! She was so focused, she understood what the teacher was asking her to do, and best of all she DID what the teacher asked her to do, LOL! She was radiant throughout the entire hour of the class! I was one proud mama! Here she is with her teacher... :0)



In addition to her tap-ballet class, Bea is also taking a percussion movement class. Here she is gettin' her drum on! ;0)...



In the continuing saga of "As the Garden Grows", we have some good news and some bad news.

The good news: The tomatoes are FINALLY turning red!!!



I just hope they don't go bad while we are on vacation for a week! :0(

The bad news:

1. Did you see all of those dead leaves around the tomatoes!? The plant is dying off! :0( I don't know if that's normal??? About 90% of the leaves on our plant have died. Based on what I learned in Wyatt's 3rd grade science lessons this week, the roots may bring water to a plant, but the LEAVES bring FOOD to the plant. The leaves serve a purpose. OUR LEAVES are almost all dead. We still have quite a few (small/growing) green tomatoes that need to thrive. Sigh. Will I get my Caprese Salad!?!? Double sigh.

2. The monthly newsletter from our HOA "reminded" us (this was brand new info to me) that we are allowed to have plants on our balconies, but they must be HANGING plants...no planters/pots resting on the balcony floors! Sigh. I'm obviously not going to do anything about this policy now, after all my plants have decided to die on me anyway, but after this, I think my gardening days are over!

And finally, in school, we had a shirtless student...



And even though our study of New York was a thing of the past, I decided not to give up on our ran-out-of-time-adventure-with-Lady-Liberty! The Statue of Liberty is always appropriate in the general study of the United States...and more importantly, I had already spent the money on the green crepe paper, lol! This was an adventure that would be most fun with cousins...

Lady Liberty herself...









Brady wanted a turn too! :0)



I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't remember many details of our study through the 12th state in our Union...the "Tar Heel" state of North Carolina. BUT I did take pictures of the most important part...the state dinner! ;0)

I made an INCREDIBLE North Carolina BBQ Pork Sandwich...



The kids were SUPER EXCITED to have a treat of soda with their dinner...it was a must once we found out that the first ever Pepsi was sold in North Carolina!...



And for dessert, I made my first Sweet Potato pie!





That pie was SOOOO good! I had never tried sweet potato pie before, and so I had no idea what to expect. It turns out that it tastes a LOT like pumpkin pie...but BETTER! (Not to be mean to pumpkin pie or anything...I still love you!)

So that's it...now I'm all caught up...I guess that wasn't so hard, LOL!

Next week we leave for our first family-of-4 vacation! We are Yosemite (and then a 4 day trip down the coast of California) bound!!!

See ya on the flip side! :0)