Yosemite & Tahoe Trip 2015

We just got back from our family trip to Tahoe/Yosemite. It was sublime. Beautiful scenery, pleasant kids (60% sunshine with a 40% stormy kid forecast) pleasant weather (70 % sunshine 30% storm) He had a great time. We stopped off at Tahoe to divide the driving time. 

It was so beautiful. It is a very picturesque place.

Thomas could have spent the entire week here and never been bored at all.

Caroline was also enamored by the lake.

                                 Put this boy in a big pile of sand and he is happy as a clam.

It was fun to have a few hours to lounge at the beach.

The kids didn't want to leave….but we had many more adventures to come.

This is standard Thomas face for all family pictures to come. Maybe until he is an adult. Here we are all ready for our first epic hike.

Very happy little campers. 

Our end destination did not disappoint. Vernal Falls. It was truly exquisite. The pictures don't even do it justice. 

Proof we were there!

Clint got an awesome shot heading back. At this point I had Caroline strapped to me and Clint was carrying Thomas in his pack. 

All cozied up with my little honeys in our tent/cabbin. The kids had a lot of fun staying here, and we stayed pretty warm. 

The next morning Thomas was a bit grumpy, so it took a while to get going. We had to take things a bit slow and stop to say hello to butterflies and the like. 

We had set out on a rather ambitious hike. It was called "the 4 Mile Hike" and was written to be about 3-4 hours, so we figured let give it a try! We hiked to the waterfall the previous day, and it was fairly rigorous and we did fine. When we came back I re-read the hike description and it said 3-4 hours EACH WAY. So yeah…it was quite the work out, and needless to say we were unable to make it all the way to the top with both kids strapped on us. We got a lot of bewildering looks from fellow hikers when they saw we were literally hiking up a steep mountain with small children on our backs! It was still a beautiful hike and we saw some fantastic scenery, like Yosemite Fall, pictured above. Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in North America! Impressive!

 A very worn out hiker, and her mom.

The next day, we drove up to Glacier point (which was to be the end destination of our attempted hike the previous day) It was magnificent.  You could see for miles all the major landmarks of the park. Pictured above is the half dome and to the right is the Vernal Falls and Nevada falls waterfall that we hiked up to our first day. Exquisite. 

A lovely view of Half Dome, the Parks most iconic peak.

Proof we were here. Gotta love Thomas' fake smile! Its better than the tongue stick out. 

We decided to take the day nice and slow and let the kids explore a bit. We didn't want the trip to be all our agenda. Sometimes kids just need to play with rocks and explore at their own pace. We had a little picnic at El Capitain (pictured above)

Thomas wanted to build a village. He saw these replicas of Indian homes at the visitor center. So we got to work.

A fine little village I think.

Our last day was a rainy day. The park has a different type of beauty when covered by the moody dark clouds. 

 We decided because of the rain, our best bet was to drive down to the Sequioa Forrest.

 Surprisingly, Thomas was in the best mood this day. You never can predict with this guy. Here he is visiting the biggest tree in the park, "The Grizzly Giant" He has been playing forrest ranger for days since we have returned, and he is always saving the Grizzly Giant from forrest fires.

 These are some seriously big trees here, folks.

 My little family in the tunnel tree. I absolutely love seeing the sequoias. I remember seeing them she I was young with my own family and being filled with awe and wonder. You still feel that as an adult, they are very impressive.

Of course Thomas was more impressed with the mini excavator and skid steer that were working on making a new road. Silly little monkey.

Of course no trip with kids is stress free. We definitely had our moments where we questioned our sanity, but somehow, when you look back over the trip, you remember the good, fun times most and the rest kind of all blends together. Our only major hiccup came the day we were leaving to drive back home. We had only gotten about ten minutes when we saw that because of the snow, the road was closed that left the park through Reno, which meant we had to drive south through Fresno, adding on an additional 5 hours and an extra night in a hotel. It cost a bit, and it took more time, so it was frustrating, but the kids did great in the car, and we were safe so in the end, it wasn't a major problem. We had a great trip, and I hope our kids start taking little memories from these family trips. There is nothing I love more in the world then spending time with my family. Exploring the wonders of the world with them is such a joy.