Yosemite Waterfalls

We visited Yosemite for the weekend. It was amazingly beautiful. With all the snow this year, water was falling from high above, everywhere we looked. Streams flowed through the valley floor looking as if the whole place was about to flood . We are blessed to live so close to such beauty.
We camped at Upper Pines campground with Megan, Brian and Dominic. After the U.S. Government threatened to shutdown last week, it looked like Yosemite would be closed the second time in a month, both times we had reservations to go. At the last minute, they figured it out and kept the national parks open so we could enjoy a fun weekend amongst the Redwoods and bears.
The photo above is of the four cousins hiking back from Yosemite Falls. The two-year-olds were fantastic hikers. The same cannot be said for the older boys.

Vincent at Yosemite Falls

As we pulled into our campsite on Saturday, it started snowing. The ground was already blanketed with snow and we were prepared for a winter weekend. The boys were all excited about the white stuff falling from the sky. But it only lasted a minute. The weekend grew gradually warmer and by the time we left, very little snow was left of the ground. There was lots of sledding off the 5' hill of snow in our campsite.

Half Dome

Daniel and Vincent both begged from rides every time we walked somewhere. Someday I hope to go on back-packing adventures as a family, hiking the John Muir Trail and such. We're not off to a very good start. Any tips for getting my boys to walk better, farther, faster? I always hated walking myself as a kid, so maybe they got it from me.

Dom and Gav are so much fun to watch together. They were in their own little world playing together and fighting over this motorcycle. If you look closely, you can see a hole punctured through the front of Dominic's motorcycle. During the night, a bear visited our camp, put some holes in the bike and brought it to another camp site.