Yosemite pt. 2: Bridalveil Falls & Vernal Falls

I'm not sure I mentioned in the last post how excited I was to be going to Yosemite, but I was so, so excited. So on Saturday morning, I woke the crew up super early to get ready and head down into Yosemite Valley. We were staying about 45min outside the park and I wanted to make hast while the sun shines!  Get ready for a long post and picture overload over the next few post.

Our first stop was Tunnel View and got to see the whole valley before us....simply breathtaking.

We started our day of hiking with the first waterfall. Bridalveil Falls trail.  This is an easy half mile round trip paved hike/walk to a lovely waterfall, which is the waterfall you see from Tunnel View.  The trail runs right next to the river so our kids weren't happy sticking to the paved area and had to climb all over the boulders leading the way.

Back in the car and headed into the valley, passing El Captain along the way.  Seriously , the pictures really don't do justice to the beauty.

We parked and started our next hike, Vernal Falls via the Mist Trail.  I'm not sure we knew what we were getting into with this hike, but we saw other people with kids heading up so off we went!  Luckily there was so much beauty all around us, it distracted us on how far we were actually going...

The first almost mile seemed to go fairly well, although some seep uphill climbing most of the way.  We stopped numerous times for snacks and resting...making friends with the squirrels along the way.  We got to the base and I thought that was it, time to turn around, but no....Young wanted to go all the way.  We loaded up on water and continued to head up

Our mile hike was slowing turning into two miles and becoming very steep.  Then we hit the rock steps up the falls.  Wow, a little scary.  We started up, being very careful but luckily Cameron was getting scared didn't want to go any further, whew!  I was secretly happy when she wanted to turn around but Timo wanted to keep going.  We sat at the base of the steps while Timo and Young ended up going all the way to the top of Vernal Falls!  What a brave little trooper he was!  They were both so wet when they got back down from the spray.  I have to admit, I was so happy to see those two faces coming down the trail...they were gone so long, I was starting to imagine the worst.

A little selfie at the top!  Looked like it was an amazing view.

Going down is always better than going up!  When it was all said and done, we had hiked the full 2.4 miles round trip to the top...well, Young and Timo did the full, Cameron and I probably did 2 miles.  Needless to say we were all starving after our 3 hour hike and were ready for lunch!

Stay tuned for the second half of our day....

Yosemite Getaway Pt. 1

Months ago, when looking at our family calender, I honed in on one weekend where Timo didn't have a baseball game and it just so happened to be Mother's Day weekend.  I told Young then that I wanted to go to Yosemite for the weekend as my MD gift.  I've been wanting to go for a long long time and knew that May was one of the best times of the year to go because of the snow melt making the waterfalls full.  I also knew it wouldn't be as busy as summer.  It was the perfect weekend to go and I love my husband for making it happen!

We took the kids out of school Friday and left super early in the morning to get up there by lunch...but needed a pit stop to stretch out legs, which ended up as 10am ice cream break...

Our hotel was near the south entrance so as we entered the park we drove the short distance to the Wawona Hotel for lunch and our first of many hikes of the weekend.  The Wawona is a grand old hotel full of history.  It was great walking the grounds thinking of the centuries of people who had walked there before. (the history nerd in me watched a tons of documentaries on Yosemite before we left so I could get the full experience!)

Entertaining the kids during lunch, Cameron and Daddy having a staring contest.  Timo kept blowing puffs of air in their eyes to make them blink so Daddy had to block him....sneaky boy!

After lunch we set off to hike Chilnualna Falls.  We only hiked to the base of the falls, about 1/4 mile in but it was beautiful the whole way.  It follows this loud rushing river, getting louder the closer to falls you get, which is great for keeping the kids going and building excitement.  We were kinda on a timeline because was wanted to get to the Sequoias but it was the perfect hike to start our weekend and we found the perfect hiking sticks that would last the next few days!

We then headed to the giant Sequoias for one more hike of the day.  We did the 1.6 mile round trip hike, which was just lower part of the park, not even up to the groves.  It was just long enough for our little hikers who were starting to fray around the edges after a long day.  We saw lots of wildlife along the way...deer, chipmunks, squirrel, woodpeckers and blue jays.

Any hike is fun as long as you can turn a log into a balance beam or make it a rocket ship!

The famous California Tunnel tree...we asked someone to take a family picture, who ended up taking 4 pictures, all of which were blurry.  (The first of several bad "can you take our picture" photos we got from the weekend).  This was the best out of the set...

We loved the sequoias but it was getting late and we all wanted to get to our hotel and relax, it had been a long day. The Tenaya Lodge is a beautiful lodge and I could tell immediately they catered to families just by the check in.  We ate a full dinner and headed off to bed early to get ready for adventures in Yosemite Valley the next morning...

Class Projects

Cameron's class has been getting creative these last few weeks with projects instead of written homework. The first project was a diorama of an ocean during their ocean unit.  Cameron's is the top right one, with the fish hanging down.  It's been a lot of fun creating them with her but so hard for me to stay "hands off" and let her lead the creative aspect.  I just had so many ideas, I just needed a little helper to execute them....not the best idea.

So on their next project, I decided to just be a sounding board for her creativity and offer assistance if she needed it.  Wouldn't you know, the next unit was Dinosaurs!  There was noting I could think of that could top my little paleontologist's ideas.  This project was just to make ONE dinosaur out of anything (paper, clay, recycled things, etc) and write a few facts about it.  Cameron had a hard time stopping at one...she made 4 and a whole Jurassic scene.  The research took the most time.  Thanks to Aunte Lisa and the dino books she sent, we had all the information we needed.

Cameron had some pretty grand ideas for her project so did have to step in to help simplify it but I think it turned out pretty well.  She traced, colored and cut out the dinos, made trees out of paper rolls, had a grassy area and a dessert area and made her fact sheet all by herself.

 Presenting her project and fielding questions, totally in her element...a future science teacher in the making!

Frozen Sing-a-long

Sometimes you do things for/with your kids because you know they will enjoy them but, in the back of your mind, kinda dreading it and hoping it ends fast.  And then sometimes you are completely surprised at HOW MUCH FUN IT WAS and find yourself hoping it doesn't end.  Well, I had one of those times last Sunday at the much anticipated Frozen Sing-a-long at the Castro theater.

Let me start by saying we had to wait two weeks to see it because the first weekend we wanted to go it was sold out!  So that day I bought advance tickets for the following week to ensure we would get in.  A classmate of Cameron's had gone earlier in the month and warned about how long the line was, so I planned to be there an hour before the show even though we already had tickets.  Turns out I should have been there 5 hours before...the line was down the sidewalk and around the corner!  But it's a huge theater and we had no trouble finding seats once inside, whew!  And the wait outside wasn't so bad (except you're in the middle of the Castro and some things you don't want you child seeing walk past) because 90% was little kids all dressed up in Frozen costumes.  Cameron and Timo started singing the songs while we waited and before we knew it, about 20 kids joined in...we had a little pre-show entertainment.  And the excitement was building...

Secondly I have to say that the Castro Theater completely out-did themselves for the kids! (Anyone who knows the Castro probably isn't surprised but I was because they made it all about the kids)  The greeters were dressed up saying "Happy Coronation Day!" as we walked in and were handed goody bags.  We got a crown, bubbles, a popper and a glow stick.  Timo put his crown on and was Prince Hans...I think he forgot Hans was a bad dude.

What's a movie without popcorn?  The famous organist started playing Frozen and various Disney songs, so it was nice to snack to such sweet music.  Just hearing the Frozen music was causing bursts of singing from the kids...oh, the excitement was peaking....

 Then came the costume parade.  Oh my, the 30min long costume parade.  We saw Elsas, Anas, Hans, Chistophs, a Sven and even a few Olafs.  Cameron wasn't really dressed up but was wearing her Frozen t-shirt and got to walk on stage.

They explained a few rules, told us to please USE our cell phones the whole time to take pictures and enjoy the party.  We were to blow the bubbles anytime it was snowing, use the popper at the end when there were fireworks, wear the crown the whole time and wave the glow stick during all the songs.  It was basically a rave for kids! Finally, after about 45 mins of sitting, the movie started and the excitement level was what I can only describe as my first Def Leopard concert when I was 16! The crowd went CRAZY when the movie started.  The enthusiasm lasted from start to finish and was amazing!

I hope you can get a gist of the show by watching the videos.  Cameron was sitting next to me and it was dark so you can't see her but you can sure hear her, along with the whole theater.  Having 300+ kids screaming out the songs, saying the lines of their favorite characters, cheering in the good parts and booing when Hans came on, it was truly a magical experience for me...and I know the kids had fun too!  Another reason why we're lucky to live in SF and have such an event be so over the top just for kids. (side note, I would have made the videos longer but my phone battery was dying from texting Young the whole time telling him how awesome the party was!)

Easter

Whew! Between "Spring parties" in each of the kid's classes, Easter celebrations and working on a few projects for Cameron's class, time flies!  Here is remaining of our Easter festivites.  I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture of our Resurection Garden with the stone rolled away.  Timo and Cameron were so excited to wake up and see if Jesus had Risen! But duty of hosting and cooking a big meal kinda took my focus of grabbing the camera...But I did remember to get a family one in the afternoon...

Anyways...we continued our traditions on Saturday night with coloring eggs.  We used this glitter kit I bought on clearance last year.  Let me just say, glitter, never again.  The eggs came out pretty but so did our table, chairs, floor, socks, etc.  But we had some nice eggs to show for it and also fit in some festive rice krispie treats for lunch the next day.

Easter morning was a busy one.  Young was singing a special song in the choir and had to be at church at 8am for rehearsal.  Luckily the kid's internal holiday clock woke them up super early Sunday morning and we squeezed in Easter Baskets before we had to head out for church.  The twins have eyed these carrots at IKEA for over a year, every time we go they fall in love with them.  I wish I would have caught their excitement over seeing them on video.  Pure joy!

But after the carrots, Timo discovered his water gun and Cameron her Frozen t-shirt.  Best Easter Bunny Ever!

After church we had some friends over for lunch and our annual egg hunt.  Timo ran out, found about five eggs and was done.  Wonder if he's getting too old?  He just wanted to play with his new water gun...boys! Cameron found a few but then concentrated on helping Evie and Maddie find eggs.

After lunch was made and the kids were taken care of, all the adults sat around for hours, just eating and relaxing.  We could't believe how well all the kids were getting along together with out any adult intervention. It wasn't until Maddie came in a asked for a snack that we realized it was 5:00 and almost dinner time again! It was really a sweet peaceful day!