YOLO for Yosemite

For our Fourth of July, we were invited by some friends to stay with them and two other couples in a family owned cabin two miles outside of Yosemite. This was our first camping trip together as husband and wife and also our first with children. It was FUN and CRAZY at the same time. Ellie and Caleb had an absolute blast running around, getting dirty, making trouble, swinging on rope swings, the works. It was hard for Tristan and I to keep up.

Ellie was soooo excited to go camping. I made the kids special travel lunch goodies and Ellie was ecstatic when she found a ring pop in it. 

One of my favorite quotes of the trip was when Ellie asked, "Why are we going camping?" And Tristan said, "Because it's fun! I think. I don't know, we'll see."

Within the first hour that we were there, Caleb face planted it on some rocks. That's my wilderness boy. Perhaps he was so prone to accidents because he climbed on everything.

I think he would have climbed that huge tree (The Grizzly Giant) had he been able to get past the first obstacle. 

After the climbing was a fail, the kids resorted to playing in the dirt and throwing rocks.

Our first hike was short and to this huge tree called the grizzly giant. It was super cool actually.

Ellie and Caleb loved the rope swing. These pictures were when we first got there and let her rome around in a dress and sandals.

She was just too excited to get changed into proper camping clothes!

The next day (the Fourth of July) we got up and headed to the valley of Yosemite.

It was breathtaking.

Sorry for my low-quality iPhone pictures, but I had to zoom so I could see half-dome better. Tristan hiked that as a youth, hopefully one day we could do it together. 

This is Scott and Serene and their daughter Seneca. They were awesome.

The kids were obv excited to take a picture.

They'd much rather be doing things like this...

Thank you Stuart and Jessica for letting us borrow your hiking backpack. We obviously had a great time with it. As did the children.

We went on a small-ish hike, but it had lots of inclines. Therefore there was a lot of holding, picking up, and panting going on.

But we made it to the bridge, sweaty and all!

After the difficult hike, we forced the children to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Stuart and Jessica with their daughter Maylia. She loved the dirt. We called her uno con la tierra.

Hiking back down.

 There was literally beauty all around.

Tristan said this was his favorite part of Yosemite. The popsicle after the grueling hike. 

It was super de-lish.

After the fun adventure of hiking with two kids we headed back to our cabin. Just so you know, I use the term "fun" loosely, a better adjective would be pretty much anything the opposite of fun. Sounds harsh, right? It was gorgeous and beautiful and all those great things, but it definitely was not fun carrying an extra thirty pounds up steep inclines. Good thing I'm crazy fit and exercise all the time. (That's a little bit of sarcasm, but mainly truth).

The kids LOVED the rope swing. 

As evidenced by the following video:

For the fourth Serene made these amazing ice cream sandwiches that made the whole day worth it. It was great to be surrounded by good company, they were so patient with us (we were the only ones with two kids) and had the best attitudes. 

Ellie and Tristan chowin' down.

Since Ellie was the oldest one there, they let her blow out the candles. 

Everyone was also so great with her, always including her and listening to her, and enjoying her company. I'm so grateful for that. Sometimes as a three year old, it's hard to be heard, but she had plenty of ears to hear her there.

And Ellie really liked their little ones. Gideon on the left and Seneca on the right.

Thanks Speith's for inviting us! We certainly created some great memories.