Yosemite Part III

Our third day in Yosemite was on Sunday. We started out by driving by El Capital on our way out to Tuolumne Meadows. The drive out was about 1 1/2 hours, during which time we took lots of photos at pull offs, and also listened to some nice, mellow church music.

Photo in El Capital (El Cap) Meadows

In front of El Cap

Butterfly

Here we are in front of some lake...that is turning into a marsh...and that will someday become part of the forest

Half Dome - they set up a telescope so you can watch the people hiking up

Loved this lake! It was beautiful.

 

Cathedral Peak (1 of them)

After our visit to the meadows, we headed back to Yosemite Valley.  We didn't want to do any hiking on Sunday, but we decided the nature walk to the Bridalveil Falls would be alright.  There was hardly any water at all!

Here I am scrabbling on a rock.  In case you can't read the sign, it reads, "DANGER: Climbing and scrambling rocks and cliffs is dangerous.  They are slick wet or dry.  Many injuries and fatalities have occurred." 

Kenneth & Danny with the water-drizzle behind them

Afterward, Kenneth took me back over to the mountain El Cap and we walked up to the famous climbing route, The Nose.  The climb is 3,000 ft. and a typical climber takes anywhere from 3 to 4 days to complete it.  It is definitely on our to-do list.  When we got there, there were 4 climbers preparing to make the initial climb.

Danny playing at the base of The Nose

A non-hazing picture of the tunnel view of Yosemite Valley

After our day, we headed back to camp, and there was a very nice man who brought us some firewood.  We typically don't make a fire when we camp (though we love them) because we often go to bed early.  That night ended up being a little cold though anyway, so we were all grateful for our fire that night.

Danny was captivated by his first campfire

Kenneth has been working on long exposure photos to capture the rotation of the stars.  This picture had an exposure time of 4 minutes.

Don't worry.  We found out by the end that in Yosemite Valley there is a church, and there is even an LDS services meeting.  Oh great! At least we know for next time!

Yosemite Part II

Our second day in Yosemite was really fun! We drove into Yosemite Valley and took a picture at the famous "picture taking spot".

Main entrance to Yosemite Valley

Afterward, we did some rock-climbing at a place called Royal Arches. We did a couple of different climbs that were really fun - although we forgot to take a lot of pictures...go figure! Danny was getting really fussy so we didn't stay too long there. Luckily there was a very nice lady who tried to keep him entertained with Kenneth and I did a climb. Thanks Lady!

Kenny climbing

After we were finished climbing, we decided to do a hike! I mean, seriously, you can't NOT hike while in Yosemite! We decided to hike up to Vernal Falls.

Me & Danny resting on a rock

Photo from the bridge

More Water

Getting Closer

Vernal Falls! There wasn't a ton of water, but it was beautiful nonetheless!

Here is a photo from the top of Vernal Falls - Kenneth made me REALLY nervous getting this photo!

Emerald Pool - The Nevada Falls in the background feed into the Emerald Pools, which then feed into the Vernal Falls.

Nevada Falls (we'll save that hike for another day)

All along the hike, Danny was staring at the squirrels. He especially laughed when he saw two of them kiss! It was adorable! We didn't manage to get a picture of the kissing squirrels, but here is one for good measure.

Little Squirrel

After our hike, we were heading to the main food court area. On our way, we turned to our left and saw THIS:

A BEAR! There were lots of people on the road where we were, and of course, people were a little nervous and were backing away - not my Kenny!! He of course, ran towards the bear to get some photos. I was only nervous for a few seconds when the bear started running our way, but then he quickly turned around, trying to find an escape route from all the people. It was awesome! My first bear sighting! And of course, Danny's too! It was hilarious because Kenneth and I had been talked just moments before about how I hoped we would see a bear on our trip...though not too close. Well, I got my wish!

Our second day was definitely full of fun and surprising experiences!!

Yosemite Part I

For Labor Day weekend, we decided to make a trip down to Yosemite National Park for 4 days. I grew up in Northern California, and have NEVER been there! Needless to say, it was one of the first things we had to do here.

On our first day, we made the 6 hours drive which went well. We sang along to lots of songs (Danny took part in this too) and chatted. Once we got there, we headed to Glacier Point, which is a main lookout of Yosemite Valley.

Half Dome

Me & Danny

Kenneth & Danny

Family Photo

Another BEAUTIFUL Half Dome Shot

I want to go back during the spring to see all these waterfalls when they're really big!

I love the night sky!

Silly Danny photos

I'm waiting for Kenneth to edit our Yosemite pictures so I can blog about our Labor day trip, but we just moved and have been a little busy lately! So, here are a few random (badly taken/unedited) photos of some of Danny's mattest mischief...

Stand Up Paddle Boarding

About 2 weeks ago we were able to meet up with my friend Ashley and her husband Matt. Ashley and I met when I first moved to Woodland, CA when I was 13. Her family moved out to Utah shortly thereafter, but we've always been the kind of friends who can get together after a long time and it is like there was no time gap at all! I love it! Anyway, the last time I saw them was at their wedding reception over a year ago, and at the time I was still pregnant with Danny.

We decided to meet up at the newly opened Cafe Rio in Manhattan Beach - it was fabulous!! For those of you who don't know about Cafe Rio, I suggest that you plan on making a trip as soon as possible! It is delicious! It was even better than we anticipated because the day we went was "Free Food Day" and they just asked for a small donation to go towards a charity cause. We were more than happy to donate and enjoyed a scrumptious meal.

(I stole this picture from Ashley's blog...Thanks!!)

We then headed out to Redondo Beach to try out stand up paddle boarding. I'd never seen it done before and was nervous that I would never be able to stand up on it...but when we got there, we found out we would be paddling in a harbor rather than in the waves, so needless to say, we all had a much easier time with it that we probably would have otherwise (let's be honest, I'm sure everyone would have been fine except for me). Here are some of our pictures:

Here is Kenneth waiting to get on his paddle board


Heading out!


Ashley & Matt


I love this kid!





Heading out!





My cute hubby


Danny & Matt hanging out


Danny felt left out of the action, so we decided to take him out as well!


He loved it!


While the two guys went out, Ashley and I were chatting on the pier when a man came up to us and asked if we would take pictures of him proposing to his girlfriend!! I had Danny, so it wouldn't really work for me to try to take photos, but Ashley was able to. It was so fun to see the happy couple! She was absolutely thrilled!

She couldn't stop looking at her ring!


After we returned the paddle boards, we headed to the beach for a little bit. The waves and views were beautiful!







What a great day!