Ahhh... the family vacation. Sweet sweet time where we decompress and just enjoy each other. Every year we spend a little time at a lake not far north of Yosemite. It's magical. This year, this year was best of all.
We played in the lake, of course...
Nora started swimming on her own...
And the girls went fishing for the very first time!
Nora caught the first fish, but also stopped being interested over the course of our stay... so all in all she caught 5 of these little guys that hung out under our dock.
Phoebe must've had a past life as a successful fisherman because that was all she wanted to do. By the end of our stay she had hooked 13 of these fish. All were released... in case you were wondering. There were some huge bass around our dock sometimes, but they were wary of us. The girls REALLY wanted to catch a fish for dinner, but we didn't have luck with that.
We also went into the Yosemite Valley one day. We walked out to Bridal Veil Falls...
It was absolutely beautiful. Phoebe is a great walker, but Nora sometimes takes some coaxing.
We also hiked the 1.2 miles each way to the top of Vernal Falls... the hike started easy along the Merced River...
Then went up a paved path to the bottom of the falls...
And then we kept going. We hiked to the top... up some rock stairs... through the mist of the waterfall...
To the top! I know, Nora doesn't look like she's at the top of the falls, but she is. Once we got to the steps the girls were like mountain goats... they actually complained more going up the paved path.
And, although the girls probably wouldn't agree with Mike and me on this... the highlight of our trip was on the way out of the park that evening... when we saw a black bear across the river from the road. We stopped and got out and watched it hang out. The light was bad so the picture isn't great... (are you going to stop believing me about the animals I see if I keep posting Bigfoot-quality photos of them?)...
Yosemite was exciting... even if it was crowded... the granite walls of the valley were amazing... and we've decided we need to go back sometime.
At the end of it we were ready to come home, but we all agreed it was one of our best ever family vacations.
We played in the lake, of course...
Nora started swimming on her own...
And the girls went fishing for the very first time!
Nora caught the first fish, but also stopped being interested over the course of our stay... so all in all she caught 5 of these little guys that hung out under our dock.
Phoebe must've had a past life as a successful fisherman because that was all she wanted to do. By the end of our stay she had hooked 13 of these fish. All were released... in case you were wondering. There were some huge bass around our dock sometimes, but they were wary of us. The girls REALLY wanted to catch a fish for dinner, but we didn't have luck with that.
We also went into the Yosemite Valley one day. We walked out to Bridal Veil Falls...
It was absolutely beautiful. Phoebe is a great walker, but Nora sometimes takes some coaxing.
We also hiked the 1.2 miles each way to the top of Vernal Falls... the hike started easy along the Merced River...
Then went up a paved path to the bottom of the falls...
And then we kept going. We hiked to the top... up some rock stairs... through the mist of the waterfall...
To the top! I know, Nora doesn't look like she's at the top of the falls, but she is. Once we got to the steps the girls were like mountain goats... they actually complained more going up the paved path.
And, although the girls probably wouldn't agree with Mike and me on this... the highlight of our trip was on the way out of the park that evening... when we saw a black bear across the river from the road. We stopped and got out and watched it hang out. The light was bad so the picture isn't great... (are you going to stop believing me about the animals I see if I keep posting Bigfoot-quality photos of them?)...
Yosemite was exciting... even if it was crowded... the granite walls of the valley were amazing... and we've decided we need to go back sometime.
At the end of it we were ready to come home, but we all agreed it was one of our best ever family vacations.
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