The Beauties of Yosemite

Yosemite has been said to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. People come from all around the world to visit. I've been to Yosemite only four times. My first time was in 1995 before I had any kids. I didn't go back until 2007. In 2008, I hiked Half Dome for the first time and knew I had to do it again. We were so lucky to have been able to camp in Yosemite this year from June 8-11. It's funny that Yosemite is basically in our backyard, compared to most people, and we haven't gone there more often. As our children are getting older, we would like to visit more frequently. Here are just some of the beauties we experienced on our trip this year.We got to see four waterfalls. Spring is an awesome time to see the waterfalls because the snow is still melting and the falls are very strong. Here is Lower Yosemite Falls.
Here is a picture of Upper Yosemite and Lower Yosemite Falls together.

Here is Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail. I think this waterfall is my favorite. I love to feel the mist as you hike right next to it.

Here is Nevada Falls which is further up the mist trail. Lloyd and I got this picture on our Half Dome hike.Here is Bridalveil Falls. We took the whole family to see this one.
Lloyd got this picture of Cloud's Rest while we were hiking Half Dome. He said he's like to climb it some day.Here's El Capitan. Our entire family was fascinated by the rock climbers who climb to the top. We looked at them through telescopes. They actually sleep in cots attached to the rock. It can take them anywhere from three days to a week to climb to the top of El Capitan. Here's the view of Half Dome from the valley. It's hard to believe we climbed to the top. No wonder it takes so long!

Here's Mirror Lake. If it wasn't so cold we would have gone swimming. We also got to see a lot of wildlife in Yosemite. We saw this bear on our hike to Yosemite Falls. We saw a couple other bears too. There are lots of bears in Yosemite and you have to be really careful that you keep all food in the bear lockers.
My brother got this picture of some deer. They were pretty tame and he was able to get fairly close to them.We saw this mother duck and her ducklings on our last day in Yosemite. Very sweet!
Finally, we did not see this long horn bull in Yosemite, but on our way back. Some of my friends pointed him out when we went scrapbooking at the cabin. His horns are humongous. The poor guy can't even hold his head up!

We feel so grateful we got to experience the beauty of Yosemite this year. The Lord has truly blessed us with an amazing world to enjoy!

Family Fun in Yosemite

There were eleven of us that went camping in Yosemite this year. Our family of seven, my mom and Jay, and my brother, Bryce, and his wife, Chareen. We had a lot of fun, laughed quite a bit, and created some priceless memories. Here's all eleven of us with Yosemite Falls in the background.

Our family of seven, why do my kids keep growing up? They looked smaller when I took this same shot in 2007.
Here's all of us in front of Yosemite Falls.Our family

My kids being so silly!Thank goodness the girls were strong enough to hold up this rock as we hiked around it.Aren't these boys adorable?Meal time under the dining fly. It rained a lot so while we were there so we appreciated the shelter. We always had plenty of food though.

The pool at Curry Village was pretty cold. We tried it out anyway. It was good training for my upcoming triathlon.
Adorable smiles!This guy is pretty adorable too!

Our last group shot in the meadow across from El Capitan.
We all loved seeing the rock climbers on El Capitan through the telescope.Riding the free shuttle buses throughout Yosemite valley was very convenient.

Our family on a bridge by Bridalveil Falls.
In front of Mirror Lake

We would have liked to have spent more time river rafting, but it was very cold. Lloyd did manage to take some of us across the river to a small island by Swinging Bridge. Here he is with Cameron.

Katelyn and Conner had their turn too. Conner loved it!Here I am with Lloyd. I'm not very good at rowing. Lloyd was great to take us all out and back from the island.

Overall, it was a fun and memorable family vacation. Here are our top 10 memories from our 2009 Trip to Yosemite:

1- Bryce's funnel cakes (best I ever had)

2- Rain (lots of wet and dirty clothes, we had to wash our sleeping bags at the laundromat after the trip)

3- Watching the rock climbers on El Capitan (so intriguing)

4- Mom's trip to the medical center for a broken blood vessel in her eye (luckily she was okay and it healed quickly)

5- Pizza from Curry Village (Lloyd and I were too tired to cook after hiking Half Dome)

6- Elmer (you had to be there)

7- Bear sightings (we saw five different bears)

8- Lloyd and I safely hiking Half Dome (someone died there four days after we hiked it)

9- Camping in the valley (we had to reserve in January, but the price and location were just right)

10- The hot shower after hiking Half Dome and swimming in the cold pool (we were only suppose to be in there for five minutes, but we took a little longer - the hot water felt heavenly)

Hiking Half Dome for the Second Time

Lloyd and I hiked Half Dome for the first time on his birthday last year - July 10, 2008. I absolutely fell in love with it and told him I couldn't wait to do it again. I love the views, the challenge of the hike, and being on top of Half Dome. We felt very fortunate that Bryce and Chareen agreed to watch all five of our kids while we hiked it this year. It can take anywhere from 10-12 hours to hike. We decided to leave early in the morning so we wouldn't be gone all day long. We woke up at 3:45 am and hit the trail at about 4:15. We had to wear head lamps since it was still really dark at that time of the morning. I loved hiking it the second time around because I knew what to expect and where I was going. I pushed Lloyd to go a little faster this time and he did an awesome job (the 5Ks he ran earlier in the year really paid off). We didn't take too many photos of our hike up there because we took a ton last year.

I got this one of Lloyd hiking up "Little Dome" which is probably the hardest part of the hike. It has tons of uphill, rocky stairs that are very steep. You know you're almost to the cables, but the steps keep going and going.
Here is a picture of the medal cables up to the top of Half Dome. You have to wear gloves to get a tight grip on the cables. There are wooden slats that you step on as you climb the cables. I am always praying that the slats are strong enough to hold me because my life is depending on them. Here's Lloyd beginning to come up the cables. Here I am going up the cables. Did I mention climbing up them is a great workout?
Here's our first photo on top of Half Dome. We got up there at around 9:15 am, so it took us about five hours to get to the top.

Here are and what is called the Half Dome "diving board." It's actually really scary walking around up there. The rocks can be slippery and look at that drop off the diving board!

Once I got to the top I indulged in a favorite treat of mine - a lemon muffin from Marie Callender's. I am experiencing complete bliss!

Lloyd got a picture of this marker on top of Half Dome put there by a geocacher.

There was actually some snow still on top of Half Dome!

Our self-portrait

You can see Yosemite valley and upper Yosemite falls in the background behind us.

Going down the cables is actually more scary than going up. I have a death grip on those cables the entire way done.

We spent about an hour on top of Half Dome and hiked down in about four hours. So the entire hike took around ten hours. We were really going fast on the way down. I had to go to the bathroom for about three miles so I was hiking very quickly to reach the bathroom. Unfortunately, there aren't any restrooms, hot tubs, refreshments stands, or escalators near Half Dome. Nonetheless, it was an another amazing experience the second time around. Lloyd and I were both very sore and couldn't walk really well for a couple days after the hike. We used muscles we didn't even know we had! I still look forward to the next time I get to hike Half dome again. I don't know when that will be. Lloyd would like to try hiking to the top of Mount Whitney. As our kids get older, the sky's the limit!

Courtney's 8th Grade Graduation

Yes, Courtney graduated from 8th Grade on June 6. She is leaving middle school and will be starting high school in the fall. I don't even want to imagine how fast the next four years are going to go. It seemed like just yesterday, I was bringing her home from the hospital. She was such a precious newborn baby then. Now she is a lovely young women. She is kind, helpful, righteous, smart, athletic, and friendly. Being the oldest, she has to help out at home a lot. i am so grateful for her and her example to our family. Here is the graduation announcement we sent to all our family members. My friend Stacey took the pictures and designed the announcement. It scanned in a little fuzzy; the original looks even better.Courtney's graduation was held in the gym at Johansen High School. I was very impressed because they kept it very short and sweet. The entire ceremony was only about an hour long.
I got this one of Courtney right after she got her diploma. I think I was embarrassing her with all my cheering. She's not one to want a lot of attention.Courtney got two honors along with her diploma. She earned the Presidential Award for Education Excellence and the California Junior Scholastic Federation Honor Award. She only got four tickets for the graduation. Lloyd and I went along with Bryce and Chareen.

We celebrated at home with a nice dinner and cake. I was excited about putting her photo on the cake. I think it came out really cute and it was a great deal.
Even though her sisters and brothers didn't attend the graduation they were so proud of Courtney!