We borrowed my sister's mini-van because apparently it takes a lot of equipment to get in touch with nature. We had it packed to the brim including straping on 4 bikes to the 3 bike rack.
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| Notice the strapped on bike! |
We arrived Thursday afternoon and found ourselves in the most wonderful campsite. We had lots of room (for Yosemite standards), a nice amount of shade and a fabulous creek running through our campsite. We stayed until Sunday afternoon.
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| Our amazing campsite. Upper Pine 222 |
Here are the highlights:
- Celebrating Kevin's Birthday (something in the later 30's). Samuel and Oliver made him a sign and some other goodies. We enjoyed a hot dog dinner and some marshellows. Quite memorable.
- Bike riding. We got Samuel a trail-a-long bike that hooks onto our bike. It allows him to ride and pedal when he wants or just cruise along with us. Oliver has a seat on the other bike. Both were amazing bike riders and allowed us to ride for long rides.
- Vist from my parents. We had originally planned the trip for my parents to join us for a bit with their trailer. But, since my dad just had surgery they came for just the day. It was such a fun time. We basically hung out at the campsite--playing in the creek, reading books, talking and playing with the kids. They made us a yummy dinner.
- River Fun. The kids played for several hours in the freezing cold river. They built sand castles, buried my feet with sand and threw rocks into the water.
- Tub Baths. The kids loved that they got to be dirty almost all the time! Within 10 minutes of arriving Oliver had fallen in the creek, played with the ashes in the firepit and found plenty of sap. Samuel stayed slightly cleaner but both needed baths big time when we got home. Each night we took a small tub bath in order to get slightly cleaner for the sleeping bag.
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| Noitce the color of the water! |
- Yosemite Beauty. Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places. The wet winter meant the waterfalls were still flowing and the meadows were still green. It was fun to watch the kids get so excited about seeing the waterfalls, spotting the wildlife and sitting quietly to take in the views. Oliver spent a lot of time calling out for the deer ("Where are you deer? Are you hiding?"). Samuel seemed genuinely interested in the names of all the rock formations and learning more about climbing them.
- Tent Fun. As always the excitement of the tent meant we had to spend several hours a day playing inside. We have sleeping pads that basically cover the entire floor so the kids (and Kevin) played wrestling every afternoon! For whatever reason, the tent also proved to promote great sleeping. Both kids slept soundly from 8:30-7:30. Delightful.
- Quite Nights. The kids were wiped out by 7:30 all three nights. We forced them to stay awake the first night to roast a marshmellow. But, the other two nights they went to bed prior to any marshmellow roasting. They were asleep by 8:30 which gave Kevin and I a lovely 2 hours of quite to sit and enjoy the fire.
- Auntie's van. The doors open and close with the push of a button. Many hours of fun were had opening and closing the doors! The kids kept yelling, "Auntie's van is sooo fancy"!
- Riding the free shuttle bus. Oliver was giddy with excitement just talking about the bus. Once we finally got on he was ear to ear smiles. We rode the entire route (about 1 hour) just to ride. Once we were off the bus Oliver pointed and yelled "BUS. BUS" everytime we saw one. There are probably 50 buses in Yosemite that can be seen all the time hence a lot of Oliver yelling and pointing.
- Night bike riding. Kevin and I love to ride bikes at night. Samuel was adament we not do it. But, on the last night we finally talked him into just taking a short ride around the campground. We ended up taking a fairly long ride stopping in the meadows to look at the stars and listen to the night sounds. The next morning Samuel confessed he really liked the night bike riding and is wondering when we can go again.
