Yosemite Part I - Saturday

*** WARNING!!! I haven't taken this many pictures on a trip in a LONG time....so just bear with me. There were too many fun ones to make any more cuts than what I did!!! ***

So, we made a quick stop in Oakhurst for lunch and food for our camp site before getting to Yosemite National Park. The first place we got out of the truck after arriving was the lookout at Glacier Point. This was the most fantastic view of 3 of the waterfalls, Half Dome, and the whole valley. It was most definitely breathtaking.


YAY for finally getting some shots using stitch assist on the camera, and the merge photos in Photoshop to come up with this panoramic shot of the view from Glacier Point.



For some reason (and NOT the reason that the boys made up about there being less oxygen at higher elevation levels that I might, or might not have bought), I was all giggles on the drive up, and it didn't stop once we got out to look over the views. They just intensified when we started to take our JUMP pictures. We had the great idea to borrow Kyle's dad's gorilla pod (I used mine out too much that it doesn't work anymore), and so we were able to set it up, with the timer, to take our pics....instead of asking a stranger to be patient with us enough times until we get the perfect shot.

We jumped a few more times than the pics below....and I laughed the whole time. A family did walk by and comment that we looked like we were having a great time. It must have been obvious....although I think most people just ignored us, which was probably the better thing to do.....especially when we took the picture on the bottom right. Kyle and I were instructed to stand where we were, and leave a space for Brett. Then he snuck in and said "Do as I do"....and that is the resulting image. Yes, laugh....it's OK, so did Kyle and I.


We had some more fun while we were hanging out at the top of Glacier Point.





We got back in the truck, and started to head towards our camping area, but passed Bridal Veil Falls...and decided to pull over to enjoy this view too!

We appreciated and hugged a few trees. The trees in the park were pretty impressive.

We also enjoyed, in awe, the speed at which the water was rushing through the park. That was some seriously fast water.

On the walk back to the truck, I instructed the boys to "act like a waterfall". Here is what they came up with.

We checked into, and found, our housekeeping tent. Our place was in the back corner of the camping area, and we were right on the water. The boys skipped a few rocks on the water, and then we decided to take a short, warmup, hike to Mirror Lake.

The path up there was lined with amazing trees. We decided to set the timer for 10 seconds and have a foot race. Yeah, boys can run pretty far in 10 seconds, so we ended up being a lot further from the camera than we thought...but check out that trail.


Just a few random shots from this hiking trail.


And a quick stop at the Happy Isle Bridge on the way back.


We got back to our tent, and after unpacking, I started in on our dinner of hot dogs with beans, and mac and cheese, while the boys got started on building the fire.

Dinner was actually really yummy....and filling. We finished up all the food we had to eat, and then enjoyed just sitting around the fire and laughing. Yes, I was still giggly from earlier in the day. The boys admitted that they kind of liked it because apparently they like it when girls think they are funny. Most of the time I was laughing at myself, but I'm not sure that they cared that much.

Putting out the fire at the 10pm lights out was rather interesting. The water that we poured on the blazing fire created the funniest clouds of smoke that completely covered our tented area. After the fire was out, we turned in to get a good night's sleep for the day ahead of us.