Not Goodbye

Christine and Dani are moving to St. Louis, but this is not goodbye. In March they are coming back for a wedding and will stay at our house, cuz we are most special and Kiera will generously give up her smaller sized but very comfortable bed.

Christine, Dani, Kiera and Mike in the pool.

The quilt we gave Christine and Dani so that they will never forget that they are most special too.

Very cool hand dyed batik backing on the "Trip Around the World" quilt design.

Mike and I "adopted" Christine when she moved to southern California about five years ago to work at Arrowhead Medical Center as a labor and delivery PA. At that time we were pretty much the only people she knew here. A year ago June she and Dani were married (pics on this blog last year) and they have sold their house and are packing up and moving closer to their genetic family. Ahh, family of origin as opposed to family of acquisition (us). All is well though, because we know that our connection, although long distance, will remain.

And Then....

By Wednesday we have gotten a pretty good campground routine going. We've had french toast and pancakes and bacon and egg breakfasts. We decided to make the hike to the bridge at Vernal Falls and, for those so inclined, on up the path to the mist trail. We were lucky to have plenty of water fall action still, although that does make approaching the mist trail area chilly and wet.

Morning camp.


Allyson insisting on climbing onto Jenna in order to give her a hug.

Early morning Allyson showing me the pine needles that she was putting into the fire ring. No fire there at the time.

Shannon french braiding. Even while in the great outdoors good hair counts.

Our group bikes up to the trail head and bike parking area. The majority of Yosemite Valley is closed to car traffic and the roads are blissfully empty except for park vehicles and the Yosemite busses.

Kiera, Jenna and Elise on the Big Rock.

Shannon and Allyson relax in the shade after a hot hike uphill.

Brandon and Allyson do the hike. The path up to the falls is quite well developed but it is not an easy stroll by any means.

The Big Rock from another perspective.

Kiera and I on the bridge where the view of the falls is amazing.

Looks like a fake background, but yes it is this beautiful and more.

Jenna hanging in there during a break on the hike down. Easier than the hike up, but still plenty of work.

Yay, flat ground! Almost to the ice cream stand.

And the sun begins to set on Half Dome and our last day in Yosemite. Dinner that night at the wonderful pizza restaurant at Yosemite Village.

Post #100!

When you login to write a new post Blogspot nicely tells you how many posts there are so far. Hey, I'm at 100! Sure I'll never even get close to matching the blogging proficiency of Kel (all hail our family blog queen!) but I'm pretty proud of 100. But I digress; back to my ongoing account of Yosemite.

Tuesday found us once again back at Yosemite Falls. We rode our bikes out of Housekeeping Camp under cloudy skies and a random rain drop here and there. Those raindrops got serious by the time we were parking our bikes at the beginning of the paved walkway (no way you can call this thoroughfare a Trail) and headed towards the falls again. We took a detour to explore some cave like places along the way that were created by long ago rock falls. No bears in there, but Brandon had them wondering a few times. Yes the picture is dark and hard to see, rather like the cave they climbed into.


The walk up to the falls, Jenna using her dad's hat to keep the rain off of her head.
The climbing party just as I left them to continue when we reached a particular spot where I was pretty sure my phobia of heights just might take over on the remaining climb.
Everyone again, waaay up there.
The view back down to the bridge from the point just where I made it.

You can climb as far as your tolerance for getting wet and/or you issue with how high up you are will let you. By the time we finished the climb back down the rain had passed through and we were dry pretty quick. We collected our bikes and headed back to camp for lunch.

Yosemite Falls #1

Monday afternoon we headed up to probably Kiera's favorite place in Yosemite Valley, which is Yosemite Falls. Our first visit to Yosemite took place in August when the falls all over the park have slowed down considerably. That year Kiera and Shannon were able to climb the boulders all the way to the pool at the bottom of the falls. Last year we came earlier in June to see big falls and could barely get close without getting drenched by the spray. This year, although still getting plenty wet, we could climb much closer.

Upper and Lower Yosemite falls from the pathway.

Brandon, Shannon, Allyson and Jenna.

Back at camp, getting the fire going and cooking up some great Carne Asada for dinner.

Jenna getting the marshmallow roasting going.

The perfect Smore

Elise and Kiera hit the bunks after our first full day.

Brother Sister Time

Ryan and Jess came up for the 4th of July holiday with us. We spent the afternoon over at the pool, came home and stuffed ourselves with shredded beef or shredded chicken tacos and burritos, and went over Westwind Park to see the City of Ontario's fireworks display.

Kiera and Ryan hanging out.

She is closing in on him!
At the pool.

Mike is making Ryan's special pancakes this morning. (late breakfast)

Skating

Yesterday was Kiera's first time on the ice since her sprain. She did some easy skating for about 45 minutes. Her ankle was a little sore afterwards and is stiff this morning. She will take it easy for awhile and we don't anticipate returning to lessons for at least a month. Need to continue to do her daily exercises that include toe raises, side to side lunges, squats and "writing the alphabet" moving only her foot.

Lacing up the skates.

On the ice.

Doing some easy laps.

She was happy to be back at the rink, and skating not just watching. Her friends Sarah and Hannah were there and we talked with Britney, the instructor we will be taking up private lessons with.

Yosemite 2009

We've still got unpacking to do, loads of laundry and somehow scrub the central valley bugs off the Ranger after our drive home last night. But I stopped anyway to download my photos and have to Blog!

We checked into Housekeeping Camp on Sunday afternoon. On Monday our first excursion was to Mirror Lake for picnic lunches, playing in the water and hiking the trails.

Mirror lake, and the view up the valley.


Kiera, Jenna and Elise lunching on the big rock.


The girls hiking a trail.


Evan and Curtis checking out the best way to get across upstream.


That's a start. Later that afternoon we made our first trip over to Yosemite Falls and some rock climbing. Will get to that next!