Happy Wednesday friends! I hope you all enjoyed your extra long weekend that probably went by way to fast as it did for us! It's to be expected right? We took a family road trip to Yosemite for 3 days since Chase and I have never been to northern California up until now and thought it'd be a great getaway since it's only about 4.5 hours from where we live. My only concern was that it may have been super busy (which surprisingly it wasn't too bad) and that the kids would do awful on the car ride, but they did way better than I think both Chase and I had anticipated! Thank you Jesus. I had no idea how big the park actually was until we entered in and the parker ranger gave us a map of where everything was and holy smokes. We didn't really want to plan too much, not knowing how the kids would be, having that strain of stress trying to see everything, you know all of that not so fun stuff. So we winged the entire day and literally went with the flow. If you know me, you know this is just not how I operate and something I normally wouldn't do. I love having plans even though 99% of the time they never go accordingly ;)
We started in the south end near Wawona which happened only because we had to take a pit stop and change diapers and grab a few snacks but I am so happy we stopped! This ended up being all of our favorite spot! They have a Pioneer History Center (cue yawns I know) which didn't sound that intriguing on the map I'll be honest, but while we were out of the car a horse and buggy came in front of our car and Viv was completely mesmerized. We ended up walking around this little area to find more horses that we got to pet and interact with that Vivian was so giddy about and totally made her day. She hugged the sweetest mule named Jericho and wanted to kiss and hug all the others, including one named Fred who according to the trainers liked to eat a whole lot. Sounds like my kind of horse, haha. Also in the area was a blacksmith who could make anything you wanted, a beautiful old bridge and the cutest little bear cookies at the local country store.
As you get closer to the valley, the busier it gets so to avoid cranky babies we stopped at this little spot, not even sure what it was called but it did have a sweet dainty chapel on one side of the road and a beautiful bridge that hid a quiet little river. I believe this area had several trails that led you to one of the waterfalls that we sadly didn't get to see. We weren't sure how the babies would do, so we didn't anticipate hiking or anything with them. Looking back, I think that was a smart choice because it would have been a lot! Especially with Finn, and slopes, and wet rocks, and ... you see where this is going. A disaster.
One thing I did read up on about the park before we went, is that really no matter where you are within the park, there are so many trails and hidden places that you will for sure stumble upon with the most gorgeous views and that was definitely true! One of the most grand views was at Tunnel View. I mean, so so lush and beautiful and absolutely breathtaking.
We ended the day in the Valley where we got homeade lollipops, Viv found animal figurines she had to have including one of a squirrel that looked like the one she saw make his way under our picnic table at lunch earlier in the day, and Finn who was just a happy camper that he was out of his carseat. If you ever have a chance to go, go! There's no cell service there, but it was really a great thing to disconnect and be one with nature ... I'm not going to lie though I did rejoice when those AT&T bars shot from "no service" to 4 ;)
Back to reality now, where Chase is sick with food poisoning Finn left a racing stripe of poop up his back, Viv who is sweating that it's 91 degrees outside with no sign of fall to be found, and myself who is about to pull out the fall decor anyways. Hope you all have a great week!
xx
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