Adventures With the Bradfords

As the naturalist Carl Sharsmith said, "If I only had one day to spend in Yosemite, I would sit on the bank of the Merced River and cry."

13 years ago, barely pregnant with Miss Carissa, Lee and I spent one day in Yosemite.  We only had time to go to the cute church and climb Yosemite Falls and vowed we would come back soon to see the rest of the park.  Well...4 kids later...we spent another DAY in Yosemite, this time with Grandma Pam, which isn't nearly long enough.  And far from sitting by the river and crying, we tried to make the best of it:  we rode our bikes all through the valley floor, went up to Mirror Lake, back toward Nevada Falls, over to Yosemite Falls, and stopped for lunch at the river.

The kids probably would have spent all day here at Mirror Lake/Trickle skipping rocks and splashing in the shallow water.

Especially Miss Brooke.

Obligatory family photo.

  Hiking up Vernal Falls toward Nevada.  We didn't make it too far up, but got a taste of the beauty of those waterfalls.

So many rocks to climb in.

 And scare me by climbing on. (They still hadn't found the last body lost over Nevada Falls by the time we got there.)

Could there be a better spot to have lunch??

More rocks.

 Trying to motivate the troops to hike up Yosemite Falls.

This is how far we made it.  Not even close to the top.  But I don't know what I expected, trying to start a hike like that in the afternoon after riding bikes all day.

After a gorgeous drive to Sonora to stay in the cutest little hotel, the Gunn House, we stopped at Columbia State Park.  The kids wanted to try out the candle dipping.

Grayson dipped a heart.  Cute!

Of course we visited the old schoolhouse and cemetery, as well...and neglected to take any photos, but the kids had fun finding the oldest headstones they could.

Then it was on to Calaveras Big Trees.

Although I have visited this park many times growing up, it is always mind boggling to see the massiveness of these trees up close.

I love this bench.  It was so peaceful and quiet there, staring up the big ancient trees.

Derek was determined to push the trees apart.

 And there was lots of make-believe and super heroes being played out among the trees.

Brooke just wanted to walk and walk and walk.

 The boys climbed on and jumped off of every tree they possibly could.

 After the hike, we trekked out to find the old swimming hole on the Stanislaus River from my childhood, which we found!  Unfortunately, I was too busy scrambling across rocks with a baby in my arms and gear for the kids to have room for a camera.  Too bad, because it was beautiful and the kids enjoyed jumping into the freezing cold river off the rocks.   Next time...

Then it was on to Placerville and Wrights Lake for some camping with the family.

Girl Tent!

 Brooke and her Daddy.  She liked camping in a tent.  It's just like sleeping at home or anywhere else, for that matter:  snuggled up next to mommy. But for more on this adventure, see here:  http://private-bailey-blog.blogspot.com/2013/07/wrights-lake.html

After 3 glorious days of camping we headed back down the hill for some quality  El Dorado County time, which included a visit to the drive-in with the cousins!

And a bike ride in 103 degree weather down to the river to watch the rafters go by,

 swim in the water,

put on our Duggar suits,

and, of course, skip rocks.

And finally, to complete this northern trip, every baby must get naked in the backyard with a hose!

We had such a great 2 weeks, it was hard to say goodbye.  Until next summer....