Again, Yosemite, I love thee. I love your pine scented air, cool meadows, frigid lakes, gushing waterfalls. I love your deer, coyotes, and bears (even though the kids were screaming as I pulled over to view the bear so I was only able to get a passing glance). I love that we can go there for 4 days and my kids don't care one bit that they don't have a TV to watch or a Wii to play. They only cared about riding their bikes- well, Teigue cared about riding his bike, little lady enjoyed getting carted around in her Burley limo- collecting rocks, playing in streams and running a candy store that Stella started in a tree stump.
The candy store was a pretty successful endeavor. She sold chocolate cake, purple and blue coated chocolate pretzels, cakes...People were lining up to get her sweets. A lovely ranger happily paid 99 for just a small bite.
99, you ask? Yes, 99. Any time you ask Stella a price of something she always says "99, and 10,000". Things are very expensive in the land of Jayno.
The kids played this every chance they got. The stump was right outside the eating area so we would eat then head on over to the store. Unfortunately Daddy Bad Boy kept on stealing the candy store's money. Thankfully Police Chief Teigue was there to lock him up, and keep him locked up since he was also the judge.
When we weren't working at the store we were enjoying the natural wonders of Yosemite. Teigue, since he is Teigue, spent loads and loads of time in the snow melt lakes and rivers. People would walk past him in the rivers and do a double take- since the water was so very very cold. They couldn't believe that anyone could stand it. They obviously never met anyone like Teigue. We think that he may be Ice Man in disguise. Stella was a smart little lady and kept her feet firmly on shore.
We discovered that our little man has no problem hiking a 3 mile trail with a 1,000 ft vertical gain, as long as there is a rainbow at the top to great him.
As the Vernal Falls trail is a strenuous hike for a normal person, we felt that our little man would have some trouble climbing the rock stairs or the steep climbs. We were so wrong. We basically had to run to keep up with him he was so tough.
We all felt that the end result was pretty worth it.
And, of course a trip to the wood would not be complete without Teigue climbing a fallen tree.
Until next year Yosemite!
If you would like to look at some more photos click here for a link to my Facebook album.
