Yosemite National Park

The other week we skipped town and went on vacation.  This was no small secret.  I managed to keep it quiet for 7 months.  Because as we all know my blog caters to the more criminal element.  I knew you'd all be dying to break into my house knowing I was gone.  In the end this could have actually helped...

I came up with clever plans to save money.  We shared the car ride with a friend and her daughter who also wanted to explore out West.  We only thought about finding an orphanage a few times to drop off the yammering chatterbox in the back seat who wanted to know, "are we there yet?"

We stayed in a budget hotel.  I had joined their hotel club discount program and reserved the room 7 months in advance.  We shared the hotel with a friendly bunch from some logging company.  By friendly, I mean they would all open their room doors any time any noise or other door happened to open.  We figured they were thinking some bombshell model was just strolling the halls hoping to find some guy from a logging company she could shack up with on first sight.  We played tricks on them by opening our door just to see how many of them would open their door.  Then we would shut our door and laugh hysterically, because we're grownups. 

Rowan really enjoyed getting to see "big snow."  We took her to ski one day.  She was very frustrated, but determined.  She whined and complained and didn't listen to the ski teacher.  Somehow she made progress and by the end of the day she was zooming at 1 mph with a smile as big as Texas.  I, on the other hand, had mastered the bunny slope and made the stupid mistake to go down the "more difficult" trail.  I made it down...eventually.   My friend learned how to snowboard but couldn't turn.  They are henceforth to be known as the Bullet for their straight-shot-speed-of-light technique down the slope. 

This was the only bear we saw, thankfully.  

We spent a lot of time hiking.  Pictures truly can't capture the rare beauty.  A picture can't grasp all the sounds and smells that surround you in that moment.

Pictures can tell a story.  Like the one about a 5 year old who was whining and had to be carried part of the way.  She was our bear repellant, but she really did so well.  One day she hiked 5 miles.  And she slept like a rock!  

One day out hiking around, this cute little kitty came out of the woods, silently.  We never heard a thing.  One minute it wasn't there and the next it was right in front of us.  Rowan had to be held back as she insisted she wanted to pet the "nice kitty."  I was nervously trying to take a picture and figuring out what I would do in case it attacked us.  In the end, it never even looked at us.  It was hunting after something else.  It slowly stalked and disappeared back into the woods, never making a sound.

We came home and have since learned that the park was hit by a horrendous snow storm and the whole place was shut down. 

We also came home to a flooded kitchen and master bathroom.  So if you guys had broken in maybe you could've turned off the water coming out of the pipe under the kitchen sink.  My time is now spent dealing with this inconvenience.  In the next few weeks months, we'll be having a quarter of the house gutted from floor to ceiling and replaced.

But my mind and my heart are still here...