Yosemite

Oh the glory of this beautiful place! You must put this on your checklist of places you want to see in your lifetime. And if you go make sure you're not camping with little ones in November. We naively headed for the mountains from our constantly comfortable existence at sea level expecting maybe a slight chill (we really should have known better). The first morning we awoke to the sound of a bear gulping down orange juice (I'll elaborate more on this in a bit) and to a bitter 16 degrees. The kids were crying because they couldn't feel their hands and we spent the morning huddled around the fire. That first day we realized that due to the location of our camping spot deep in the canyon, we would not get the sun until high noon and after a few hours it would hurry off behind the other side of the towering granite walls. From then on we were up early and out of there, off to find the sun.

Evan's dirty suit. (Thanks for the idea Aims.) He had multiple layers underneath. Evan loved to crawl around and get into whatever he could so we just let him have at it, then stripped off the outermost layer when it was time to get into the van.

Hiking to higher ground. Joe, Evan, and our friend Mike.

I got to snuggle with both of my boys all night long in the comfort of our van's queen size bed. It was seriously really warm and cozy, and we should have slept peacefully if it wasn't for Sam getting sick and the bear that I previously mentioned coming back to our camp night after night. Yosemite has an issue with a surprising number of Black Bears that are no longer like traditional, wild bears. They are addicted to human food and therefore campers must store all food, toiletries, and anything with a scent in the bear locker-locked. Well the second night I was awakened by the sound of a bear munching on potato chips. I called to Joe above to scare the bear away. He looked out to see a large bear who had just hit the jackpot. Our friends had mistakenly left their food storage box unlocked and the bear was eating its way through the weekend's food supply. Joe started honking the horn and flashing our lights to get the bear to bolt. When the bear took off Joe, only slightly scared, hurried out of the van, shoved the food in the box, locked it, then back inside. Yes, the bear came back and thankfully didn't smell anything it wanted inside our van so it moved on to the next camp. The third night we were all extra cautious to make sure that everything was correctly put away and it worked. The bear stopped by, but didn't stick around. However, the following morning we got to see a different bear taking a nap in a tree overlooking the park's market. By this time we're actually getting quite comfortable seeing bears and let me tell you these are not small bears. So our last night, Oct. 31, we (adults) are sitting around the fire telling scary stories when our friend pauses and completely calm says, "Hey there's the bear." And sure enough the bear is just prancing down the road. We could hear screams, banging pots, and other loud noises as the bear made its way through the campground. Pretty scary Halloween-eh?!

A scenic bike ride. This is El Capitan, a famous climbing route. Look how small I am. Crazy climbers.

Lunch break. Sam enjoyed making an avalanche of rocks rolling down the river bank.

Sammy...this is his "I now know how to do a cheesy smile for the camera" pose.

Love this photo of the brothers. This was our last day camping. Sam is feeling better while Evan is beginning to get the crud which by the end of the drive moved to his lungs which meant our trip ended at the ER. (It took us weeks to recover from this trip. Hence my tardiness my fellow bloggers.)

The drive home took us up above the park, then south along the Eastern Sierras. So, so beautiful! Despite the challenges traveling out of LA (and a few others), it was and is so worth it to see all the magnificent and diverse terrain that California has to offer. BTW: this was our first family camping trip with the van....so worth it!