51 weeks

I'm 51 weeks old!

The road was covered in snow so we had to drive with chains on the tires

Mommy and Riley have fun playing in the backseat during the roadtrip

El Capitan was magnificent

We were hiking around the valley floor at sunset which was just stunning

Yosemite Falls isn't roaring like it does in the spring after the snow melts, but it was still a beautiful sight

We bundled up and kept warm

Half Dome covered in snow. It feels likes a million years since Chad and I hiked to the top!

Playing in the snow for the first time

Not surprisingly, she decided to eat some

Taking a break from hiking to have a snack

Mirror Lake was impressive and definitely worth the hike

Seamus jumped in the water but changed his mind immediately

C'mon guys, let's get outside!

Mommy and Riley relaxing by the grand fireplace at the Ahwahnee Hotel

Snowshoeing through the giant sequoias

Walking through the Tunnel Tree

Its hard to appreciate the size of these giant sequoias from pictures but they are huge!

The whole family

One of the things we love most about living in CA is our proximity to amazing places. This weekend we took advantage of being just 4 hours from Yosemite and spent 3 days exploring this national park. Yosemite literally took my breath away the first time I saw it, its absolutely gorgeous. Winter is one of our favorite times to visit. The meadows and rock formations were blanketed in snow and it almost felt like we were the only ones there; it gets very crowded in the summer so this is a welcome change. We were lucky to have perfect winter weather. CA has been getting tons of rain (snow at higher elevations) so everything was very snowy, but the storms cleared over the weekend so we didn’t have to battle conditions which was great. And the temperatures weren’t too cold either so we could be outside for a few hours without freezing.

Riley travels well on these roadtrips. I sit in the backseat with her and we play games, read books, sing songs and sometimes nap. We arrived Sat. afternoon and hiked around the valley floor. The skies were blue but there were low clouds that made El Capitan look particularly magnificent. I’m not sure if Riley realized how unique the scenery was, but she did seem to be truly examining her surroundings. She was definitely intrigued by the snow. Seamus does not like the snow and constantly had this look of, “Oh why are you making me do this?” But he enjoys long hikes so he still had fun.

The second day we hiked to Mirror Lake in which you can see a reflection of Half Dome. It was a fun hike and a pretty lake. We let Riley crawl around in the snow which if course meant she tasted it. We’re trying to instill the “Never eat yellow snow” mantra from the beginning.

We stayed in a dog friendly lodge that was just outside the park. It had a really nice indoor pool that we swam in Sun. evening. Riley seemed to really like the water and had fun splashing, kicking and floating around in our arms.

The third day went to the Ahwahnee, a beautiful old lodge in the park, to crawl around by the fireplace. Then we snowshoed through a grove of Giant Sequoias. These trees are so impressive! Riley did great on all her hikes. We used the backpack carrier a lot more and she just hung out, talking and checking out the passing scenery as Chad trudged along. The carrier has a nice cover we put over her head to shield her from the snow (we did get a little snow that third day) and that baby stayed warm and dry.

It was a fantastic trip. We love showing Riley all these new places. Obviously she won’t remember her first visit to Yosemite but hopefully all the new things to look at will have made some sort of impression!