Jan 20, 2010 - Yosemite

Hiking to Lower Yosemite Falls, a great start to our annual winter trip to Yosemite National Park

Lower Yosemite Falls

The moon rising over Half Dome

At first, Riley had a hard time keeping her balance in the snow but she got the hang of it quickly. Lucky girl, frolicking in the shadow of Half Dome!

I tried to teach Riley how to make a snow angel

But she preferred to jump on me

So I tried a different approach

Frosty!!!

After a while Riley became bored of the majesty of the scenery and preferred to read her new book while Daddy hiked her around Yosemite Valley

Riley and Mommy taking it in

Our little hiker

Riley loves holding Seamus' leash and he is very gentle when she's walking him, much better behaved than he is for us.

I know it looks like that snowball is going to hit Riley in the face but I promise it landed in her lap

I had a lot of fun playing in the snow

The always impressive El Capitan

A reminder of the geologic instability in the area: this landslide occurred a few years ago and the main road is still closed because it was too dangerous to clean up the debris. We were detoured to a "temporary" road.

A great view of the Merced River from our hotel balcony

Snowshoeing!

She loves Seamus so much

Daddy is so well trained, he fed her out of his hand so she didn't have to take off her mittens

Our family with El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls in the background

We took advantage of the long weekend and made our annual winter trek to Yosemite National Park. Every year we find new trails to give us a new, wonderful experience. This year the park had a lot of snow earlier in the winter but it was very warm during our visit (55 in the day) so it was melting, producing beautiful water falls. But there was still plenty of snow in which to play. I tried to teach Riley to make snow angels, but she had more fun jumping on me while I was laying in the snow. She was thrilled to see a real life Frosty, play with snowballs, and walk through the snow. We'd forgotten the simple joy of playing in snow, but once again Riley reminded us of what we'd been missing.

Today Riley achieved an unfortunate milestone - she threw up for the first time. Overall she's very healthy, but a nasty virus has been making its way through her little friends and I guess its her turn. I feel so bad for her, hopefully this will pass quickly. She's still got a great attitude and playing, she's such a trooper.