Throwback Thursday: Yosemite.

So!  Still with the not catching up on the blog.  Just when I thought things were back to rights after the holidays.... well... Snowdays!  and Colds!  and Friends on Netflix! (ahem) and STREP!  UGH.

I'll be there for you.... to binge watch while recovering from Strep Throat.

So I'll just punt and post a throwback Thursday.  See the other night we were reading a book about Volcanoes (boys at the library.  yeah).  And I told the kids that their dad and I hiked up a volcano once.  And they were SHOCKED.  So I got out the photo album from our trip to Lassen Volcanic.   They were SO SO into it!  To the point where the last couple of nights instead of books at bedtime they have requested "pictures from when you were in your 20's"  Sure.  Why not.

Us in Lassen in 2002.  SO YOUNG!

Also someone just summited Yosemite's Dawn Wall  and the park will celebrate it's 125th anniversary this year.  So this post is crazy relevant. 

And 22 is crazy young.

We went to Yosemite during the summer of 2002 when we were living in San Francisco.

Mmmmm mountains.  View of the Vernal and Nevada falls from Glacier point.

We were only there for a summer so we wanted to make the most out of our experience.  Meaning every weekend we went somewhere fantastic.  One weekend was Yosemite.  Lots of camping.  Lots of hiking.  Lots of this:

Seriously, 22 year old Matt, be careful.  We have awesome things ahead.

One of my favorite pictures of my husband to this day.

Most of these pictures are from the Mist trail hike.  It goes up past Vernal falls, past Nevada falls, to the base of Half Dome.

Then we hiked the panorama trail back down to the valley.

Nevada falls with half dome in the background.  Names I still remember 12 years later.

But what the kids were most interested in was the fact that we saw a bear:

"What did you do when you saw it?"  - our girl
"Fought it." - Matt
"REALLY????" - the kids who still don't quite get sarcasm.  Surprising being raised by us.

Hopefully some day we'll go back the rest of our party of 5 in tow.  Until then it's fun to be able to show the kids our past adventures.

"Mommy how come you didn't go anywhere cool like this in your '30's?"
*****HEAD EXPLODES*****

Wordless Wed: 2014.

So!  2015!  Happy New Year!  But before we move on to this new future world a quick 2 minute summary of 2014:


What a fun, crazy, hard, wonderful, transformative year.

The top pictures are New Years Eve 2014, the bottom is 2013.  What a difference a year makes!!!

Happy New Year, Everyone!