I Know that My Savior Loves Me

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Three girls in a tub!

Sleeper

Of three children, I was blessed with one sleeper.  My Laney loves to sleep.  And when her body needs it, she sleeps and sleeps.  She's been sick for a few days now; it's 10:50a.m., and she's still asleep.  She went to bed at 7p.m.  (That's 16 hours, to save you the figuring.)  When we got back from Utah, she slept until 11 three days in a row, catching up from our crazy trip.

(My Sally, on the other hand, is not a sleeper, although improving.  She's now awake again after a 45 minute nap.  Not allowed.)

Yosemite: Waterfall

I forgot to write about one of my favorite spots in Yosemite, so you get one more post . . . sorry.

About a mile above Swinging Bridge, there's a beautiful, secluded waterfall and swimming hole.  I was occupied with little ones this time, so I didn't go, but Mike hiked up with a bunch of people.

Here's a photo of Mike jumping.  I wish I also had a good photo of the water and falls.  It's gorgeous.

Little Mommy

I walked in on this today:

Little Helper

My girls love to help around the house; they especially enjoy doing laundry.  Often, when the washer beeps to say it's done, Elaine rushes in there to help.  I can even tell her from another room to please switch the laundry for me, and she will.  She opens both the washer and dryer, puts all the clothes from the washer into the dryer, shuts the door, and starts the dryer . . . all by herself.

Sally's New Trick

She found her feet!  Actually, 2 days ago, Mike made her grab her toes with her hand; yesterday she tried to do it herself; and today she succeeded.  She's very pleased about it.  It's funny to me that a baby so young can actually be "taught" something.  I wonder what else I should or could be teaching her.

Moving On

Okay.  Ten Yosemite posts.  I'm done.  I can now move forward with my life.

Yosemite: Vibrams

Vibram 5-fingers also get their own post.  I need some:

Yosemite: Pace

I thought these 2 were so cute, they get their own post.  They were such buddies; in these photos they were "hikin'."

My personal favorite:  planning their next move.

I really think Laney has a little crush on Pace.  We have a photo book of the reunion (thanks, Joanne!).  When we look at it, Laney points out every picture of Pace (even the ones of his back) and gets the cutest half-embarrassed look on her face and says, really quietly, "Pace."

Yosemite: Mariposa Grove

A few miles south of Wawona, there's a grove of giant sequoia trees.  They're amazing!  Some of the trunks are as wide as a house.  We didn't see all of the grove:  the shuttle costs a pretty penny, and to hike it would have been too hard and long for our group.  We did hike 1 mile to see the Grizzly Giant and California Tunnel Tree.

I found a few pictures from our 1987 Linford reunion, when I was 10.  We used to be allowed (or at least not forbidden) to climb this tree.  I'm the one at the top.

I'm in the middle, wearing red shorts.

Puts things into perspective . . . .  These trees are huge!

Grizzly Giant

California Tunnel Tree

Me and Christine, with our bambinos.  Raeford is 6 weeks older than Sarah.

Yosemite: Half Dome

Mike hiked Half Dome with the other men, my mom, and Liesel and Gwyneth.  It's a strenuous, but beautiful, hike--just shy of 18 miles round trip.  They got up at 4am and left camp; they didn't get back until 9pm.

The last portion of the hike, up the side of the dome, is terrifying, amazing, breathtaking, and insane.  There are two cables, about 3 feet apart, bolted into the granite.  Every 10 feet, or so, there's a 2x4 for hikers to stand on, rest, or just use as leverage for the next 10 feet.  (I'm having a hard time adequately describing it.  Maybe it will make sense with the pictures):

Liesel, Loren, Gwyneth, David, Mike, Chad, Alex, Mom, Victor

Nevada Fall and Sentinel Dome (I think?)

Done with miles of switchbacks.  Granite stairs zig-zag up the granite behind him to the saddle.  The vertical white stripe you can barely see is where the cables are, from the saddle to the top of the dome.

From the Saddle.  The dome was so crowded that day, they were stuck on the cables for over an hour on the way down.  Scary and exhausting!

A mile above the valley floor!

You can't tell from the picture, but this is actually an outcropping they're standing on.  Nothing but air below.

I found some pictures from 2006, when I was 17 weeks pregnant with Mariah:

My mom at the top.

Showing off the pregnant belly.

Mom coming down.  (This one gives you a pretty good idea of how steep (crazy) this is.)

Yosemite: Sandy Beach

One day, most of the men, my mom, and Liesel and Gwyneth hiked Half Dome.  The rest of us went to this great beach very near our camp.  The sand there was great, so we called it Sandy Beach.  Joanne and Lindy built a little dam to prevent toys and/or children from floating downstream.  The beach and water were perfect.  We'd never been to that particular spot before, but we liked it so much, we returned there on our last day.  It was just a few hundred yards downstream from Hole in the Rock, so some of us hiked tubes up to HITR, jumped off the rocks, and then tubed down to Sandy Beach.  Mom and Laura watched our kids so Mike and I could do it together once. Mom, Laura, and I floated down together once also.

Elaine lived on canned peaches all week.

Lindy had her favorite-aunt routine all planned out.  She brought out the nail polish to seal the deal!

Weston, Pace, Elaine

Elaine and the boys enjoyed the sand so much, she was filthy!  She had more sand on her head than hair.  I used a bucket and gave her a thorough shower/bath in the river.  She did not appreciate the gesture.

All clean after her shower.

And 30 seconds later . . . .

Mariah got a shower too.