What a wonderful year 2014

So much happened this past year I am grateful for

Prague 

We nearly missed this one

First gelato in Italy 

It was fun finding all my homes away from home

Not puking, just taking a drink

Matty's favorite gelato

Europe Trip

Yosemite

So behind. 

In early August we camped at Upper Pines in Yosemite valley for a few days. We went hiking with Brian in the high country one day to get our lungs used to the altitude change.

We made it to Bud lake after trail blazing our way up (didn't take us twice as long or anything..)

We stayed away from these

And the deer

And luckily the rain/thunder/lightning stayed away from us. 

Matty was so excited to share his foot bath after our hike

We were on the Mist Trail trail by 6:00

This was the smallest I've ever seen the falls

Thankfully we had some cloud coverage while we hiked

Couldn't have asked for better conditions

Except for a huge group in front of us..

We made it to the top!

Brian was a good sport to be our camera man the whole day

I feel like the hike down is the equivalent to Christmas afternoon.. Never is it talked about with joy or excitement. The uncomfortable in between time of "Well that was awesome! Now... what?"

Well of course there's an obvious answer to that, you're a grown adult, what do you think!?

Clean up the wrapping paper mess!

Get yourself off the mountain!

--wait, you're telling me there's another 8+ miles and 5K of elevation change?-- how about I just roll down? That seems like a good alternative. 

No one wants to clean up after the magical feeling of Christmas morning. That means it's over and not coming back for a whole 365 more days.

To summit Half Dome means the best view is right in front of you, now it's blood, sweat, and tears to haul your exhausted body back to the only place it wants to be (your sleeping pad). That's at the very best, another 5 hours away, which in case you haven't guessed might as well be 5 years. 

Irresistible buns

Of course I'm talking about the cinnamon rolls, what were you thinking?

Thanks to Rob & Jacque we had some pretty amazing food for the week.