After the kids and I had fun fishing and exploring the ranch, we decided to head into town to drop Adam off at Burger King (where he planned to work for the day) so that we could drive up and see Yosemite National Park. Our plan was just to go up for a few hours, have lunch and see a few sights and then drive back to Mariposa to pick up Adam when his work day was over. Then we thought we’d head back up to Yosemite as a family that evening to do some more sight seeing. However, after discovering the drive took 1.5 hours to get INTO Yosemite (one way mind you) we decided that trying to make that drive twice (which would mean 6 hours in the car) just wasn’t feasible. So the kids and I just went up for the afternoon! We ended up stopping at a visitors center and they suggested we go to Bridal Veil Falls. So that was our first stop.
The falls unfortunately ended up being more mist than falls since there wasn’t a lot of water this time of year so that was a little disappointing, but it ended up being a great place for a picnic so we made the best of it! The kids also loved playing in the little creek just down from the falls as well.
We ended up having chips and salsa for lunch and cookies. We eat the cookies first so we could use the container to put the salsa because Mom had forgotten bowls! Whoops! đ
Apparently our tortilla chips attracted some blue jays who were hungry and at one point we ended up with about 5 trying to peck the little crumbs on the ground. It was really fun to watch them and Jamis especially loved having the birds so close! It also attracted lots of tourists who wanted to take pictures of the birds!
From there we started driving back down the canyon and ended up finding a great little swimming hole where the kids could safely play. We’d brought our swim suits and life jackets so we made sure to stop and let them have some water time!
On the way home Brans had the great idea to draw all over himself and let his siblings draw all over him as well. I should have known that giggling in the back of the car meant the kids were up to no good! But I ended up with the last laugh because we went out for dinner that night at a pizza place in town and Brans had to walk in looking like quite the freak show! And these pictures were AFTER he tried scrubbing himself down in the bathroom. You should have seen his face before he cleaned himself off a bit!
Brans sure does keep our family entertained!