Living the Dream: yosemite!

For my Mom's Birthday (it was a special one but i won't say which one), we surprised her and made a family trip to Yosemite. My Dad took her to the Ahwahnee to stay a few days in Yosemite for her Birthday. Little did she know, we had planned this trip for months! My sister and her boyfriend, Chris, drove from San Francisco. My brother, Amanda, Nate, Emily, me, hubby, and Logan caravaned from Temecula really early in the morning. The drive wasn't that bad, especially since we were so excited!

The Temecula gang left on Friday around 5:30 a.m. We arrived in Yosemite Park around 1:30 p.m. It took us another hour to make it to the Ahwahnee Hotel from the entrance where we entered. Towards the end of the trek through the Valley, a green jeep pulled up next to us. . . it was my sister and her boyfriend! So, entering the Ahwahnee in our cars were Julie and her Chris, me and my fam, and Chris and his fam (in age order. . . very strange). We unloaded the cars and entered the lobby all together. Across the lobby we spotted. . . my parents! Seriously, we could not have planned this any better! It took a minute for my Mom to make sense of it all but she was so thrilled! She seemed to run across the lobby and hugged each and every one of us in disbelief.

My Mom was very surprised to say the least! She couldn't believe we all came together to share this special weekend in this amazing place. We spent the next few days hiking, sharing meals, and just spending time together. I still can't get over how beautiful Yosemite is! As a child I didn't appreciate it the way I do now, really seeing the beauty as an adult. Yosemite has always been a special place to my parents and my Mom's family, especially my Grandpa B. It's nice to go back and really appreciate what he saw.

I had never been inside the Ahwahnee. It was just as I had hoped it would be. Chris and I had a room with a small balcony on the first floor (which wasn't ground level, it was just the first floor above the lobby and great room). We spent most of our time on my parent's deck. Yes, deck! They had a room on the 4th floor with a huge deck. We spent every night sitting on the couches outside talking, laughing, and listening to the Yosemite waterfalls in the distance. It was amazing. I wish we could have stayed longer. I know we will cherish this trip together. We even had professional photos taken of the family on one of the mornings. I will post some of those when we get them. The trip rapped up with a Sunday brunch for Father's Day. It was a great way to end our weekend together. It was perfect. Just too short. Here are some photos we took on our trip. :)