Yosemite

     Yosemite also makes it onto my "Beautiful Places that I've Visited" list. It's hard to put into words how being in these amazing forests makes you feel. It's a great reminder of how tiny and young we all are as humans. These mountains and trees are like sentinels full of wisdom. I know this was Tanner's favorite stop of our trip.

     We hiked up a waterfall, which seemed to us at first glance to not be a big deal. But 1.5 miles vertical is a heck of a lot different than walking on a straight paved path. It was a lot more intense than I had expected but also an amazing experience. At one point climbing up, there was so much mist coming from the waterfall that we were completely soaked and had water dripping down us everywhere. With the wind and the sun we dried off pretty quickly after reaching the top of the water fall.

    There weren't railings all the way up, only on the really steep/dangerous parts. Going back down actually was a little more challenging than the climb up. Trying to maneuver the slippery rocks in a downward motion without falling to your death in the waterfall was a little nerve wracking. It's actually kind of scary how many people die in national forests. I had about a million heart attacks seeing kids in Yosemite and Sequoia climbing around peaks of mountains freely while their parents stood nonchalantly by. Of course this is coming from someone who doesn't have kids and doesn't really know what it would be like but I'm 99% sure I'm getting one of those child leash things once the time comes.

     That night we rented a tent in the middle of the forest at a place called Curry Village. It was awesome, although I did dream about bears all night. We actually saw a bobcat about 20 feet away from us creeping right through the woods by our tent. It saw us as well but just kept walking around. We watched it for about 2 minutes before it ran off. 

     As we were driving out the next day we did a little exploring around Yosemite Falls. It was really hard to leave that Forest. I want to spend a week there in the future. There's just so much beauty to see. I'm so thankful for these experiences that we are fortunate enough to have.

These summer days...

...are the ones I know I'll be dreaming of come 4 months into winter. This weekend we did our annual cousin camping trip on Lake Independence. I didn't take many photos, just these on Saturday evening at the beach. Sometimes I feel pressured to always document everything with my camera but I also simultaneously realize that I just want to experience things first hand through my own eyes rather than through a lens all the time. I think that's an important thing for us to all remember in this modern day and age where it's so easy to document and share these moments. For those of us who love photographing, it's okay to partake in this process, but also remember to take a few special moments for yourself and your own memory.

     I'm back to working evenings with my new job at the hospital. There are both negatives and positives to 2nd shift. I like having my mornings open to get things done at home, go to yoga and other classes at my gym that I wasn't able to go to before, and spend mornings and early afternoons outside if I choose to. The downside is that it seems that the majority of people I know operate on a day-time work schedule, meaning that I might be missing out on fun evening activities. Also, the days that I work I really won't be able to see Tanner at all. He works 8-4 normally and will definitely be asleep by the time I get home (which will be around midnight). I do like working evenings, but I'm also reminding myself that this schedule won't be forever.
     As always summer has snuck up on me and suddenly it's the end of July. Transitioning from one job to another has been energy consuming. Saying goodbye to my old job was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. August 25th brings the beginning of a new school semester in which I'll be taking online classes to complete my Bachelor's degree. I didn't think that I wanted to continue with school, but I'm realizing that there are a lot of opportunities that are open to BSN RN's rather than Associate's degree RN's. So now's a good time for me to continue my education.
     I appreciate all these beautiful summer moments and am trying to not wish away the time, which seems to be human nature. I love the minutes I can spend in the sun with a swimsuit on and a book in my hand, and the evenings we play Settler's on the porch. I'm hoping to sneak a few more camping trips in this summer before the sunny days are gone. Balance can be tricky.

Sequoia National Forest

     Beauty. So much beauty. Sequoia and Yosemite were absolutely my (I think Tanner's too) favorite parts of the trip. Isn't it funny how aside from memories we can only try to photograph the amazement of nature but we can never quite fully capture the grandeur of it all. A family camping trip WILL happen in the future in these two amazing, beautiful parks. These photos are from our day in Sequioa. We booked a "lodge" at the base of the park before the mountains. I say "lodge" because that's what the website had lead us to believe but really it was a motel decked out in 70's elk decor. It had a certain charm, but also a feeling of  "We could totally get murdered here and no one would ever know". We survived the night, as you may have deducted so far.

     Anyways, back to the day. We checked in at our motel and then headed up the mountain into the park. The actual distance up the mountain really wasn't very far at all but in order to get there (for those of you who have experience with mountain driving) it's back and forth twisty roads all the way up. A family story my mom loves to tell was about the first time they brought us to Colorado. I was pretty young and didn't understand that mountains don't actually look like pointy triangles despite all the logical reasoning in the world. I cried and cried the whole way because I was terrified that  we were going to fall off the top of the mountain. Of course I didn't even realize when we were on the mountain at the time, and my parents say to me, "Look Jess, we're on a mountain!". And I was like "Oh!". And then I loved mountains! 

     There are so many things to do in these parks, and one word of advice that I give to my fellow travelers, spend more than one day in each park! There are so many things to do. We drove up most of the mountain, stopping many times to walk around and take a few trails.

-Remember to click the photos to enlarge them! Unfortunately Blogger isn't the best photo-hosting platform in the world (it beats Facebook though) so a few of the photo qualities are different than the original. Again, that's probably mostly myself noticing this anyway. Okay I'll stop rambling and let you see photos!-

My handsome travel buddy.

Moro rock, we ended up on top of there by the end of the day.

     Giant Forest. So magnificent and ancient. Many of the trees are over 2,000 years old. 2,000 YEARS! Can you imagine all that they have seen and will continue to see in their tree-lives? So much beauty and wisdom here.

The General Sherman: The largest tree by volume in the entire world. 

     Of course we had to take the touristy photo in front of it! This doesn't even do the tree justice, where we were standing was at least a good 20 feet or so away from the base of the tree. They had it surrounded with a fence, which probably is wise considering the inconsiderate people who can't seem to respect nature.

     We ended up on Moro Rock (previously pictured) right at sundown. We sat on the summit of a mountain and watched the sunset. I know that's something I will remember for the rest of my life. It was amazing. Words don't do it justice. Even these photos don't do it justice but they're a peek into what we were experiencing. 

A well camouflaged little guy getting the last of the day's sun.

This is a day that I will remember for a long, long time.