Winter Wonderland

Here are some of our favorite pics from our long weekend in Yosemite National Park.  We (or at least I) almost didn't go because the weather forecast predicted snow storms all weekend and stated traveling could be "hazardous to impossible".  But...it cleared up Saturday AM, so we decided to try it, and it was actually a beautiful weekend--a mixture of sun and huge heavy snowflakes.  We didn't want to miss it as this might be our last winter in CA and we had never seen Yosemite covered in snow!

The infamous Half Dome that we climbed last summer

Bridal veil falls

What you don't see in this picture is a tree branch right above John's head.  As he was trying to take a picture of Celia and I, a large snow mass fell on his head.  We thought it was funny :)

Celia and I very annoyed after standing in a parking lot for an hour waiting and waiting for the sun to set which was supposed to light up this TINY waterfall behind us a bright red color--something our boys just HAD to photograph.  It didn't happen.

Trying to entertain ourselves in that parking lot.  Celia's snowman was our mascot for the rest of the weekend--he slept outside our cabin.

The boys putting snow chains on the tires so we could make it up the mountain in the snow!  It's quite the ordeal.  John is mostly providing moral support if you can tell.  :)

The girls went snow-shoeing  while getting heavily snowed on

and stopped to make snow angels,

while the boys went skiing/snowboarding.

Here's Sean after one of his jumps didn't turn out so well :)

The lovely little heated cabins we stayed in

And a winter experience wouldn't be complete without...ice skating!  

To all those in WI, you're probably wondering why we would travel to the snow on purpose, but when you don't see it for a long time, it's nice!...but don't get me wrong, it's nice to leave when you're ready too!