Mom's 50th!!!!

yosemite, here we come!

my mom turned 50 on the 22nd and so we all headed south for the weekend. gabe was the only one in the family that had ever been, and the rest of us were pretty excited to see the majestic landscapes. and yosemite didn't disappoint!

i drove down mid-day on friday to get checked in to the house and get everything set up, but more importantly, to get cooper down and asleep before everyone else came. i was able to find a pet friendly house, so the dogs came too. alexi had a softball game and gabe had to work, so the rest of the gang didn't get there until about 10.30.

up bright and early the next morning though, mom wanted to see the sights and hike to where we could at this time of year. no sooner do we get in the cars and head off further into the park,  the sky opens up and just starts dumping on us! it even started to hail! mom insisted that we weren't going to melt, not even cooper, and we were going on!

here we are with el capitan and bridal veil falls in the background. clouds were covering half dome the whole time we were there.

did i mention it was raining? this was us on the walk to bridal veil falls. somehow, we managed to keep cooper dry and warm. he loved all the water. he just stared.

later in the day checking out the lower yosemite falls. and raining again!

this was later that night after we had all drowned. back at the house for mom's birthday dinner. everyone had their party hats, even coop.

we knew that there was a chance of snow for that night. the rain wasn't letting up, but we didn't really think that we would wake up....

to this! about 3 inches at 7 am. cooper's first snow. the deer were out around the house and everything was so pretty. 

except for the fact that it didn't stop snowing the whole morning. by the time we left at 10 am, there was about 7-8 inches. roads were closed and the only one they were plowing was the one through the park! so, after waiting for a bit and getting chains on brennon's truck, we set out for home. and we got there, 6 1/2 hours later! it was pretty funny...i showed up in sandals and a t-shirt and left in multiple layers and fur lined boots!

it was a great trip though and i hope it was the b-day that my mom wanted. happy birthday mom!