Yosemite National Park {Spring Break 2018, Part Two}

On our way back to Las Vegas after our trip, Derek asked the girls which national park that we visited was their favorite. Hadley said Sequoia was hands-down her favorite solely because of the snow, but Shelby said Yosemite was her favorite because she enjoyed the sound of the waterfalls. I loved both of their answers! We had a great day at Yosemite--it started off a little chilly, but the sun was shining & by the end of the afternoon it was short-sleeve weather! It was crazy how much crowded Yosemite was than Sequoia, and I think that a LOT to do with the temperatures!

The first picture below is of the girls with the Johnny Muir {who is considered to be the Father of the National Parks} statue at the Yosemite Visitors Center.

In the next two pictures below, the girls are doing their "Gaston pose." ;)

One of the coolest things about the waterfalls at Yosemite is that they enabled us to see so many rainbows! If you look closely in the next two pictures below, you can kind of see the rainbow around the bottom of the waterfall! We were so thrilled it showed up in the photos!

While there was definitely still some snow at Yosemite, you can tell our picnic lunch here looked verrrry different than it did at Sequoia. ;)  Also, I had to take this picture b/c it was the first time Brady sat in a chair by himself and ate with us without the aid of a high chair/booster seat! He lasted about five minutes or so, and then he was walking around & exploring as he finished eating his lunch. :)

 

I've got one more post, and then that will wrap up our Spring Break 2018 adventures!

Sequoia National Park {Spring Break 2018, Part One}

We just got back from a quick Spring Break trip to California to check out two more national parks! We stayed in Fresno, CA to put us in a central location to Sequoia National Park & Yosemite. Below are pictures from our day at Sequoia. Derek has been itching to visit this park as it is home to the biggest trees in the world, but I'm sure the girls were more enthralled with the snow! They have only seen once in their lives when were visiting my parents in GA when Shelby was 3 & Hadley wasn't walking yet, so she didn't even get to play in it! So needless to say, the snow was a big deal for them!!

Brady was such a trooper on this trip! {He is definitely our most well travelled baby by far, and he never ceases to amaze us on our trips!} He walked around and explored the snow for a few minutes, but it's hard to get around when you're dressed like the Michelin Man! Brady had fallen face first in the snow and then couldn't get up with all of his winter gear on--I had to get a picture of him before I helped him up, it was just too funny! After this, he wanted to be held the rest of the time. ;)  I couldn't really blame him!!

As you can see in the picture below, Shelby got quite a kick out of being able to eat the snow! ;)

We took the picture below for the sole reason being that we wanted to remember what our "picnic" lunch looked like at Sequoia! It was definitely our first time trying to eat a picnic table surrounded by snow!

The next picture below is right before we walked through this tree!! It's still so crazy to me to think that these trees are big enough that this is even possible!

These next two pictures below are one of my favorite memories of the day! This was part of a paved walking trail that didn't get the snow removed from it {the majority of the trail was clear as you can see in the picture above} and was sloped. The girls had the best time struggling to get up the hill and then sliding back down to the bottom together! They did this over & over & over again!

This last picture is still crazy to me! This was our view as we were leaving the park that day--we were literally in a cloud!

I kept getting nervous as we were driving up the mountain to get into the park that morning b/c we were going up windy mountain roads with no guardrails. I thought the drive back down the mountain would be less nerve-wracking b/c our lane wasn't right on the edge of a cliff anymore, but nope! It was just as nerve-wracking on the way down b/c we could literally barely see more than 50 feet in front of our car b/c of this cloud situation! It was the craziest thing!

FIVE

Hadley is FIVE!!!

 

 

 

Goodness, it's so true what they say--the days are long, but my oh my the years are short. How has it been five years since we brought "Baby Hadley" home from the hospital?! We had a fun weekend celebrating this sweet & sassy girl of ours! On Saturday, we baked Hadley's birthday cake, she opened up two birthday packages she received in the mail, and then I took her on our annual birthday trip to Barnes & Noble!

 

 

 

On Sunday, we had our traditional birthday donuts for breakfast, rode bikes, went to church, during Brady's nap I painted the girls' nails and while they dried the girls had their beloved "TT" {tablet time}, and we wrapped up our weekend with Jason's Deli & Build-a-Bear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today {Monday} was Hadley's actual birthday. She had a fun day celebrating with mini chocolate chip muffins for snack with her classmates at Pre-K, and Monday just so happens to be Show & Tell day..so she got to show off her new Build-a-Bear, too! Hadley picked to go to McDonald's for lunch, and even though Brady refused to eat any of the food there it felt like a huge milestone b/c he could actually play in the play area!!! The two of them had so much fun running around the play area together.

 

We finished off her birthday tonight with her favorite Kraft mac & cheese for dinner, presents, and cake!

 

 

 

And since it's Hadley's 5th birthday, here's five things I want to remember about her at this age:

 

1. I don't think there's any possible way I could ever forget this, but her favorite color is blue. She had a blue cake, a big blue balloon, blue wrapping paper for her presents, she picked a blue bunny at Build-a-Bear...give her all the blue!

 

2. She loves dress-up, make-up, and carrying all her treasures in a purse that BooBoo gave her for Christmas.

 

3. Everything is a treasure to a Hadley. She'll find a sparkly piece of trash on our walk home from school, and she has to have it. She got a prize from the dentist that came in a little plastic container, and the little container is one of her most beloved possessions now. Either she has a great outlook on life and can literally be content with the little things in life, or she'll be on an episode of Hoarders one day. ;)

 

4. She is the best big sister to Brady. She plays chase with him like no one's business and can make him laugh more than anyone else. She is also so incredibly tolerant of him and his toddler antics. Hadley loves to sit in my lap and listen to a story. But Brady is convinced that my lap is solely reserved for him. Brady can be across the room happily playing independently, but if he sees Hadley sitting in my lap he'll come running over to rectify the situation. Hadley never even bats an eye, she just always moves out of lap to make room for him.

 

5. The quickest way to Hadley's heart is through baking, physical touch {she adores having her hair played with or someone rubbing her back or arm}, reading aloud to her, or snuggles while watching a move.

 

We love you, Hadley Mae!!!