November and December 2020 seem like a long time ago, but I do fully intend to catch up on this someday, as it is the closest thing I have to a journal. November had an early snowfall, which I don't love (snow is only okay for the month of December). But when Olive and I went for a trail run one morning, the snow did look beautiful with the leaves that were still hanging on. I have been doing mostly trail runs and not so much pounding the pavement since the broken ankle and no races and I have really been loving it. Maybe I will retire from racing and just slowly run around trails enjoying the view.
I can't remember exactly why we went to the zoo, but we thought it was hilarious that they had put facemasks on the lion statues that we were no longer allowed to touch so that we would be double sure not to catch Covid from them. Ha. The rest of the animals didn't have masks on, so it was still fun, and beautiful weather.
This was the first (and hopefully only) year where we had Thanksgiving just our own little family. Everyone was still trying to avoid large gatherings. Grandmas and grandpa and were being smart and trying to stay away from germy teen/pre-teens who went to school with hundreds of other germy teens/pre-teens every day. Me and Preston made all the essentials, turkey (maybe just a breast), sweet potatoes, potatoes and gravy, rolls, and of course the three-colored jello grandma always makes. It was good and cozy but I missed my mommy!
We did do a zoom with all the Haun family, and everyone tried to play "Among Us" which was a game that everyone loved to play around this time. You could play with people you know, and you are all little guys who wander around a spaceship, and one is chosen to try and kill all the others and everyone has to guess who the killer is. Everyone is "sus" and then you type messages to each other and pretend you are not the killer if you are. I suck at it. But the kids loved it.
I am not sure what this picture is about, but there were a lot of them so I thought I would put it in, just to remember what Arden's friends looked like (this is Emily, Arden, and Allie, and I'm not sure who the little head in the corner is, someone's little cousin or something.)
Dax had his first band concert! We could only have one person attend, and you couldn't see him at all during the concert, but luckily I had made him take a couple of pictures in front of the Christmas tree! He even smiled!
He's a handsome dude:
Cora's theater was still doing plays. They would wear masks during rehearsals (supposedly), but took them off during performances. Cora got to be Hermes in a production of Hercules, and she had her own rap she got to do. She did great!
It is fun because a lot of kids from the neighborhood are in the plays too, and Cora's buddy Abby is usually there too:
Most of our usual Christmas traditions (choir concerts, temple square lights, etc.) were closed because of COVID, but the Cross-E ranch down the hill put together a drive-through Christmas lights display. It wasn't much, but it had the Christmas story, and some tractors with lights, and most importantly, you could buy the apple cider donuts at the end!
Its pretty hard to take pictures of us in the car and the stuff out the window, so, I didn't do that.
My mom did get brave enough to invite us over for Christmas Eve dinner. I still kept my mask on just in case (except when I was eating the traditional Christmas Eve pizza and garlic bread and egg nog, of course):
All the kids got their traditional Christmas jammies also, they look so cuuuute!
And then, Christmas was here again! Somehow Santa didn't forget anyone, everything was wrapped, and everyone seemed happy enough, so, good job me!
The kids were most excited for their new iPHONES!! Squeeeee! (we all actually needed new phones and we got them for free, but don't tell anyone). They were excited to have the newest iPhones of any of their friends. (just FYI, it has been nearly 2 years and we still have those same phones, so don't think that we are those new-iPhones-every-time people. We are not).
Here is another picture of Dax since he wasn't in the last one. He got some pretty cool Star Wars legos, and put them together amazingly fast! This ship is from the Mandalorian, a Star Wars show from Disney Plus, the new Disney streaming service.
We did our usual tradition and headed to the cabin for the week between Christmas and New Years! It was nice and peaceful and quiet, and freezing. I do love the snow in December, and there was plenty up Fish Haven Canyon when Olive and I were trying to run/hike off some of the Christmas treats.
Beaver Mountain was open for limited skiers, but the lodge was closed completely. The kids didn't like the sound of skiing without any hot chocolate or yummy lunches (cold pb&j in the car didn't sound appealing), so it was a quiet week. We sledded, played games, watched movies and all the usual stuff. We did get out of the cabin and did the local escape room, and we escaped!
We did a little New Years Eve celebration. Preston and I went out to dinner with our old friends, John and Sandy who live in Alaska, but were at the lake because Sandy's parents also have a cabin. Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to the Bear Trapper, so everyone was well fed and happy.
We headed back to the cabin and waiting for midnight to come (I think we actually called 11:00 p.m. midnight, but we are getting closer!)
We pulled poppers and blew horns and toasted in 2021, which for sure had to be better than 2020!
The next morning I got up to take the dog around the "block," and the sun had a rainbow ring around it:
It was so pretty, I didn't remember seeing anything like that before, so I took it as a good omen that the year would be a beautiful one. On to 2021!
I had been leafing through the AAA Magazine that gets sent to our house, and it had an article in it that talked about how even though Yosemite National Park was open again, they were requiring reservations, so it was expected to be much less crowded during the fall of 2020 since they were limiting park visitors to only a percentage of its usual capacity. I had always wanted to go to Yosemite, and to make a reservation for the park was only like $20 so I jumped online and reserved the days of fall break.
We had let the family of a friend of Preston's use our cabin for a week, and they offered to let us use their RV as kind of a trade. So we decided to take them up on their RV offer and use it to go to Yosemite!
We had never been on an RV trip, so I wasn't sure exactly how it would go, but we decided it would be an adventure. We left after school on the day fall break started, and we drove from our house all the way out to Wendover, and then took a left and drove through the parts of Utah and Nevada that hardly anyone ever sees. It mostly looked like this:
Preston was the driver because I was too afraid to try and maneuver that monstrosity. I mostly got shotgun. We were going to leave Olive home, but she had just had to have a minor surgery and we figured we better take her with us to keep an eye on her, though she does not love car rides. She mostly sat on the floor between Preston and me. We drove and drove and the sun went down and we kept driving. Finally, we started looking for a place to park for the night, and found that the town we were hoping for had zero RV spaces left. We grabbed some pizza there, and then ended up driving to a small down about 20 miles out of the way, and getting the very last space in an RV park there. It was super dark and so I don't have any pictures. We were all pretty exhausted, and once I got my earplugs in, I slept great in the RV. Dax folded out the couch, and the girls slept in the bed above the cab.
We got up the next morning and.....drove! There had been fires in California that I was hoping wouldn't block all of the views of our trip, but as we left Nevada and headed into California, the horizon didn't look promising. See all that smoke? Ruh-roh.
We climbed and climbed and eventually we made it to the gate! It was crowded mess at the gate, as I think a lot of people were finding out about the whole, "No getting into the park without a reservation" thing the hard way. The rangers checked our reservation paper and waved us through, and we had been cooped up in the RV for so long we got out on the first hike we came to, the Gaylor Lakes hike.
It had a good reviews, and the kids were excited to get out and go...until the first mile or so of the hike was pretty much straight up a mountain. There was a little whining, but everyone was happy when we reached the beautiful lakes! The sun was shining and the skies were blue, but you could still see the smoke hanging over the main area of the park.
We walked all around one lake and then down to a lower lake. I told Arden that the hike review said there was an abandoned mine up above the upper lake, and she wanted to go see it. The upper lake looked far away up a hill, so Dax and Cora opted out, and Arden and I promised we would hurry and catch up to them on the hike back.
So we hiked ourselves up to the upper lake, and weren't sure exactly where the trail to the mine was, but I saw a trail heading straight up another mountain, and guessed that was the way. Arden was pooped out by now, and asked if I could please run up that huge steep hill and see if the mine was up there. If it was, I was instructed to take some pictures to show her, because she wasn't going up there. The elevation was affecting both of us, but I dutifully power hiked up that bad boy, lungs and legs burning.
It was up there! There was a mine shaft with a little building around it, but it was pretty beaten up, and they had put boards over the shaft so you couldn't look down into it. But the views from up there were amazing! (look down to see the upper lake far below, and the middle lake even farther below. Stunning! And sooo steep! But I am so glad I went up, and fully will do it again if I'm ever there again.
Me and Arden hustled back down the mountain, but stopped to take a picture of this beautiful girl by the lake before we headed into the forest and back down the mountain to the RV.
Olive was very happy to see us, as it was a no-dogs allowed hike and she had to stay in the RV to guard it. After that we drove further into the park and went down into the smoke, but the sun was still shining through, and so it wasn't too bad at all.
We stopped at Tenaya lake and walked around for a while, and here is a beautiful picture of our RV!
By this time I was getting excited to see my first giant sequoia. Dax wasn't in the mood to hike anymore, so he stayed with the dog in the RV, while the rest of us headed down a trail. We walked and walked, and saw some really big trees and started wondering if they were "giant," but then we came around a corner and saw our first real giant sequoia, and it actually gave me the chills. It was almost magical. I know you always hear it, but the pictures here don't do it justice. It wasn't a hugely giant Giant Sequoia, but it was BIG. From these pictures you can't tell because the girls are really like 20 feet in front of the tree, but it was large and red and beautiful.
We walked further down and there were a few more, and I was duly impressed. They are just so much more impressive in person than I thought they would be.
After this, it was getting late and we wanted to get to our RV campground before it was fully dark, so we headed out. We stayed at a place right outside the park, and I was expecting there to be a town right on the border, kind of like West Yellowstone. But no. There was pretty much ONLY a gas station and our RV park for like 20 miles. I had planned on us eating at restaurants at night, but that went out the window. Once we got in and found our parking spot, we were all pretty hungry. So, we went to the gas station to find ourselves some dinner! Luckily we must not be the only ones in our predicament, because this gas station had a VERY large microwaveable and easy to cook dinner section. The kids picked out some delicious selections and were pretty happy campers with their pizza and orange chicken and whatever.
We got the kids started on some food and then me and Preston got to go and try to figure out how to do all the RV hookup stuff. Looks cozy in there, right.?
The next day we made our first journey to Yosemite Valley! It was a little smoky so I was worried that the view from the Tunnel Viewpoint would be just nothing but grey, but it was actually really pretty! Even Olive liked it!
After the lookout, we headed into the valley itself. It was so cool to see El Capitan!
We went on a hike/walk around the valley, and the views were AMAZING!! The weather was perfect, in the 60s and 70s.
It was fun to see half dome. I really someday want to climb up the rope hike up the back side! Bucket list item for sure.
The river was also really low, but still looked really pretty. There was a lot of smoke in the air which was a bummer, but I was just thankful that it wasn't worse than it was.
We walked over by where Yosemite Falls usually is, but it was completely dry. Another bucket list item will be to come back someday when the falls are raging.
We decided to do a hike over to see Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. This was the only time we had a hard time parking the RV, but we couldn't find a spot at the trailhead, so we had to walk a little extra. But when we got closer to the trailhead, we had perfect timing to see a bear!
He/she (I'm not sure) hung out for quite a while...I think he wanted to cross the trail, but all of us humans were in the way, just standing around and taking his picture.
After a while we took pity on him and moved on down the trail, but I don't know how long it took him to cross the trail. We walked up quite a ways, it was a lot of uphill. It wasn't crowded, but whenever we passed people we had to pull our masks up over our faces because of COVID, but when we were alone we were able to pull them down so we could huff and puff more easily as we climbed. The hike was really pretty the whole way up, but the kids kind of pooped out before we got all the way to the top. I was not going to miss the view from the top so, I told them to make themselves comfortable on a big rock and wait while me and Preston ran up the last half mile. It was so pretty! But it was a LOT of uphill. And again, the waterfalls were nearly empty. The waterfall is to the right of the big cliff, it is barely a trickle.
I ran back down to the kids (Preston followed at a more leisurely pace). I found the kid still on their rock, enjoying some snacks and enjoying not walking up a hill anymore:
There were a lot of these pretty blue birds flying around all over this hike. They were so pretty! I learned later they are Stellar Blue Jays. They put the blue jays around my house to shame.
Everyone else was pretty tired, but I really wanted to hike over to the rim of Vernal Falls. We were a couple of miles up the trail when the fork happened, so I promised I would hike/run and catch everyone else before they got to the RV.
It was a very beautiful, fun hike, with lots of scary stairs next to the falls. I was glad that there was at least a little water in it. When I got to the top I was all alone, which I'm sure doesn't happen very often. I'll try and upload a video:
I hurried down and did catch the rest of the fam before the RV. After we walked back down, the sun was starting to set. Here is Half Dome in the fading light:
We pretty much had to head out at that point. By the time we drove back to our lovely spot, it was dark. We rushed to get to the gas station before it closed so the kids could again choose a lovely gas station meal for dinner. They were actually (thankfully) pretty excited about it, though I couldn't muster up as much enthusiasm as they had for the burritos and Hot Pockets.
The campground we were at was really beautiful also, and had lots of amenities like mini golf and playgrounds. We didn't spend much time at it, but it still looked pretty at night:
The next day, we drove down to the Mariposa Grove to see more giant sequoias. The drive was really pretty. We discovered when we got there that the main parking lot was closed, so we had to walk an extra like 1.2 miles. Cora was not. pleased. She pretty much pouted the entire walk and wanted to be carried despite the fact that she is no longer anything close to a carryable age. It was kind of not that fun of a walk. :)
But we made it! This is Preston's "I'm-smiling-because-Chrystie-told-me-to-smile-but-I'm-not-really-in-the-smiling-mood" smile.
Once we got there and the trees were so amazing and beautiful the whining slowed down a little, and we were able to enjoy ourselves, mostly. There was a REALLY big tree there called the Grizzly Giant. It was impossible to take a picture of the whole thing, and they wouldn't let you get too close to it, but it is 96.5 feet in diameter at the base, and is estimated to weigh 2 million pounds.
Here is me and the willing kids posing next to a tree that blew over, these are the roots behind us. Cool to see, sad for the tree.
The crew is standing under a tree that they made a tunnel through. The tree is still alive! I'm sure it isn't too excited about the tunnel but it is making the best of it.
After we got done marveling at the trees, (and enduring another very whiny 1.2 miles back to the RV) we decided to try and drive up Glacier Pass. I was a little worried that the RV might be too large, but it worked out fine! And the views were worth it! Cora is fully recovered and smiling again!
The views of the valley were incredible! You could look down and see everything, even the fancy Ahwanee Hotel (which is also on my bucket list...it seems to be growing rather than shrinking).
We drove back down and wanted to stop at the base of El Cap and watch the climbers for a while. It was breathtaking!
It was fun to watch the climbers moving around, but really impossible to take pictures of them. There were quite of few on different routes...some were still climbing and some were all bedded down for the night in their terrifying hanging beds thousands of feet above the ground. I would have loved to see the view from up there though, but climbing El Cap is NOT on my bucket list...I know my limitations ;). (If you haven't seen the movie Free Solo, go watch it! So glad that guy didn't fall to his death!). Perfect end to Yosemite Day.
We kept up our tradition of racing to the gas station and picking up dinner there...by the end of the day we were always to tired to drive the extra 20 miles to the nearest town.
The next morning we had to pack up our campsite and head home. Here is a picture of the girls all snuggled in to their beds above the cab.
Here is Dax, doing what he did most of the way home:
We had to drive all the way home in one shot, but luckily we got to drive home through the park. We stopped for the obligatory picture on our last time entering. It was sad to be going in for the last time, but I'm so glad I finally made it to Yosemite.
On the way home we drove through mostly nothing again, but we did see the infamous Clown Motel of Tonopah, Nevada. I will never, ever, ever stay here:
We drove and drove and made it to Wendover right after sunset. The last little bit seemed to take forever, but we made it all the way home in one night. It was a successful first RV trip and I am so glad we went. The lack of crowds in Yosemite was one good thing that came out of COVID, I guess. It was a great first trip, and I really hope I make it back there sometime to check off my new bucket list items.
.heic)
