THE BIG HIKE IS FINALLY HERE! HALF DOME, HERE WE COME!

First, let me say that the waterfalls in Yosemite right now are GORGEOUS!!!!  Wowwee kazowwee gorgeous.  They're way bigger than the postcards show!  The meadows, also, are insanely green and beautiful.  Maybe that's why it was so crazy crowded!  I'm not much of a camper but I have to admit that camping at Upper Pines campground makes so much logistical sense when you're attempting Half Dome.  It took us an hour and a half to drive thru the valley to reach our campground!  Once there, though, we were a 10 or 15 minute walk to the trailhead for the Mist Trail and Half Dome beyond.  That became important for our 3:30 am wake up time!

Traffic was so slow, they got out and walked a bit!

And took our picture!

More beautiful and intimidating than ever.

We reached the valley on Saturday afternoon, planning on hiking Half Dome on Sunday.  However, the bad traffic prevented us setting up camp in a reasonable timeframe so we ended up postponing out big hike until Monday.  We spent Sunday acclimating and strolling up to Mirror Lake which was a perfect 'day before' hike.  We pre-hydrated.  We were ready!!!!!

Our Mirror Lake picnic spot

Holly's other butterfly buddy.  How does she do this?  This one drank the grape juice she offered.

At 5pm, we started our prep.  We got the kids showered at Curry Village and into their hiking clothes with sweats over.  We ate an early pasta dinner.  We packed all our snacks, lunch, and water in our camelbaks and stowed them in the bear box.  We even got breakfast all ready so we could get out of camp quickly and quietly in the morning.  We went to bed early.

Around midnight Janise got sick.  She spent the next 3 hours traipsing back and forth to the bathroom.  Yuck.  Poor Sydney was so excited she couldn't sleep much at all and she was getting worried about mom.  At 3:30am the alarms went off and Jason said, "What do you want to do, mama?"  I said, "Let's go.  Maybe I'm just excited."  (Nope, still feeling puny 5 days later.)  Holly's winning comment at 3:30am, as she's shivering thru a yogurt and a banana was, "Is this really necessary?"  That got some laughs.

We needed headlamps to make it to the trailhead.  We were there by 4:30am!!!!!  The kids were giddy excited.  The color of the pre-dawn light reflected off the granite walls of the canyon preceeding Vernal Falls is something I'll never forget.  It was the most beautiful purple/ blue.  STUNNING!  Worth it!

The Mist Trail drenched us so much that we just barely paused at the top of Vernal Falls for a quick picture.  We pushed on up to the top of Nevada Falls because we were all so cold.  By the top of Nevada Falls, the sun was up and we were able to take a break and warm up.  Also, it became clear that Janise had to turn back.  No one was happy about that and there were a few tears.  But, hey, 3 of us were still looking strong!!!!!!!

Had to do this.  We have this picture from 2 years ago in this same spot.

Reality setting in.

Jason, Sydney, and Holly all made it to the top!  YAY!!!!!!  Both girls said later that they thought the cables were a little scary going up but really fun coming back down.  They passed one frozen hiker.  They saw 4 deer and a marmot who stole a lunch out of a backpack!  Check out their amazing photos.

On top of the world!!!!!!

Now they can do anything, ANYTHING!

Jason carried this diet pepsi all the way up there for Janise.  Holly drank it.  This pic made Janise cry just a little. The paper says, "Miss you Mom."

Look for their great cairn up there to the right as you get off the cables!

Proud daddy with his girls on the cables.

Brave girls.

On the Mist Trail, getting drenched for the 2nd time in a day.

The journey took them about 14 hours.  Boy were they tired!  Janise drove their tired legs over to Curry Village for showers and pizza.  We all looked up at Half Dome in the fading light and Jason mentioned that it looked farther away than ever.  It did! The kids were so amazed that they went 'all the way up there' in one day.   SO SO PROUD!!!!!

Thanks for sharing this amazing journey with us!