Winter in Yosemite

I had some problems uploading photos to our blog soon after we returned from our Christmas adventures, so I'm incredibly late posting these! After our lovely Christmas trip to Sedona, we came home for two nights and one day, during which time we furiously did laundry and repacked all of our warm clothes. We quickly made a reservation online for a heated and insulated tent in Yosemite, and hit the road before dawn after less than 48 hours at home. This was Paige's first trip to Yosemite (and Parker's too), and we found that winter was a beautiful time to visit the Park. We were lucky to have some snow to make the sights extra beautiful, and LOTS of snow to play in at the ski area at Badger Pass. Parker had so much fun, and was such an easy kid to travel with. We loved our short time in Yosemite, and definitely plan to make another, LONGER trip back soon!

Dressing Himself

As Parker approaches the "Big Three" year-old mark, he's becoming noticeably more opinionated about what he wears! Usually he insists on wearing his Chargers jersey from Grandpa Niki day in and day out (it's a definite favorite), which often means that he is disappointed when it's in the wash. Today was his first day of our second semester of parent-toddler "preschool," so he chose this festive number himself for the big day! I was kind of saving it in the back of my mind for a future Tahitian or Hawaiian or Fijian adventure, but I guess preschool in Oceanside will have to do!

Christmas in Sedona

We spent Christmas '09 in Sedona, Arizona with my mom and dad--it was fun to get away to such a beautiful place for a few days, and we managed to bring Christmas along with us! We brought a little fake tree that we decorated when we got to the hotel room, and made sure to have Parker put out milk and cookies for Santa before bedtime on Christmas Eve. We also ran out onto the balcony in the cold, cold darkness to look up into the Sedona sky in search of Santa's sleigh--as soon as we looked up, I saw a shooting star, which I figure must be a sure sign that he was on his way. Parker finally fell asleep around midnight, which meant that Jared could finally get up and put the presents under the tree and in Parker's stocking! I woke up excitedly around 6:30 on Christmas morning, and kept staring at Parker, who was sleeping so soundly, until we finally woke him up and coaxed him into checking to see if Santa had come in the night! It was a fun Christmas this year, since we had been talking up all of the fun Santa things in the last couple of months--Parker is finally old enough to have made it through Christmas without being totally oblivious to all of the excitement. We were happy to be able to spend Christmas with family this year (we were in Mexico the last two Christmases), and are so thankful to both my mom and dad for helping us have such a wonderful holiday! It was a really special time (Sarah Palin book and all...).