Yosemite (Our Babymoon?)

I grew up in the Central Valley which means I lived in the shadows of Yosemite but I had never been.  Sean grew up in Southern California and also had never been.  This is a perfect example of how people don't take advantage of their local attractions and it is something that I am consciously trying to not fall victim to.  I was 6 months pregnant but I was determined to get up to Yosemite on our next available weekend off.

Sean doesn't get many holidays off of work but he does get Good Friday.  This holiday always takes us by surprise as it comes up each year (we're not Catholic so we don't think about it) and I always lament that we didn't plan a getaway weekend.  This year I was on top of it, sort of.  We were only a couple weeks out from the holiday but as soon as we confirmed he had it off we booked our trip to Yosemite.  There aren't a lot of hotels near Yosemite (unless you want to pay super bucks for it) so I decided to go a route that I've always wanted to do but hadnt had the opportunity.  We tried out a Bed and Breakfast.

There were a couple that had AMAZING reviews so we ended up with the Poppy Hill B&B in Mariposa.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes quaint B&Bs.  I'll digress from our Yosemite adventures to describe this gem.

I wanted character with our B&B and Sean wanted to feel like he was out in the woods.  We both got what we wanted.  I thought Mariposa would be more like the foothills, dry barren and not very pretty, but it was still in the mountains where there were plenty of woodsy trees.  The property is gorgeous with cute wood benches among bird baths and bird houses.  The house was super quaint.  As Sean put it, your typical B&B.  The service was great.  Amazing yummy breakfast in the morning with cheese and crackers and dessert put out at night.  I'm not a socializer with people I dont know so I was a little worried about the interactions with the other guests, but we all had our own schedules that we rarely saw each other and when we did it was easy to make small talk.  Our room had the best view in the house.  Our only complaint was that the wood floors creaked a bit when you moved around but other than that full marks!

View from our room

Our very cute and quaint bedroom

Part of the sitting room

Isnt this gorgeous!

Very pretty gardens

Ok back to Yosemite.  We drove up there on a Friday and came in from the southern entrance.  From my research I learned the more beautiful entrance was along Highway 140 but since we were headed to Glacier Point Road first, this made more sense in our itinerary.  We would be leaving the park that evening via Highway 140 so I was happy to see everything.

Glacier Point Road typically first opens at the end of May or the beginning of June because of the snow.  Since we've been lacking in that department we were so lucky to have it open the weekend before we arrived.  Based on a friends recommendation we did the hike to Sentinel Dome.  It was a 1.1 mile hike to the top of the dome where we had great views of El Capitan and Half Dome.  It was everything I wanted in a hike.  I loved breathing in the fresh mountain air and hiking over the dirt and rocks (all our other hikes ended up being on paved walk ways so this hike was great).  Afterwards we headed to Glacier Point.

On top of Sentinel Dome

I like this photo of Sean taking a photo of the valley.

And this is the shot that he took.

Glacier Point is around 7,000 feet altitude.  The valley floor is around 3,000 so you can imagine our views of looking DOWN on Yosemite Valley or STRAIGHT AT some of the other attractions like Half Dome.  There are no words to describe it.  I've seen pictures of Yosemite but there is just something about seeing it in person.  Simply put, its so much more epic than you can imagine.  On our way down from Glacier Point we stopped at the Tunnel to get the very typical Yosemite View.  We hit it at the perfect time, it was nearing sunset and the lighting was great.  Afterwards we headed out to Mariposa to our B&B.

It was scary looking down because it was sheer cliffs!

You can see Yosemite Falls in the background.  Also back in the day very gutsy people would take pictures out on that rock ledge, including a person who would drive a horse-less carriage out there, crazy!

Vernal (lower) and Nevada (upper) Falls.  We hiked to the footbridge below Vernal Falls the following day.

The Ahwanee Hotel.  The next day we sat in front of that hotel and looked up to this cliff and spend a long time trying to find where we were standing.

Some day we'll come back to hike this.

You just have to see it to believe it.

We decided to bring a tripod so we could set up the shot how we wanted it.  The sun was kinda in our faces and we definitely were not wearing complimentary clothes but it was still nice to get a photo of both of us.

Saturday we got up early to make sure we had plenty of time to see everything we wanted.  Even though the sun had been up for hours it wasn't reaching the Valley so it was freezing when we first pulled into the park.  We stopped to look at El Capitan and put on our thick jackets.  We were bummed to not be able to see anyone climbing but a small compensation was seeing deer right along the road.

Merced River, can you believe those boulders!

Such a pretty drive to the park.

These guys were taking selfies with the deer which was NOT shy

Almost too big to get in your shot

Yosemite Falls

My very handsome honey!

We parked in their visitor lot and took their recommended shuttles to various locations including the visitor center and museum, Yosemite Falls, and the Yosemite Lodge.  Afterwards we headed to Happy Isles where we would start the hike to the footbridge below Vernal Falls.  Vernal Falls was labeled as a "moderate" hike so I knew it would be a little tough for me (I am 6 months pregnant).  It ended up being a bit more difficult than I expected because the short .8 mile hike rose by 400 ft.  We saw a lady being accompanied down by paramedics because she overexerted herself.  This got Sean nervous because he knows I have a tendency to push myself beyond my ability.  He suggested a couple of times that we turn around and not complete the hike.  I wasn't going to let that happen.  I started something and I wanted to complete it.  I knew my weaknesses so I consciously told Sean to stop and rest much more than I would have done normally.  I think we stopped about 6 times before we finally made it to the bridge.  How glad I was to follow through with it and not give up.  I'll have to save this story for when my kids want to give up on something.

An Indian replica village outside the museum.

Lower Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls

From the Vernal Falls Footbridge.  This hike was steep but had some amazing views.

Our next stop was the Ahwanee Lodge.  It was a gorgeous lodge built in the 1920s with amazing details from decorated wood beams to hand carved restroom stall doors.  It's pricey to stay there (I told Sean 2 nights there would pay for a plane ticket to Europe) but were glad we could walk around and enjoy it.  We ended up eating at their Bar and Lounge (you had to be dressed up for the dining room).

Inside of the Ahwanee

Expensive hotel but in a great location

6 months pregnant and sitting with my feet up

This is taken from our chairs outside the Ahwanee.  Up there is Glacier Point.

Taken with my long lens, if you zoom in more you can see the rock ledge and people hanging out at Glacier Point.  It is so far up there!

The last thing we wanted to do was to get some good shots of Half Dome.  We made our way to a meadow where we had a great view of the Dome.  It was nearing sunset and the beautiful view was a great way to end our trip to Yosemite (minus the 45 minutes it took to just get out of the parking lot).

We had to wait for a very long time to just get out of the parking lot.

We waited so long that I had to stop and use the restroom on our way out of the park.  As Sean put it, even the Outhouses had amazing views.

Our visit was perfect.  Glacier Point was open (HUGE bonus) and it was still spring time so there was water in the falls (dries up in the summer time).  It was spring break which I think led to the crowds so that wasn't as enjoyable but hey, we can't have the park all to ourselves!  Summertime is suppose to be even worse which just makes me think that it would be miserable to visit at that time.  We have already talked about returning to hike Half Dome which is something that I've been wanting to do for years and am now excited that Sean is totally on board.

It was a very enjoyable trip and probably one of the last ones until our baby girl is born.

Gender of Baby Madsen

Last week Sean and I decided it would be kinda fun to look at old wives tales to predict gender.  Here's what we got:

No Acne=Boy

Sweet Tooth=Girl

No Morning Sickness=Boy

Dry Hands=Boy

Chinese Calendar=Girl

Ring over Belly=Boy

Mayan Calendar=Boy

Carrying Low=Boy

High Baby Heart Rate=Girl

Dad Gaining Weight=Boy

So there you have it.  Majority of old wives tales indicate we should be having a boy. 

They're wrong.  We're having a GIRL!

To be honest we really thought we were having a boy so I was genuinely shocked when they told us it was a girl.  I told Sean, too bad you didn't record my reaction because it was probably good.  We're excited to be planning and preparing for baby girl Madsen to join our family this summer!

Halfway There!

This past Monday was 20 weeks for me.  I can't believe I am halfway through my pregnancy!

Here's my baby bump in all its glory!

Many have asked if I got "sick" (nice euphemism) and really I haven't.  I could count on one hand the times that I got close to being sick but never quite got there.  I was surprised to not sleep very well in my 2nd and 3rd months.  During these months I had a lot of neck pain (probably from sleeping bad) which led to a lot of headaches.  I think I got a lot of headaches too because of cabin fever.  Sean used to complain of cabin fever and I thought he was being a little whinny but now I totally get it.  I completely believe being stuck at home all day can really affect your health.

My 4th and now my 5th months have been great!  I have been sleeping so much better (I slept all the way to 4:30AM last night!).  My neck pains and headaches are infrequent and I've been very productive at home which helps with the cabin fever.  I've gone on lunch dates with friends and trips to the park.  I've upped my walking exercise to be outdoors more often.  I even attacked some home projects.  I have recaulked our shower, reupholstered our piano bench and am currently working on repurposing an old dresser to be the baby's new dresser.

The hardest part was removing the stupid staples that held the fabric together

Now we just need to get a matching rug

Speaking of baby, since I'm at 20 weeks every one is asking if we know the gender.  We have an appointment next week and have no fear, we will be posting the gender.  We are getting very excited because we feel like we cant move on till we know this information.  I have felt the baby move around and Sean has even felt the baby give a healthy kick.  We're excited for these to happen more often. I have officially started to outgrow my regular clothes.  Sunday I had to change my church outfit because once I sat down to put on my shoes I realized that I couldn't breathe.  Bring on the maternity clothes (which thanks to Goodwill I've picked up some good stuff)! 

Epic 30th Birthday

I turned 30 yesterday.  Many months ago I told Sean that I wanted to do something "epic" for my 30th.  Kinda ironic that I said this because we're really not big into birthdays.  For us its just another day.  We dont buy birthday gifts and if we do they're usually pretty small or even gag gifts.  We make handmade cards.  But we do have cake.  Chocolate cake with 7 Minute Frosting is a MUST.  That's the only important thing for a birthday.  :)

So when I said I wanted to do something "epic" for my birthday that got the wheels rolling.  Sean suggested that I do something with girlfriends which made me think of going on a roommate cruise.  I called up 3 of my old roommates and said, do you want to go on a getaway cruise out of LA with me to celebrate our 30th?  Unfortunately it didn't work out for one of them but the other 2 were on board. 

These are my roommates from my Junior year at BYU.  We had SOOO much fun together.  Casey was my roommate since freshman year (we just hit it off so well), Liesel was my childhood friend who moved away and we reconnected when she came to BYU that year and Heidi was a random girl who lived below us freshman year who needed a new place to live so we thought, why not try it out?  We were the perfect dynamo.  We made silly music videos, we had LOTS of dance parties and spent hours sharing stories of awkward dates, boys we liked and everything else you experience in college.  

I really wanted the cruise to happen DURING my birthday but not everything can be perfect.  We left at the beginning of February.  Our getaway cruise spent a day at Catalina Island (which I had never been to), spent a day at sea and the last day was in Ensenada, Mexico.  This is our adventure....

Liesel and Heidi came from cold Utah and Montana so of course I had to take them to some good authentic Mexican.

They took every opportunity to soak up the warm California weather.

Getting on our boat was sort of a pain, it left from a different pier than it returned so we had to take a shuttle from the parking lot to our boat.

So excited to start our trip!

We had to wait in this long line to just check in.  It took us about 2 hours to get on to the boat.  Boo.

We took the obligatory muster drill in good stride.

Our comedian was racist and not funny.  Very disappointing.

We told them this was a birthday celebratory cruise so they obliged with balloons and a voucher for a treat.

This was my first time on Catalina.  There's a lot of stuff I wanted to do but was restricted because I was pregnant.  I'll have to go back later after the baby is born.

We rented beach cruisers to ride around Avalon.

We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens which was 2 miles up an slight inclined hill.  Not wanting to overdue myself, I ended up walking about half of it.

The Botanical Garden was small but a nice little escape.

The sun wasn't my friend but there is a deer in the trees.  It got pretty close to us.  I'm always surprised at how big they are.

On my to do list next time-take a tour of this historic building.

My friends obliged my museum attending desires.  This was actually a really well-done small museum about the cultural history of the island.  I also learned a bit of baseball trivia that Sean didnt know--the Cubs did Spring Training on the island which helped introduce baseball to the West.

We went to a show and it got crowded fast!  This was 20 minutes before the show even started!

One of the nights they had a 5 course meal.  It was . . . interesting.

We decided to play Jeopardy one night.  The questions were super duper hard.  We also did Karaoke one night which was . . . awkward!  They messed up our song and we didn't have the lyrics so we just danced around looking like drunk idiots.  Oh wait, we just fit in.

We went dancing on two of the nights.  We were so surprised to get into the night club to find that it was filled with geriatrics dancing to Pitbull and Lady Gaga. 

The beautiful port city of Ensenada Mexico.  I think I spent a grand total of 1 hour on land.

We asked an older gentleman to take our photo.  We told him his finger was covering the camera which he didn't believe us.

We took a photo with our old roommate Casey because she couldn't make it on our cruise.  We hung her picture in our room and thought of her often.  We wanted her to be a part of our cruise!  We missed you Casey! 

The one thing to do in Ensenada, the Cultural Center.  It used to be a Casino and Hotel in the Hollywood Days.  Now its has a small local history museum and banquet halls for receptions.

This museum had better English translations than famous museums in Europe.

We stopped to take some pictures with the locals.

Typical Ensenada street.

I used my huge vocabulary of Spanish to order Thrifty ice cream (special ice cream for those who know it). 

Liesel and Heidi wanted to get as much sun as possible so they went to a beach while I headed back to the ship.  A man asked if they wanted to ride horses and they said, why not?! 

Liesel bought some local wares for her kids in Montana.

Hard to see but there were a bunch of seals that kept swimming to this little embankment.  We figured they knew the ship would stir up food when we left.  They were very excited.

Blurry I know, but we decided to get mocktails on our last night. 

We spent some time chilling in our room reminiscing of the good ole days.

This was a great birthday celebration.  I did things on the cruise that I wouldn't have done with Sean (dancing, karaoke, acting silly again).  Even though it had been almost 10 years since we lived together it felt like we had just stepped back in time and were exactly the same.  As Liesel put it, we even have the exact same dance moves!  Thanks girls for creating a fun, epic memory for my 30th birthday!

My actual birthday ended up being fantastic too.  Sean happened to have the day off of work (how lucky that it happened to be my birthday).  We just spent the day together, sleeping in, eating lunch at a Japanese Restaurant, taking a stroll around a lake in a nearby neighborhood and of course eating cake and ice cream.  I loved just spending the day with my best friend!  Love you Sean!