Back up and running...

After a three week hiatus we're finally back in action.  We went through the last few weeks with minimal internet access as we were traveling home, moving into our new townhouse, and away again two weekends in a row.  Whew!  We're exhausted!

We got home from our trip Monday August 8th, reunited with our cat Hayleigh, and the movers came on Thursday to move in all our stuff.  We then headed to the Quad Cities to Moline to watch great friends from college Michelle and Paul get married and enjoyed hanging out with many of our college friends.  On Sunday we came home to the excitement of an engagement party for Nate's sister Renee and her now fiance Jason!!  We're very excited for them!

Due to all the craziness of our schedules, blogging has been one of the last priorities for the last few weeks, but hopefully with a brand new computer and tv as our monitor we'll be back up and blogging!!  Back to where we left off......

Saturday July 16th-
With most of the family in town now, our campsite split up.  Renee and Kir went rafting down the Merced River, Lauren hung out with Grandma and the Pearsons, Nate and Brian went fishing and I headed to a photo class.  The famous photographer Ansel Adams spent a lot of time photographing Yosemite's incredible vistas and landscapes.  As a tribute to his work and to teach other photographers to take better photos, they have an Ansel Adams gallery in the park where they offer photography classes.  I took a 4 hour class with an instructor who worked for National Geographic as a Photoshop Editor.   It was a great class with only 2 other students and I learned a lot.  Here are a few pictures from the class:

In the evening, after battling the horrible Yosemite Valley traffic, we all headed out of the park to the Yosemite Valley Lodge where the rest of the family stayed for the week.  The guys had a bachelor party/pool party for Bryan Schroeder and the ladies had a Tea Party with Grandma.

From Top Left: Renee, Sarah, Lauren, Mandy, Grandma Schroeder
Lauren, Kathryn, Nikki

Sunday July 17th -

We woke up Sunday to another glorious day and piled in the car again.  This time to meet most of the Schroeder family at the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite Park.  The Mariposa Grove is a large grove of Giant Sequoia Trees in Yosemite that have survived over 2000 years of logging, fires and millions of visitors.  The trees average over 200 feet tall. The Grizzly Giant is 30 feet in diameter and has large branches that are over 8 feet in diameter.  It's HUGE! We had a blast hiking through these Giant Trees and were humbled to stand next to trees that were alive when Jesus walked the earth.

Squeezing in by the Grizzly Giant

Some of the Schroeder Clan

In the afternoon, the family split up again, some hiking more, some napping at the hotel and some to the Rehearsal Dinner.  Nate was a groomsman so we hurried to shower and dress before the rehearsal dinner.
It was great to meet Lauren's family and more of their friends as they prepared for their big day. The Chapel at Yosemite where they were hitched was also one of the most beautiful locations for a wedding we've ever seen.  Cliffs and waterfalls in the background of your pictures makes the photography pretty easy :)

After the rehearsal dinner, Nate and I headed over to Yosemite Falls to see it up close and then met the rest of the family at their hotel for a hot tub party.  On the way back into the park, Brian, Lauren, Renee, Nate and I were all in good moods and quite awake despite the long day so we decided to head to the Yosemite Falls again, this time to catch the moon bow a second time.  According to Brian and Nate, who had seen it a few nights earlier, the moon was brighter and the wind was stronger which created more mist and thus a larger, more vibrant moon bow.  It was gorgeous.   Unfortunately, we had the settings wrong on the camera so pictures turned out grainy.  Ooops.  We'll just have to go back!!

Love the water at dusk!

Lower Yosemite Falls at Dusk

The Beautiful Moon Bow!