Life as a Yowler

Last night Brandon and I reached our breaking point, as far as being tired goes. We went out to eat after seeing Sequioia at a brewery. We didn’t get seated until 8:30 pacific time. By the time our food came, our kids were all sound asleep, with the exception of Isla. We woke them up when the food came. Caed woke up suddenly, and was crying which caused a coughing fit. He couldn’t quit coughing, so I was running him outside to go to the van with Isla while Brandon stayed with the others to finish eating. We didn’t make it before Caed coughed so hard he puked everywhere, and I mean everywhere. That’s when I reached my breaking point. The staff at that brewery were SO incredible. The same girl who seated us, came over and cleaned everything up, because I was holding the baby and very in shock. I can’t even begin to thank her. Not one person there made me feel terrible. Some random man eating came over and patted Caed on the head and tried to calm him down and told him he was so sorry he’s sick. Everyone was amazing. As I was thanking the girl for her amazing act of service she told me, “it’s actually not that uncommon that I have to clean up puke here.” Right! I forgot it was a brewery. 🤣 she is amazing and I’m so thankful I was surrounded by the random, kind strangers that I was. When we got to the car, Caed was crying. He said, “I hate this stupid cough.” He was so embarrassed. I was too, but I tried to reassure him no one was mad at him. At that moment I really wished we were home. Brandon was exhausted on the drive back to the hotel. We were fighting and saying some not so nice things. We literally cried out and said, “God, we really need the kids to sleep tonight. We need you to take Caed’s cough away.” God definitely cares about the small things. He answered. Caed slept all night with the exception of one coughing fit that only lasted 10 minutes. Isla did great too. She only nursed a couple times and went right back to sleep immediately.

We woke up feeling more refreshed than we have since we left on this trip. I’m so thankful, because I really wanted to go to Yosemite. I love waterfalls and we were staying so close, I didn’t want to miss the chance.

On the drive in, we noticed that it was very evident the wildfires had hit Yosemite.

It was so sad how much had burned. Even still, most of the trees stood tall. There was still so much beauty to see.

We did lots of hiking.

We saw lots of falls.

Brandon, and the older two kids, did some rock climbing.

There were so much beautiful scenery.

Here is the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America.

Once again, I was blown away by a beautiful national park. It’s amazing to me how the land is different in each of the states. I love seeing and experiencing new things. Brandon tells me I’ve become very adventurous.

Even with the hardships, this trip has been amazing. We still have more to do and more to see. Praying for continued health for all of us. I’m thankful Caed is doing so so much better. In the meantime, we are all pumping the vitamin C and grapefruit seed extract. Brandon has been disinfecting things like the germaphob he is. We will finish this trip strong!

Now onto Redding, California for some more adventures!