Ellis Party of 7: Yosemite....our backyard ( well sort of)

Mark, Taylor and I had a chance to hop over to Yosemite National Park for a few days last week. It is absolutely gorgeous there! Unfortunately the waterfalls were dry because its the summertime...but we were not disappointed with the breathtaking views of Half dome and El Capitan! Mark and taylor hiked together in the new Kelty backpack I got Mark for father's day. And lucky for me I only had to carry snacks and water. :) We had a great time and Taylor had a ball in the great outdoors. A mama deer and her two babies crossed our trail about 12 feet from us and Taylor got really excited! I think she thought they were doggies but oh well she did see them...and well they do kind of look like our dogs. We did see a baby black bear too crossing the road one night.

After we left we found out there had been a big rock slide later in the day and the park service had to evacuate part of the Valley..Thank you Lord that we were not there at the time! We're slowly beginning to explore around California. I guess everyone makes their sacrifices in order to live in this beautiful state. We're finding that most of those sacrifices invlove finances...its costs money to do EVERYTHING here! But we are taking it all in stride. We know God has a plan and an adventure for us here for the time being. And when we've seen and done it all this year we'll move along. We've found a great church with lots of activities for families. We've even made a few friends already! So, life is starting to normal out for the Ellis family here...even though we miss family and friends terribly.

I posted a few pics from our trip below. Theres more posted on our facebook page...its so much easier to upload photos to facebook for some reason. So if you have a facebook acct and you are not our friend let me know and I'll add you so you can see more...if you arent on facebook...get one and we can be friends.

Taylor and Mark hiking up Yosemite falls....it was bone dry