1st backpacking trip EVER!!!

It's Sunday, July 26th 2009. I've spent all day preparing for my and Williams anniversary trip. It's finally here. I decided this year was the year we would climb half-dome. I started working out like crazy 1/2 a year ago. I've dropped 60 lbs. so I would be able to make the trek...and now my back is strained. I have an Icy-hot pad on the sore spot right now. It feels good. I know I lifted something heavy at work and It's been sore this week. I was hoping it would be better by now. It's annoying if anything. It will not keep me from my mountain!
We have bought everything(and more) that we'll need to be backpackers...tent, pack (for me-William already had one), a stove, sleeping bag, all the miscilaneous items (I'm actually afraid we're over packed). We purchased a bear vault(food canister that is bearproof-$79 from REI)..then found out Yosemite rents them for $5.00 ... oh well. Come to find out I need to rent one for $5.00 anyways because I packed the one I bought and it's not big enough. William says it's supposed to be good for 10 days. I filled it completely and still need room for 1/4 of the food plus the toiletries that have to go into it.
I worked today packing up the food. I used my new FoodSaver that I got at costco and packed everything into complete meal pouches. I made 5 breakfast pouches, 5 lunch, & 5 dinner pouches. Everything needed for the meal is shrunk into the pouch and made as small as possible by the Food Saver. I put lunches together w/ 2-4 mayo packets, cheese, mustard, bread rolls, tyson chicken in a foil pouch(less packaging) and I shrunk it all together in one pouch. Breakfast, I put coffee for the morning and creamer, I measured out my electrolite drink mix and shrunk those into seperate pouches. I feel like we're as ready as we'll get. 8 hours from now we should be on the road...happiness.
Early this morning William and Liam drove to Yosemite to get our Permit. We've been planning on starting in Tuolumne and hiking to Foglesang then to Merced Lake then to Little Yosemite Valley then to Half-Dome, then to Clouds Rest, then to Sunset lakes then back to Little Yosemite.
William didnt get that permit because the person in line ahead of him got the last one...so now our first night has to be in Little Yosemite Valley. I think we'll hike up the mist trail to see the falls. Camp in Little Yosemite. Tuesday morning we'll leave our tent up and take a day-pack and climb up Half-Dome and maybe hike to Clouds Rest and then back to our tent. Wednesday we'll pack up and hike to Merced Lake and camp there. Thursday we'll pack up and hike to Foglesang Lake. Then Friday we'll hike to Tuolumne. From Tuolumne we'll have to take a shuttle to the Valley, where our car will be. If we hike out and it's to late in the day for a shuttle then we'll camp at the backpackers-camp in Tuolomne and get to the car Saturday morning. We'll be back home Saturday if not Friday night.
That's the new plan. William said he got cell reception this morning from Tuolumne...so we should (hopefully)be able to call the kids every day.
We wrote out a medical release to give my parents permission to make decisions for the kids. We also wrote out a paper that said in the event of our death, we wish the children would be raised by my parents. We talked it over for a while and both of us feel that they would be most loved and cared for with my Mom and Dad.

We leave in the morning and the next post I make will be how awsome of a time we had...how many blisters...how many animals we saw..
so until then!