When the kids wouldn’t cooperate with me at one of the most famous photo taking locations in the world, I told them they would regret it when they got older. Dylan had no opportunity to regret.
Dylan was not a “things” person. He liked “things” like everybody else, but it was not something that occupied his mind. He liked nice clothes, but didn’t constantly let everybody know that that was what he wanted. He wanted a new computer and complained about his, but didn’t come out and say “I WANT A NEW COMPUTER.” I liked that about him.
I think in the last couple years of Dylan’s life he started to discover the best part of Christmas and other significant days of the year. The giving. I tried to explain to the kids that there is nothing better than giving a gift that they have put some thought into. I think Dylan was starting to understand that, when he got Donna a picture frame filled with pictures of him with Marisa and Thalia for his last Mother’s day.
It wasn’t the gifts that made Christmas 2005 memorable for us as a family. It was the experience. We decided to go some place for Christmas. Yosemite.
We had fog, snow, crime and ice skating. And Christmas, of course.
As we were driving through the Central Valley, we hit really thick fog. We didn’t know if it was the infamous “tule fog” or not, but that is what we called it. After that, any fog was joked about as being “tule.”
When we arrived in the Yosemite valley we were disappointed to find no snow. The kids were especially upset. We had all the cold, but none of the white stuff. I promised them we would find some snow before we went home.
Somebody at one of the places we stayed directed us to a ski resort that was not yet open, but would have snow for the kids to play in. It wasn’t far, so we went there one day. Well, I wasn’t content to just play in a drift beside the parking area. I thought it might be fun to hike up the skiing area a little bit and slide down it. So, Dylan and I jumped over the barbed wire fence with aid of a large drift and started to the mountain. We thought it would be so cool, until some guy with bullhorn decided to threaten us with trespassing. Back to the drifts and small hill we went. I got a lot of “told ya”s from Donna for that one.
The kids snowman attempt.
Clearly, we were out of our element.
One of the things that really stands out to me on that trip was when we went for a short hike on one of the trails in the valley. It led to one of the falls and there was a beginning to another trail that went up by the falls. I remember standing there thinking that I would like to take that hike with Dylan. It didn’t happen and probably wouldn’t have, but these are the kinds of things that make the days so hard. Now, it is not even possible.
Another highlight of the trip was ice skating. I can’t really think of a better place to have three Southern California natives step onto the ice for the first time than the floor Yosemite valley. We wouldn’t tell Marisa where we were going. She was so excited when she saw the sign hanging over the entrance. I was glad to share that first experience with Dylan and Marisa. Of course, Donna wasn’t exactly a pro, but it wasn’t her first time. At least, we got to do that with Dylan.
[slideshow_deploy id=’678′]“So this is Xmas
and what have you done”
John Lennon
Thus far — survived.