Well we somehow pulled it off. We managed to squeeze in a quick camping trip to Yosemite a midst what has been a crazy busy and somewhat stressful summer. And I’m SO glad we did!! Instead of the whole Cox fam this year, it ended up just being our little family, and my sister Joanne’s family – and we each had our own campsites. My parents also came, but did the Grandma/Grandpa thing for a change and stayed in the little tent cabins at Camp Curry – a slightly lesser version of “roughing it”.
Usually my parents (especially my mom) spend the whole time running around trying to please everyone, cook for every occasion, babysit everyone’s kids, and host everyone’s crap in their motorhome. So glad that this year they took it easy (thanks to my dad’s shoulder injury) and let US take care of THEM for a change. Joanne and I took care of all the cooking and I didn’t pawn my kids off on them once. Really, that’s probably how it should be from now on. 9 kids, 27? grandkids, and a billion trips to Yosemite with us all underfoot and I think they’ve earned the right to REST!!
As usual, Yosemite was breathtaking. The falls and the river this year were bigger than Brent or I have EVER seen them. They really just made you drop your jaw and go “whoa”; if you got anywhere close you were drenched. They also made you immediately pull your kids in closer and say “STAY HERE where I can see you.” For good reason too – check out this horrifying news story (which happened a few days after we left).
Yikes! Apparently 8 people have died in Yosemite this year. I read that and thought how sad and horrible, but also thought “how stupid could those people be???” But then I thought of past years in Yosemite…
Brent swimming at the top of Vernal Falls (which he has done many times, and at the top of many waterfalls despite tons of warning signs not to), my brothers on the other side of the rail at the actual drop off for the sake of a goofy picture, me scrambling on the cliffs around Nevada Falls… yeah. Oh and then there is the video this year of Brent, Mark, and even some kids rafting down the fast and freezing river WITHOUT a raft. Cuz that’s what you do when it looks really fun, but rafting isn’t allowed yet because the water is too high.
In our defense, in those incidents the falls were probably half the size that they are this year, and we never would’ve done that this time around. But still, maybe we aren’t as smart as I thought we were. We even sent Jake up the steep Mist Trail (to the top of Vernal) for the first time with his cousins and my sister and bro-in-law. They said it was like a hurricane up there this year, and that several people slipped along the path. I am now feeling thankful that my child came back alive. Yeesh.
But all treachery aside – well besides the bears – we saw three this year. One came right up behind Brent on his way out of the bathroom, Lindsay and I heard the commotion and so STAYED in the bathroom, while of course my boys and their cousins chased AFTER the bear for a closer look. See blurry picture above. But I swear, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. They all look like cute friendly teddy bears to me and if we could just leave our leftovers out there’d be no problems! 😉
Besides all that – Yosemite was gorgeous and peaceful (well besides the white trash neighbors we had that played 2 hour games of drunken wiffle ball right next to our campsite EVERY night, while yelling expletives every 3.7 seconds.) Thank goodness we could escape to Jo and Mark’s campsite when necessary… It was great to get away from all the computers, phones, video games, TV, Facebook, internet, and typical To-Do’s. We lounged, we swam, we UNO’d (or in Lindsay’s case “NUNO’d”), we ELMER’d, we ate, we hiked, we read, and we consumed many ice cream cones and MUCH hot chocolate.
We missed all the extra Cox cousins and sibs for sure – campfires just weren’t the same without everyone. But since I’m a Type A personality it was nice to be in charge of my own campsite, our own food, and our own plans. Joanne is the same way, so I’m sure she appreciated it too. And somehow we fit ALL of our stuff for five days of camping plus an actual family of five inside our Toyota Sienna – with nothing on top or towed behind. I tell you, that car is the Mary Poppins carpet bag of vehicles. It helped that we packed light – which is SO the way to go (one tent, not too much food, a little bit of clothes, and LESS CRAP) and that Brent is an amazing packer.
As always, we were sad to say goodbye and wished we had another day or two to spend there. The kids had a blast, Lindsay took to camping like a champ, and we were all tan, happy, and burning lots of calories walking everywhere. But I was still happy to come home to my heavenly bed and clean floors. And I worshiped at the feet of our wondrous microwave and refrigerator. There’s no place like home!
Now check out our Yosemite trip via this little video I made. It makes me happy.
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