It was December 20, 2019,  one of the scariest days of my entire life. My family and I were on our way to Yosemite to celebrate Christmas with all of our relatives. I remember waking up around 8 a.m., still tired and exhausted, but excited. This was going to be my first time ever seeing snow. Our van was packed. It was my parents, my two siblings, my cousin, my grandma, and my uncle in the same van. Everyone else in the family drove in their own cars, and we planned to meet at the cabin later that night.

    The drive felt like it would never end. After three hours of sitting in the van, we still weren’t there. We made a few quick stops to stretch and use the restroom, but the road just kept on going. I stared out the window, hoping to see snow, but all I saw were trees and big mountains. Around late afternoon, we stopped for dinner at a Denny’s with the rest of the family. I was starving, but I ate fast because I couldn’t wait to play in the snow. My family though, took their time talking and laughing. I kept asking, “Can we already go?” but my mom just said, “Wait a couple more minutes, your uncles are still eating.” I sighed and leaned back in my chair, frustrated. By the time everyone finally finished, it was already 4 p.m. I was very upset because we still had at least four more hours of driving left, plus traffic, and I knew I wasn’t going to get to play in the snow that same day.

    Back in the van, I watched a movie with my sister and eventually fell asleep. When I woke up, it was completely dark. Even though it wasn’t that late, the sky was pitch black and the road ahead looked kind of scary. I remember thinking a bear might jump out of the woods at any moment. We finally arrived at the cabin around 8 p.m. It was big, with two houses next to each other. There was a two story guest house where we stayed, and the main house where the rest of the family stayed. We unpacked quickly and went straight to sleep, exhausted from the long drive.

    The next morning, we got dressed and ate breakfast. We layered up with jackets, snow pants, gloves, beanies, and scarves because it was freezing outside. There was a little snow near the cabin, but not enough to play in, so we decided to drive up higher into the mountains where it was snowing more. Everyone planned to meet there. As we drove further up, the snow got heavier and signs started popping up, warning drivers to put on the tire chains. Most cars were starting to pull over to put them on, but my parents still didn’t want to stop. My uncle was driving and said we should be fine, but I was starting to get nervous. The roads were icy and more slippery the higher we went up the mountains.