Camping Trip & an early birthday

Last week my parents met up with my sister's family for a camping trip in the high sierras.  They were expecting me to come up for the day on Saturday, but I surprised them and showed up Friday evening.  

Greyson's birthday is on July 17th, and there is no way I'm going to be able to make it to Arizona for his birthday, so I decided to give him his presents early.  They had just started making dinner when I got there on Friday, so I grabbed his box out of the car.

An airplane that you can take apart & put back together with a play cordless drill or a 'blue machine' like he likes to call it.

Watching his brother open gifts

Harold the helicopter

That night we sat around the campfire & enjoyed each other's company.  And of course we had to have s'mores.

Making breakfast the next morning (dad, dan & erin)

Waiting for his breakfast

You see, there is this place called Saddlebag Lake Resort.  (check them out!!) The word 'resort' is used very loosely here!  Pretty sure we went up there almost every summer while my sister and I were growing up.  Sometime while we were growing up, good friends of our family's bought the 'resort' and they hire high school & college students every summer to help run the place.  So my sister and I have both worked up there for a summer or two at some point.  I was talking to the owner on saturday and we were trying to figure out how long it had been since I worked up there.  The summer of 2003 & 2005.  9 & 7 years ago.  Wow, doesn't seem like it was that long ago at all!

Greyson had his first boat ride across the lake.  The owner took us to the back of the lake so we could fish off the bank.  Greyson had helped my dad catch 2 fish out of the stream the night before and he kept saying "We are going to catch a big fish!" 

Well...we didn't catch any fish.  Dang.  But it was still great to be up there!

You can barely see the 'resort' on the side of the hill.  A cafe & and bate shop. :)

Greyson was stripping the line in on my fly rod.  "Look, I'm fishing!"

Looking towards the front with Mt. Dana in the background.

It was a quick trip.  4 hours there and 4 hours back and I was there for about 22 hours.  I wish I could have stayed up there longer, but I had to get home.  In order to get up there, I had to drive through Yosemite National Park.  It is beautiful this time of year!!