Dinkey Creek

The Wrenn clan got to go back to Dinkey Creek this summer! The boys have talked about it since we left two years ago from a fun week there. This time, Billy was able to join us for a couple days. In two years, I am hoping he can stay for the entire experience :)
We ended up caravanning up a day before camp opened. We tent camped at Shaver Lake, Edison camp ground. It was a fun adventure. We brought a small 4 man tent and squeezed the 6 of us in there for the night. We will have to invest in a bigger tent in the future... for now with small kids, it worked out okay.

 The boys did a scavenger hunt in the morning and got a bag of prizes when they were done from the kiosk area. Then we packed up and went to a cute blue café in Shaver for a late breakfast. We walked around town for a bit and then drove up the road to Dinkey Creek. We were all pretty dirty already!

We got there just a few minutes before the gate opened. The boys checked out the bridge and then we were able to drive our car into camp. It was a couple hours though before some of the Young brothers made it and were able to obtain keys to unlock things. When we finally got cubicle assignments, we were able to unpack and then explore a little. We were unexpectedly assigned to one of the small cabins! We had two sets of bunk beds and a full bed in there with plenty of space. It was really nice. I was able to give both William & Zachary top bunks, Jameson a bottom bunk & put Leila's bassinet on the other bottom bunk. It worked out perfect. Plus I had an outlet to plug in my baby monitor which had a perfect rage around the camp. This allowed me to leave Leila sleeping in the cabin and get out with the boys & chat with people or help in the kitchen! It really helped me a ton to be able to camp with the four kids without Billy there.

The boys enjoyed playing in Dinkey creek, hopping rocks & throwing rocks, building dams and splashing in the water. We went up to polywog pond one day and the lake two days. They made friends with Sarah Young's boys and played together all week with them.

They also enjoyed craft time every morning after breakfast. They decorated signs with stickers and puff paint, beaded bracelets, necklaces and headbands & made a cute nature frame. They were super comfortable around camp & I felt that I didn't need to worry about them too much.
Leila did a great job up there, her first time camping. She slept through the night almost every night! The only weird thing that she did was throw up all her milk like a faucet each morning around breakfast time. I'm not sure if it was because she drank so much after sleeping thru the night and then couldn't handle it all... or maybe it was the altitude? It was a bummer each time she did it, but it didn't seem to bother her much and she was fine for the rest of the day.
There was an issue with mice this year.... it was really bad :( We caught one in the cabin the second night. Yuck.

It was a great week, with great friends, great food & beautiful scenery. I just love the high Sierras and I love Dinkey creek. We are already talking about going up next summer and tent camping above the store with some of the friends we made there. Hope it works out.