While the boy is away...

While Sean was gone to Southern Virginia University over the summer for his sports information internship, I took advantage of some vacation time and went to Lake Tahoe for the 4th of July weekend.

This was the first time that I had ever been to Lake Tahoe and it was well worth the 10 hour drive. My sisters husband's uncle has a town house near the lake which we were allowed to use. It was wonderful to be so close to the lake and take advantage of all the wonderful things around there.

After work on Thursday, I hopped into the car and started the trek to the lake. I was able to get to the town house a little before midnight and waited for Maria and Mitch to arrive.

On Friday we celebrated Maria's birthday! We started off the day with a bit of hiking. We were trying to get to Shirley Lake but with out a map and with poor markers, we ended up never making it to the lake, but we saw some beautiful sights:

 This was a huge log that we had to climb over and us to cross the creek that we were following.

 Along the trail this was one of the dead ends that we hit. Quite a bit of snow! We decided to try to find another route up to the top.

 We finally hit a point where we weren't getting any closer to our destination and decided to make the trek back down the mountain so we could get ready for dinner.

 We headed over to this great restaurant called Fire and Ice, located on the south side of Lake Tahoe.  At this restaurant it was kind of like a Mongolian grill. You would get a bowl full of meat and vegetables, then pick a sauce and take it all over to this circular grill they had in the middle of the restaurant.   Then the cooks would take your food and throw it onto the grill. You would also get a little bit of a show while you were waiting because the cooks would throw bowls around the grill, and flip the food in magnificent ways.

Maria and I

 After we had stuffed our face, we had ordered a gram crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate to make smores as Maria's birthday "cake".

Mitch and Maria

Mitch being crazy

The smore kit. The purpleness in the middle is the flame.

The next morning we decided to go bike riding and take in some of the beautiful views. We biked from a park to the Olympic athlete village. 

 

Amy and Maria

Mitch and Jeff (Amy and Jeff are very good friends of Maria's)

Amy and Maria again

Jeff, Mitch, Maria and Amy.

 This is where we stopped to eat our lunches and take a breather before we headed back home.

 This weekend, Amy had her birthday as well so Maria made cake balls to celebrate!

 On Sunday, after church, we headed out to hang out on the beach of Lake Tahoe! It was a beautiful day and it was nice to see how pretty of an area it is.

Me, Maria, and Amy. You can't tell but all of our feet are in the cold water.

 Random Pictures while hanging by the lake.

  Since we would be leaving the next day, we decided to take advantage of seeing the fireworks that would be shot off the lake. Here are some pictures of the lake at sun set.

Maria will probably shoot me for posting this picture but this is where we all were sitting to watch the fireworks. We got there about an hour early so we could get a good seat. While we waited we played 5 crowns and just had a good time.

On Monday, we all said our goodbyes and headed our separate directions. Driving home was fairly uneventful, which is always nice. Once I got home though, it was really fun to watch all of the fireworks that were let go right around our house! There were quite a few of them the were set off and it beautiful to see.

It was a wonderful weekend and it was great to spend some time with my sister and her husband, get to enjoy natures beauty, celebrate birthdays, and our freedom. The only thing that was missing was Sean but I know that he was doing what he needed to be doing and that being apart would all be worth it in the end!