We made it to Bear Lake...I'm still not sure how I pulled it off, but we got up there late Wednesday night. They cabin we were staying in was beautiful, and huge. It fit all 25 of us with room to spare. It was three levels, so Brian and Emily and their kids, Tanya and Nelson, and their kids, and Kirk and Steph stayed on the top level. The middle level was the kitchen/family room/laundry room and the master bedroom where my mom and Kerry stayed. Then Jackson and his fiance Bri, Tanner, Kyle Kels and their baby, and Aaron and I and our kids, stayed in the basement. The room Aaron and I stayed in had a queen bed, and two sets of bunk beds. Perfect for our family. Both the top level and the basement had big entertainment centers, with seating, and the basement had a ping-pong table, Foosball table, exercise bike, and a double shot. Needless to say, there was lots to do after the kids went to bed at night. :) And my ping-pong skills are not what they used to be.
Thursday morning we headed to the lake. We got a great spot on the beach. The water was shallow, so the kids could wade out a long ways without any trouble.
Sand and water are really all my kids need to entertain themselves for hours on end. So we were set for the day.
Top: Aaron, Adelia, Bri, Jackson, Mom, Nolan, Burke, Abi, and Kels
Bottom Left: Tanner and Krystal Bottom Right: Aaron and Del
Ivan came up with a pretty sophisticated method for cleaning the sand out of his water shoes.
On the way back to the cabin we saw two bull moose! That's three moose in a month for me.
View from one of the balconies on the cabin.
Thursday night we were supposed to go up in the canyon and get family pictures taken. About 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave Adelia started puking. She got it all over her pants and shirt. We cleaned her up as best we could and put her in the car. She threw up two more times on the drive up the canyon. Swell. We had to do family pictures because our WHOLE family is not together very often. It was now or never, so we just had to manage with a puking Delia as best we could. She actually perked up a bit for pictures and was smiling and talking. She did fine on the way home too. We stopped and got some famous Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes, which were heavenly. Then we headed back to the cabin.
After we put the kids to bed, the adults played The Name Game. Basically, you divide up into teams of two (we did spouses), every person write a different name onto four slips of paper. They can be any kind of name, famous people, people you know, people you don't know, made up names, anything, as long as it's a name. Then everyone folds up their papers and puts them in a bowl. For round one, one partner draws a name out of the bowl and has to describe it to the other partner, without saying the name or saying rhymes with or starts with or sounds like. The second partner has to guess. The team tries to guess as many names as they can in one minute. Once the timer beeps you pass the bowl to the next team, and they get to try for one minute. You keep going as passing the bowl, until all the names have been guessed. Then you count up each team's score, fold the papers up and put them back in the bowl. For round two, one partner draws a name, and gets to say one word to describe the name, and then partner two has to guess what the name is. You do as many as you can in a minute and pass the bowl to the next team. Keep going until all the names in the bowl have been guessed. Then add up your score, and fold the papers and put them back in the bowl. For round three, one partner draws names out of the bowl and has to act out the names without using any sounds, the other partner tries to guess as many names as they can in one minute, then they pass the bowl to the next team. Keep going until all the names have been guessed. Add up scores. The person with the highest score after adding all three rounds together is the winner. We had such a fun time with this game, and stayed up very late playing it.
Friday morning we went back to the beach. We took out a couple of kayaks, and the kids had a ball with them. I think Linc stayed in the water for about two hours rowing and rowing. He loved it.
Isla, Adelia, Ivan, and Burke in the background. Of course Adelia is screaming because Ivan is touching the paddle.
Aaron and Adelia
Papa Kerry and Graham
Adelia and Gramma Tam
It was cold and a little bit rainy at the beach today, so we didn't play in the water as much as we might have if the sun had been out. But everyone had a good time anyway. And Ollie even napped for part of the day.
Lincoln and Adelia
Ollie
Gramma Tam and Krystal
Kyle and Krystal
Gramma Tam, Kyle, and Krystal
It started raining pretty hard, so we decided to call it a day. We went back to the cabin. The kids made fruit loop necklaces, and then ate them while they watched Mary Poppins. The adults snacked, chatted, read books, and took naps. It was a nice relaxing afternoon.
Top: Penny, Ivan, Graham, Adelia, and Burke making fruit loop necklaces.
Bottom: Penny, Graham, Lincoln, Ivan, Adelia, and Burke chowing down on their necklaces watching Mary Poppins.
Friday night the adults played two more rounds of The Name Game. It was awesome, but a power outage cut the second game a little short. Which was probably ok though, since it was after midnight!
Saturday morning we went for a hike up to Bloomington Lake. It was a long drive up the canyon to get up there, but so pretty it was worth it. Aaron wasn't feeling super great, so he stayed home with Oliver. I took the other three kids and went on the hike with the others who wanted to go. It was a beautiful hike. The lake was crystal clear, and had a rope swing that you could swing out into the middle and drop off in the water...but we didn't have our swim suits. Next time.
When we got home from the hike, it was time to pack up all our things, eat dinner and drive home. While we were packing up, Ivan somehow managed to smash his finger int he exercise bike. It was bleeding pretty bad, and looked munched, but he could bend it just fine, so I don't think it's broken. We iced it, and let him play games on my phone to distract him while the swelling went down and the Tylenol kicked in to make it not hurt so bad.
I always hate leaving Bear Lake. Especially this year, because Oliver screamed for about 3 hours of the drive home. But we came prepared...we had The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on audio book, which the older kids have never heard before, and consequently were really interesting in, so we cranked it up and kept on truckin'. We made it home about 9:30pm.
View of Bear Lake with a storm rolling in.
*This morning Ivan told me that his favorite part of Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the lion because he can come back to life after he dies. :)
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