The Lake

Our time at Bear Lake was such a blast! Right off the bat, Ava was having fun chasing the cottonwood "cotton" that was swirling around. For a while there, it even seemed like it was snowing.

The lake was a bit chilly at first but was easy to get used to. Luke played some in the water, floated in his tube, and splashed in the little lagoons.




And when he got tired of that, I could buy a little more time by putting him in the stroller with a bottle.




All the kids played football and it was so nice because the bottom of the lake stayed shallow and smooth for a really good distance.



We had a pretty sweet set-up at the beach, too.




Ava thought the water was a little chilly but her favorite thing to do was float in a tube next to Dan.





Another of favorite was this little guy, Oliver.


Ava was so glad that Wendy and Troy brought him along.


She fed him scraps of food and leaves and branches, and they played, played. And Ollie was a really good sport.


Another fun thing we did was tie dye T-shirts.


They turned out pretty good!


And one of my favorite things about camping (even if you are staying in a nearby condo) is a campfire.

And there were alot of firsts for Ava.

First campfire,



First marshmallow roasting (even though she kept calling them mushrooms),



First s'more (even though she didn't really like it and was upset we made her try it),


We sat around the fire each night, and even played a game or two.



Little Lucy tried to fall asleep by firelight,

Aunt Kelly told a ghost story ,

And we just had a really fun time being together.

I felt like I had my hands full with my kids for a lot of the time, so now as I post these pictures I realize that there are so many more that I wished I had taken (even though you're probably in picture overload if you've read this far.)

But I wish I had a good shot of the little girl cousins together.

And I wish I had a picture of each of the adults, each of the families together, and our Camp Chef, Troy.

There was a lot of planning, and time, and effort, and work that went into this reunion. Things just seemed to go so smoothly and I know that's because of all the work done by everyone, especially Wendy and Troy-Thanks you guys. We ate like kings and everything was so delicious.
And there would have been nothing to cook without all the food provided by you, Don and Linda! And we know that your family is very busy, Kelly and Paul, and we are lucky to be able to overlap our time together!

Every time we make our visits back to Utah, we feel really blessed to be welcomed back even though we bring such a disruption to the house. Jared and Ashley and Don and Linda, thanks for having us, feeding us, sharing toys, sharing cars, letting us ruin naps, and change schedules.

We're really glad to have such a generous family-Thank You all!