A year ago, my brother started planning a trip for my parents 40th wedding anniversary. The choices he gave my siblings and I were: 1) Disneyland, 2) Beijing, 3) Drive RVs across country to church history sites, or 4) a Disney or Alaskan cruise. (Which is so my brother.) What we ended up deciding on was a weekend in Bear Lake. (Which is SO the rest of my siblings.)
A weekend in Bear Lake sounds easy enough to pull off, especially with a year to do it. But nothing, I repeat Nothing, is easy in my family. We have a way of turning one family meal into a 3 hour weekly conference call where tears are shed. (I may be exaggerating-but not by much.) But somehow, with all the discussions and disagreements, we managed to make it happen, and even enjoy ourselves.
We rented a very spacious cabin in Bear Lake and all but one family got there by about 5:00 on Thursday evening the 30th.
On Thursday we explored the cabin, got settled in, played games, did crafts, and Josh and I took our family to Cafe Sabor for the local special.
Have I mentioned yet that there will be a picture overload?
Good news? The teeter-totter was a hit! Bad news? Most of the kids in the family are not coordinated enough/don't weigh close enough to the same weight to make it work without adult help.
We let the kids watch a movie in the theater room for a little while that night, but I was super worried about my kids sleeping well, so I cut the fun short, and AMAZINGLY, my kids slept so well the whole time. I didn't hear from either of them after we shut the door at night, Grant took naps just like he would have, my kids were usually the last to wake up (which was no surprise to me.) Thank goodness! I, on the other hand, took every opportunity to stay up playing games with my family, and even woke up early Saturday morning to go running with my brother-in-law. The result? Pretty much falling asleep standing up, and leaving on Sunday with a pretty bad sore throat, sneezing, runny nose, cold. But it was totally worth it!
On Friday, the plan was to go to the beach. Easy enough right? We were less than a mile from Bear Lake. Get in the car and drive to the beach right? Ha! Not so. Again, we make everything more difficult than it has to be, and Josh and I were mostly to blame. But we made it, and loved it, and everything worked out fine in the end.
I love seeing all the kids playing together.
Our cabin rental came with a voucher for some kind of water toy. We decided that the most people would probably get use out of paddle boards. They were a lot of work to get, but they did not disappoint. In fact, before picking them up, we were wondering if it was really worth it. But as soon as we had them, it was like we were all refreshed and ready to really get in the water.
Most everyone was willing/able to give it a go and get up on the paddle boards. (Minus, Nick and Dave who were back at the cabin.) Even Chloe and Gigi stood up for awhile (see pictures at the beginning.) My mom got up and said something about "This is how old people break their hips." She did great until I made a joke, then she was done for, and decided to ride a little more "lady-like."
The beach wore out the littles. Grant took a decent nap in the arms of myself, my mom, and Josh. Ivy took a short nap with her mom, and Shelby couldn't help but fall asleep after a long ride with her mom on the paddle board.
This may have been my dad's highlight of the entire trip. We've found in the past, and it was true this time too, that men have a harder time on the paddle board. I think it has to do with weight distribution, and Josh, being a big guy, really couldn't get the paddle board to work for him. So, after quietly watching us all for hours from the comfort of the canopy, he got up and said, "I have a an idea." I joked that he was going to stack two on top of each other. No, he didn't. He stacked 3 paddle boards on top of each other. You may have thought he was crazy, but it actually worked for him! Not only did it work, but when the third paddle board started to slip out from under him, he somehow maintained his balance and stayed afloat on the other two. My dad challenged him to put one under each foot, and Josh does not back down from a challenge. That wasn't quite as successful, but it was also not a disastrous as you may imagine.
The pictures don't do it justice, but here you can at least see my dad and I enjoying the workings of Joshua's mind.
Nailed it!
It was fun for me to see Meili being old enough to play a couple board games with her cousins. Oh, we have fun times ahead!
That night, Nick was nominated to put something together to commemorate my parents' anniversary. He is the most sentimental of any of us, so I knew he would come up with something good. He put together a trivia game, and although some of his facts were a little confused, he still remembers far more than any of the rest of us do, and we were able to spend some special time together with just the adults. My mom commented on what great kids she has. She said, "Really! It's almost embarrassing for me to talk to my friends about my kids, because you're all doing so well!" I absolutely agree. We do have a really good thing going in this family. In working with families for the last several years, I KNOW that families like ours are rare-to say the least, and I am grateful everyday for the family that I was born into, the family that I married into, and the family that I Josh and I have been able to start.
The plan for Saturday was to go back to the beach, but a few of us were lobster-fied from Friday, so we decided to just enjoy the amenities at the cabin. I don't know why, but I wanted something that was kind of organized for all the kids to do together, so my dad, Bethany, and I, put together a little obstacle course for the kids. It wasn't hugely successful, but at least it was something. Some of them seemed to enjoy in more than others.
There was running diagonally through beach toys, holding an egg in a spoon for about 100 feet, jumping over logs with a buddy, putting a flag on a stick, something having to do with a teeter totter, limboing under a stick, running through cones, using sponges to get water from one bucket to another, and finishing it all off by climbing up the rock wall and down the ladder. They were supposed to do it in teams; the older kids helping the younger ones. But then some of them just wanted to do it with their cousin closest to them, and they enjoyed that more.
And Emily was a good sport to do it with Ruby on her second time.
After lunch, the Burr family had to leave. The plan for the rest of us, was while the youngest kids took naps, the other kids would watch a movie, and the adults could watch an adult movie. Somehow, I ended up watching Oblivion with Josh while he took a nap, and decided that I would actually rather be playing with the girls who weren't watching the movie. My mom brought crafts, stickers, and tattoos for all the girls. So Emily and I helped the girls with Shrinky Dinks, painting, etc. and I was in charge of tattoos. We were putting tattoos on the girls, one at a time, and when we got to the point that each of the girls had about two or things, I told them we were going to be done, and started putting all the stuff away. I love this story, because my mom came down after having a little nap, saw that the girls were doing tattoos, and all of a sudden chaos broke out. Her first comment was, "Where should I put my tattoo?" Yes, my mom is way cooler than I am. That thought never even crossed my mind. So minutes after my mom entered the room, all the girls were covered in like 8 tattoos; covering their arms, on their legs, and faces. And they loved it. She is definitely the life of the party! The above picture is all the girls showing off their tattoos.
...And Grant needed a picture taken of him, even though he was asleep during the tattooing.
We went and got raspberry shakes (a must), the girls and I swam in the hot tub, and then Emily and I were in charge of making tin foil dinners. Tin foil dinners were originally Nick and Sara's idea, and I had my doubts, but they really worked out, and it was fun to do something out of the norm.
The next day, those of us who hadn't had enough fun, decided to stop and take a short hike at Tony Grove.
It was fun and beautiful (as always), but I think we were all a little more tired than we wanted to let on.
Look at those goobers! I literally took four pictures, and if I was better at head swapping, I could have used each picture for just one of the kid's heads, and then have a great picture. (Don't worry, we're getting family pictures taken in a couple weeks. I can't even imagine the difficulty and frustration in store.) At least they are naturally beautiful!
It was a super fun trip, and we made some great memories!
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