Hendricks Do Bear Lake 2015

 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!

July

 This is my monthly post where I just unload all of my pictures for the month in all their random glory!

 

First off, Meili took swimming lessons. I don't know why it makes such a big difference for someone else to tell her something as opposed to me (even if that person is a girl in high school that she's never met.) But for whatever reason, that seems to do the trick. She got a lot more brave in the water, and figured out floating on her back. She swears that she is fine to swim all by herself now. I think... not.

 But what do I know? She did get a sucker to prove her accomplisments.

This kid is going to have so much blackmail, we won't know what to do with it all. He recently discovered high heels, but mine are too big, and Meili is currently missing all but one dress up shoe. So, we finally found the perfect pair at my mom's house. As happens with most people, after walking around in them for a few minutes, Grant decided they're not all they're cracked up to be.

One of the few traditions that Josh and I have as a couple is going to the Rocky Mountain Review. Josh always says, "We've done that every year we've been together... except the years that they didn't hold it." (Which happens to be quite a few of our nine years together :)

One of my goals for the year was to do a triathlon. I finally found one in Logan that seemed to be an okay price, and it was local, etc. It was on July 11th, and started at the Aquatic Center. I was pretty nervous about a triathlon because 
A) I am not a good swimmer,
B) I'm not great on a bike,
C) I don't own a road bike,
D) I have super dry skin that doesn't respond well to swimming, chaffing, sweating, etc.
and last but not least,
E) I'm really not a great runner either.

With all that being said, I REALLY loved it. There are very few races that I would say I actually loved the race. Usually I love the feeling after completing the race, and I love challenging myself, and having something to work toward. But this was race was super fun. I really loved it. There are some things that I could work on for the next one (and there WILL BE a next one), but overall, it was not bad for my first try.

The biggest thing about the swim is that I under estimated myself, because I literally had no idea what my time would be. So most of the swim I spent trying to pass someone else. Next time, I will line up for a faster time. 

The bike was the part that dragged on for me the most. Not that it was hard, but it was just the longest part of the race, and we were on a straightaway the entire time. I just used my mountain bike, and I definitely learned that having a road bike would make a HUGE difference.

I thought my run was awful because I couldn't feel my legs for most of it, but as it turns out, I ran faster in the triathlon than I did at the Honeyville 5K. Now that is sad. 

So here are my times broken up: 
Total: 1:29:56
Swim: 13:37
Bike: 48:36
Run: 25:10
 

Just some random pictures we took when we were goofing off...

I just had to get a picture of this sometime. Grant has learned how to get along in our family. He knows that if there is food or treats coming from the front seat in the car, that if he just sticks his hand up, and asks "Treat?" We will eventually put something in his hand. The thing is that now his ears are super-attuned to wrappers, so if he hears anything crinkly (paper, cd wrapper, anything) he automatically asks for treats. I tried to talk to him about the beautiful trees when he was restless in the car one day, and he put his hand up and starting asking for treats. Ugh...

For my birthday, I told Josh that I wanted to go skydiving or something since it was the big 3-0. Josh said, "I will pay for you to go skydiving. I will even talk Teep into going with you. But I'm not going skydiving." Even though sharing my birthday with Josh's brother sounds super romantic, I decided that I would opt for spending it with him, and compromising a little on the activity. So he got passes to go to the Flow Rider, and IFly in Ogden. We finally had the chance to use them on the 18th. Between an air show in Logan that morning, a swimming party at my parents' house, and then this, we didn't plan super well. So we had to stop and pick up some clothes to wear for the Flow Rider, and then we ended up late for our IFly appointment, and the only times they had available for for the FlowRider, meant leaving our kids with my parents pretty late. Anyway, when all was said and done, we didn't stay in the FlowRider thing as long as we could have, but it really wasn't a big deal because we (especially I) were pretty crappy at it. It would take going quite a few more times for me to figure it out at all.

But there is some very fuzzy proof that I have attempted. The people in front of us in line said that it is a lot like snowboarding-which is true, if snowboarding were uphill and someone kept pushing you over. But what do I know? I was pretty bad at snowboarding when I first tried too.

I figured that based on my Flowrider experience, I would be too uncoordinated for IFly too. But it was actually super fun and both Josh and I figured it out well enough that we could do a few little tricks with our instructor. (Nothing compared to what our instructor could do. THAT is crazy.) But it just made me feel even more like we need to go skydiving. After it was over, Josh said, "If skydiving is anything like that, I could handle it. You don't even feel like you're falling." He quickly took back his statement when I started planning our skydiving trip though. :)

Sometimes I forget what it's like to just be Josh and I again because I am so wrapped up in the kids. So it was super fun to hang out with just the two of us.

For Pioneer Day, Josh and I went to the Bountiful festivities with my parents and sister on the 23rd.

When Meili was a little bit older than Grant, I took her to this fair, and put her on the train. She acted fine sitting in the little car, but as soon as it started moving, she burst out crying, and the driver stopped the train so she could get off. Grant rode on the train once with Ruby and Meili. I didn't really know how he felt about it, but they all got off the train, and he got right back on. No crying. Just like he was saying, "I will be riding this again." I didn't want to pay for Meili to go again, because she had other rides she wanted to go on, and they said that adults weren't allowed, so I just asked some little girl if he could sit by her. She was fine with that, and so was he.

Ah... I love summer! We stayed the night at my parents' house, and went boating at Willard Bay with Josh's family. I didn't take pictures, (because we had kind of a crazy day, buying two vehicles-but that is a story for a different day) so when I get some from someone else I will post them.