Reunion at Bear Lake - Part III

We finally got to go to the lake on Monday morning. We got to Rendezvous Beach just after 9am and stayed for most of the day. Several families brought shade canopies so we sent them all up and claimed a nice, big section of beach for our family. It was nice to be there on a Monday when I'm sure it was way less crowded than a weekend. It was a bit chilly when we first got there, but that didn't stop most of the kids from jumping right in. We went together and rented two kayaks and a canoe and everyone had a great time taking turns with those. Chasten and Dani brought a few inflatable rafts and tubes that were a ton of fun too.

Alan didn't waste much time starting a huge water fight and made it a point to soak every dry female besides his wife and his mom. He knew that would be going too far! haha! All of the teenage nieces were mad at him though. I think Spencer was out of the water for a total of about 10 minutes the entire six hours we spent at the lake. He LOVED it! Mason mostly waded and played in the sand, but I finally let him go a bit deeper and try out a tube towards the end. I kept my sunhat on all day and avoided a migraine again. Small miracle! Despite several applications of sunscreen, all of my boys came away a bit sunburned, but it was a wonderful day playing with cousins in the water!

Sunrise over Bear Lake when I got up early for some hill repeats in front of the cabin.

Mason and his best buddy. It's crazy to think that Jeramiah will be leaving on his mission in about another year! Mason will miss him at the next reunion!

For some reason, Mason thought it was fun to wear this basket on his head and kept it on for quite awhile. haha!

The kids probably could have stayed at the Lake until it was dark, but when all of the adults were ready to go, we headed back to the cabin for showers and dinner.

For family home evening that night, we went down to the community tennis courts and had a family Pinewood Derby. Sadly, we forgot to bring one of Spencer's cars, but Alicia was nice enough to let Spencer race hers. This was a lot of fun for the four to ten-year-old crowd.

We then went to try the famous Bear Lake raspberry milkshakes. I didn't get raspberry, but I tasted Alan's and didn't think it was anything that amazing. They were yummy though.

We all packed up and headed out first thing on Tuesday morning. It's always sad to say goodbye, especially to the cousins who live clear across the country from us. Thankfully, Caralee's and Eric's families were going to be staying with Alicia in Lehi that night and we were headed to Katelyn's in Riverton so we all met up at Temple Square.

We toured the Conference Center with a funny missionary guide from Austria. He made me stand in front of this picture in this position. It was a bit awkward and embarrassing, but cool to think about all of the heavenly help we may have, but never know about.

It was hot in Salt Lake and we didn't last long, but it's always neat to visit Temple Square. I hope this tradition is just one more way to teach our boys how important our religion is to us. It means everything! It was the perfect way to end a fantastic reunion. Thank you Darwin and Debbie for having such a wonderful family and making reunions a priority!

Bear Lake Reunion - Part II

The next day of the reunion was Sunday, so we got dressed up and went to Sacrament Meeting first thing. We got there early and were able to get seats. It was crowded, but apparently not nearly as bad as the 4th of July weekend the week before we were there.

Right after church, we drove a few miles south to take some family pictures next to the lake.

We had planned to take some more family pictures right after lunch, but Kim received the horrible news that her friend had died in a tragic electrocution accident just before we were going to begin. Alicia got out some crafts to occupy the younger kids while we gave Kim some time to compose herself.

The sun hid behind the clouds for the big group shots we took in the driveway, but came back out just in time for individual family pictures. Maybe my eyes are extra sensitive from living in a mostly cloudy area now, but it was painful to look into the sun and I'm squinting in every picture. I forgot to say in the previous post that I can take credit for a lot of these pictures, but not all. Other people caught a lot of great shots that I missed. Geoff was the official photographer for all of the family pictures.

Each family was in charge of coming up with an activity at the house for Sunday afternoon. We played Ancestor Bingo, Family Kahoot, Find Someone Who, and Mad Gab in addition to having root-beer tasting and multiplication facts contests. It was really fun and I learned a lot about everyone. I like having lots of time to just hang out at the house and visit and play.

Alan and I were in charge of dinner that night. We made Hawaiian haystacks for 31. I multiplied this healthy version by 12 and cooked the rice in three crock pots to have enough for everyone!