Bear Lake

Hello from Bear Lake!  We spent the week with my family, and had a glorious vacation!  We also did a little celebration of my parent's upcoming mission to Australia, so that's why there are Australian flags! 

Kickin' to the start of the week, I went for a run Monday morning, and it was fun being back on the roads I grew up running.  When I got back I reached for my childhood post run staple... a breakfast flavored cup o' noodles...  Alright, I've never had one of these before, but I had to give it a try.  For the most part it was good, though it was essentially maple flavored broth, which was the only really weird thing to me.

We had a great time Monday morning waiting until it was time to leave.  It's always a great time at grandma and grandpa's house, especially when everyone is there!  Our kids also have their go-to games they love to get out whenever we're there, such as this shark attack game!

We headed up to the lake Monday afternoon.  After dinner, my family pulled out our surprise, we brought all our Christmas presents with us!  I even had Niki bring a Christmas tree to set up and put them under, though I didn't take a picture of that...  Anyway, we did Christmas early because we brought everyone matching Buc-ee's swimsuits!!!  Oh yeah!

Monday night was bingo night, and that's just what we did after dinner.  There were a lot of great prizes.  Grayson got a dinosaur version of operation that he absolutely loves and has been playing with every day.  We also got some good pool floaties for when we get back home, as well as various other fun toys.  Bingo was a HUGE success!

It also wiped Grayson out!  Here he is in bed that night.  He had a night light right in there with him.  Oh, and that orange thing you see was also a bingo prize.  It was a surprise Squishmallow in, essentially, a giant Easter egg!  You better believe we brought those home with us.  I don't know what we'll put in there for the Easter egg hunt, but it's gonna be great!

I enjoyed... well... I guess I missed the sunrise as it's already up and behind the clouds, but I enjoyed going out on the deck in the morning and looking over the lake!  Beautiful.

Tuesday we rented a boat and had a day at the lake!  We had to take turns out on the boat, which was fine, and here's a crew out there having a good time!

The boat had a tube, and water skies.  The tube was definitely the main game for the day, and the kids all had a wonderful time!  Brooke and Winry love going tubing, and they're always so excited to go out on a boat.

We also had a number of kayaks and paddle boards at the beach for those who weren't on the boat.  Winry got in a kayak and loved it!  She was kayaking around for many hours and having a blast!

Grayson spent the day on the beach.  He did go in the water a little, but he mostly played with his cousins and ate snacks at the pavilion.  One way or another, he kept himself busy and every time I was with him he was having a great time... except when he fell off the bench and hit his head on the picnic table...

Monica and I went out on a paddle board together.  Look at how cute we are!  So in love.

We spent all day Tuesday at the lake, and Wednesday morning we headed to the Logan temple.  The older kids and some adults went in to do baptisms, while a few adults and the young kids explored the temple grounds.  We did a scavenger hunt where we looked for things that reminded us of Jesus, and then came back together and explained what we had found.

Once the baptisms finished, everyone came out and we all had lunch together in the shade of the temple.  Good thing too, I think a lot of people were pretty sunburned from the day at the lake.  I know I was!  So I wanted to be in the shade as much as possible.

We next headed to Angie's to do the kitchen sink challenge.  I guess in our numbers it was less of a challenge and more of an ice cream social!

Grayson, our ice cream devourer, was in heaven and loved it very much.  I think he was still ready for more when all the ice cream was gone.  Here he is finishing out what little was left in the sink!  Also, those are some pretty fun "bowls" they've got.

In the afternoon we went to an adventure park.  There were a bunch of things to do, like a ropes course, a giant swing, a bounce house, etc.  It was a lot of fun, and there was a seating area where you could watch a lot of it.  Brooke and I headed straight out for the ropes course, and we had our own cheering section while we went.  Grayson also got to spend a little 1 on 1 time with Grandma, which is always a treat.

Here are Brooke and I out on the course.  It was a lot of fun.  We mostly stuck to level 1, but I did go up to level 3 at one point and let her pick something she wanted me to do.

After the ropes course the girls and I did some minigolf.  The course was... well, pretty run down.  But we still had a good time, and there were many an animal to dodge, like this jackalope.

That night we had our pie eating contest.  Here's Winry mid way through her pie.

And here's Brooke after she crushed it!  I took second in my heat, and then put Grayson to bed thinking my night was over.  When I came back up I found out they had been timing everyone and I made the finals!  I took advantage of my second chance and won the finals by a few seconds!  I'll admit that some of that came down to new, random rules that made the final round less straight forward.

Here's a picture of Grayson at breakfast on Thursday.  Grayson was just so happy and cute each morning when he woke up, and I just grabbed a picture of him one day to remember. He also wore that shirt for a night a day and then another night straight.

Thursday morning Brooke made cheesy eggs for everyone.  Here she is at the stove cooking them up!  What a huge helper.

Being the youngest, Grayson got quite a bit of attention from his cousins while we were all out together, and I think he loved it!  I think they all loved it too.  One popular activity was reading stories.  Grayson loves to read stories, and especially likes coming up with silly ways, like reading two at once and alternating pages between books.

Before we left for the day, we did come follow me and everyone was there to listen.  Well, everyone except Grayson.  He was still chillin in the kitchen eating.  Yes, this is that same Thursday that I took the picture of him eating breakfast before most anyone else was awake.  But here he is, still eating.

We headed up to the Butch Cassidy bank robbery museum.  It's in the location of the bank he robbed back in the day.  It was pretty fun to explore, and the kids all had fun going to jail.

Then we went up to a museum about the Oregon trail and learned about crossing the plains.  There was a pretty cool hat in the gift shop.

Grayson was having a pretty hard time here at first.  There was a lot of yelling and screaming, but I didn't have anything else we could do, so I eventually got him calmed down and we went back to see what was happening with the tour.  We saw some animal skins which he thought were cool, and some old fashioned tools, and eventually we saw a hand cart.  He loved it!  He kept picking up the handle and pushing it this way and that.  It was a total turn around in mood.

Further in, there were more animals to find and pet.  Grayson really liked the animals.

After the tour, there was some more stuff to explore. One spot was a book corner with a little bear holding this sign.  Grayson wanted to look just like the bear.

As we explored, there was also a little area with a few taxidermy animals.  Winry really liked this bear.  Grayson really liked them all and was walking them all around giving them names.  There was also a big quilt exhibit, and Grayson was interested for a little in seeing all the blankies, but then he saw the animals and was off to the pet them.

There was a wagon out front where I had all the kids sit for a picture before we went over to a pavilion to have pizza for lunch!

We drove back into town and stopped at Le Beaus to get raspberry shakes, and they were fantastic!

Again, Grayson had a great time with his cousins.  It helps that he's so small and many of them are so big.  It definitely helps with the airplane rides at least!  Speaking of Grayson with his cousins, he also loved to go play upstairs with them.  In the upstairs of the house there was a staircase you could climb up into a "tree" house, and then there was a bridge across the room to a slide down the other side.  Grayson actually wouldn't ever climb up there, but there was a swing hanging from the bridge, and he learned how to twist it up and let it spin, usually with someone on it.  He really loved doing that.

Thursday evening we had a Buc-ees swimsuit pool party and invited everyone to come in their new suits.  Here's the gang we were able to collect.

That night we played human pinata, and I had to run away from all the kids.  Alas, eventually all my candy was taken.

That evening, in honor of the Olympics, some of the girls put together a synchronized swimming performance, all in their buc-ee's suits!  It was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Friday morning we packed up and had to head out.  Earlier in the week, while we were driving through the canyon between Logan and Bear Lake, I noticed what I thought was a cave on the side of the road, so we stopped.  It's a small cave, but it's actually a spring!  So we stopped and took a peek.  It was pretty cool, and there was a LOT of water coming out.

On our way to my parents house we stopped to see the DuBois', our friends from Colorado.  They're out in Layton now.  We did not find a way to make Parker be the in between of Bear Lake and North Salt Lake.  We stayed and chatted for a few hours before continuing on our way, and everyone had a good time and got along well while we were there.

Friday evening Monica and I went to the Bountiful temple.  Gotta get those temple trips in when they're less than 15 minutes away and you've got free babysitters!

Saturday morning Grayson wanted to go check on my parents tomatoes, so he went out with Grandma and helped her pick all the good ones.  They also got a few that were eaten by deer to throw away.  Grayson really loves to garden. Then we got to use up those tomatoes for crepes and BLTs!

The Danes let us come use their pool again on Saturday, so everyone spent most of the morning there.  Brooke and Winry really loved the slide, and eventually they both even tried the diving board!  Most of the kids were trying to catch and shoot a basketball in mid-air while jumping off as well.  It was a lot of fun, and it was nice that it was mostly in the shade because my shoulders were still hurting from getting burned on Tuesday.

Look, Grayson found another friend to snuggle with!

On Sunday, my parents gave their farewell talks at church, so everyone stayed for that.  After, my aunts and uncles came over to my parents' house, and it was fun to get to chat and catch up with them for a while.  That evening we flew back home to Texas.  We didn't land until like 9:30, but the kids were still doing well, including Grayson.  Just look at that vigor he's walking through the airport with.

Sometime while we were gone the power went out, and that means.... our garage fridge turned into a freezer!  Monica hadn't had time to make sure it was safe for an accidental freeze before we left, and... well... it wasn't safe...  But that's next week's problem.

We had a super fun vacation and a super fun week.  It was a lot of fun, but also really tiring.  I feel like I've been good about not staying up late and I've been getting a good amount of sleep, but as the week has been going on, I've been feeling more and more tired, and my eyes especially have been hurting more and my double vision hasn't been great.  While we had a blast, and I wish we could have stayed longer, I'm also hoping we'll be able to get back and rest up some more.  Also, the kids start school on Wednesday!

And with that, on to next week!
 

Heading to Utah

At the end of the week we boarded a plan to head out to Utah for one final summer hoorah!  Monica's back has been feeling better than before, so she was even able to make it with us!  We kept it a tight lipped secret, and my family was shocked when they saw her walk in the door!  Totally worth it.  I also noticed that when Monica wasn't expected to be with us, my family didn't come pouring out the front door when our car pulled into the driveway, which is our usual greeting.  The flight was good, and the kids did well.

We finally got back to Grayson's wall and I helped Monica get the head painted on the brachiosaurus.  Grayson was disappointed to have it get a head...  But here's his dinosaur wall!  It's amazing!

Grayson "helped" Monica make, I believe, pancakes and whipped cream.  Maybe I should say he "helped" wash the dishes.  It's hard to know exactly what he was helping with, but he was having a great time doing it.

One thing Grayson definitely loves to help with is the garden, and he helped Monica pick a watermelon!  I think we've gotten 3 or 4 this year, so that's pretty awesome.  Things are growing a LOT faster here than they did in Colorado.  It's pretty crazy.

I joined the family after work for swimming at the pool, and some of the Ellers even came to swim with us too.  We had a lot of fun and played all sorts of games.

Friday after our flight, we landed in good ol' Salt Lake City.  The kids really liked their fancy wiggly multi-tiered benches, so we stopped to climb on them a little bit.

Saturday morning, first thing, Monica and I woke up and headed to the temple.  It was a pretty great morning, and the temple was only a 5 minute drive away!  That's quite a bit closer than usual for us now!

I spent the rest of the morning wrapping up some Christmas presents.  We're going to Bear Lake with my family next week, and we got matching Buc-ee's swimsuits for everyone, so I wrapped them all up so we can do an early Christmas.  I even turned on a Christmas movie to watch while I was wrapping.

We had a tea party lunch and the Seawrights came over to join us.  The kids were very excited to see their cousins and had a great time together.

And here's the other side of the table.  Grayson brought his fancy tea party clothes too!  We had some sandwiches, lemonade, and lots of desserts!

When we showed up to church Sunday morning Winry was having a hard time.  We ended up waiting for her to calm down a little outside because she was screaming, and eventually we found ourselves hanging out under a pine tree that made a good play house.

Winry and I made it back in after 10 minutes or so, but second hour I was right back out there with Grayson, because for some reason he just isn't having any of primary lately...  Anyway, he loved the tree house and especially the pine cones.

Monica caught us playing under the tree... She came out because the chairs were not playing well with her back, so she hung out with Grayson and I went back into church.

After church we packed up our things to head up to my parents house, which meant saying goodbye.  Pop got a super group hug! And then Gram and Pop both drove up with us to drop us off.

Recently Pop got Gram her dream car, which was an old school beetle.  Pretty sweet car, and very small to stand next to.  I guess I need to learn to drive a manual so I can take it for a spin next time we're out.

And that's our week.  We're heading off to Bear Lake next week with my family, and we're all pretty excited.  We had an amazing time there two years ago, so there's big shoes to fill, but I know it'll be superb!  Catch ya next week.