Bear Lake

Our much-anticipated annual trip to Bear Lake with Darrel's family was as fabulous as ever this year complete with: sunburns (luckily not in our little family), horseback riding, jet skis, boating, wakeboarding, board games, steal-the-flag, wonderful food, relaxing, golf and milkshakes. 

We start out every trip with a picnic in Brigham City in honor of Darrel's grandparents, Clint and Grace Beasley.  They moved from Cedar City to Brigham City after Darrel's mom and her twin sister were in college, and Brigham City is where Darrel and his brothers have all their fond memories of their grandparents.  It's a good stopping place as Bear Lake is about a two hour drive from there.  We usually drive by the old house and everyone reminisces about how the yard used to look and what a beautiful garden Grandma Grace always kept.

Once we get to our rented house, big enough for 22 people, we claim our rooms and get settled in for the week.  This house we have rented for about 3 years is very comfy and roomy with a huge lawn and driveway that accommodates all the cars and kids.  There are now 14 grandchildren that come...all but 3 are boys!  The kids immediately want to go to the lake, so a few of the dads take them down while all us moms unpack and put food away.  When they get back, the kids pull out their games and start in.

The next day, we hit the lake hard!  Justin absolutely loved the beach this year and spent all his time digging holes in the sand and loading and unloading it from his dump trucks.  Grace made little sand castles and villages every day complete with shell decorations.  Spencer and some cousins loved digging a hole big enough for all of them to sit in and then filling it with water. The boat also got lots of use with groups of us all taking turns tubing or just going for rides.  

I managed to get some good wakeboarding in one evening.  I like going in the evening. For some reason I just can't stand that cold water during the day, but by evening I guess I've warmed up enough from a day in the sun that I can brave it.  That, and I wear a wet suit!  My nephew, Aaron, gave wakeboarding a try this year.  He didn't quite make it up but he was close. I'm the only one that wakeboards.  Darrel, one of his brothers and his wife have all tried it, but after nasty spills decided they could live without the thrill.

Thursday we rented jet skis and everyone took turns on those.  Grace opted not to ride one this year, but Justin and Spencer rode with us until it got so windy that the waves were splashing in our faces.  We dropped them off at the beach with the cousins and went out for a spin alone so we could have some fun jumping the big waves.

Friday we went on a three-hour trail ride in Logan canyon.  It was beautiful!  We climbed up to the top of the ridge from which we could see the lake and then went down through the pines. It was steep and a little scary at some points, but he horses were pretty sure-footed and well-behaved.  For those of us that aren't used to riding much, three hours was almost to the point of not being fun anymore!  Grace and Spencer, fresh from horse camp, had a great time and were quite the little cowboys.  Our oldest nephews, Ryan and Aaron, joined us, too.  Justin was too little to come, but he played with Grandma and Grandpa while we were gone. Grandma bought him a motorcycle toy to make up for him having to be left behind and when we got back from our ride I found him fast asleep with it next to him on the pillow.

Friday night we "surprised" Grandpa (not much of a surprise after the 3rd year doing this, but we like to pretend) by washing his boat and car while he and Grandma made a milkshake run.

Saturday we packed up and left, stopping again in Brigham City for lunch at Maddox restaurant. It's a nice and tasty way to end our trip and makes up a little for the fact that we have to go back home, tired but happy.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for another wonderful vacation and wonderful memories!