We planned another trip to Bear Lake this year, maybe it will become a yearly tradition. We sure love it up there. This year we were able to go for an entire week.
On our way up Daric kept having to go potty. It's only a 3 1/2 hour drive so by the third time he had to go we decided we would make him wait the last 30 minutes to Bear Lake. Well that didn't work. Daric became very persistent and it quickly became clear that we had better stop and let the little guy relieve himself. I'll tell you, it's a good thing we did because as Ken was pulling to a stop he glanced in the rear view mirror and noticed the tire of the utility trailer wobbling precariously. After checking out the problem we discovered that all but one of the bolts were missing. The tire was being held on by one last remaining loose bolt that most likely would have also fallen off before we reached Bear Lake. Though we found Daric's frequent potty breaks annoying he actually saved us from a possible disaster. Thanks little-D.
Ken was able to "borrow" two bolts from the other side and we made the rest of our journey to Bear Lake cautiously but without any further problems.
Once there, the fun began. The only unfortunate part of the week was that Kaylie and Tyler got really bad sunburns on Thursday. They pretty much stayed in the condo recovering for the rest of the vacation. Here are a few of the highlights from the trip.
We were fortunate to be at Bear Lake at the same time as our good friends The Hunter's. Bishop Hunter brought up his Wild Kat and Ken spent hours taking the kids up the trails around the resort. I believe this was Ken and Tyler's favorite part of the week.
I made "Mix" for a fun vacation snack. I grew up with my mom making this for our Wolfley family reunions and it brought back memories for me. It actually made me a little giddy to make it and share it with my kids. Even the smell was nostalgic and took me back to those good ol' camping days when I was a kid. "Mix" is basically just a combination of lots of different things mixed together for example; fruit loops, peanuts, marshmallows, M & M's, pretzels, etc, anything you want to add, It makes a fun, yummy snack.
Sydney and Daddy played B-ball together and had a blast! They are fun to watch, they both have a some pretty good basketball skills.
The Hunter's rented and invited us to join them on this lake trampoline. Talk about a good time! We played on this for a couple of hours. The lake was so nice; it was warm and refreshing. I could stay out there for a good long time.
We spent lots of time in the pools.
And in the hot tub.
The merry-go-round at the playground is always a favorite for the kids.
Digging in the sand is a must for Aftyn, Daric, McKenna, and Todd.
Our new relaxation station was awesome. We could all go out on the lake and float around together. It only has 4 seats but you could fit many more and Aftyn loved playing in the water in the middle. It was like her own private wading pool on the lake.
Kaylie took McKenna, Todd, and Daric miniature golfing on McKenna's birthday. Kaylie is SO good with her siblings. She is kind and thoughtful. I know many times she does things with them so that she can give me a break. I also know that sometimes they can test her patience, yet she still does hard things in order to help other people. I love her generosity and sweet spirit.
All week we had beautiful weather. The beginning of the week was slightly cool and then it warmed up throughout week to almost a little too toasty.
Here are a few more pictures of our fun family week together.
This was a fantastic care-free week together. LOVED IT!
Here's one last story worth mentioning. Late Saturday evening the wind really started kicking up. It was whizzing through the trees so loudly. I was concerned about the raft and relaxation station blowing away. It was about midnight when I mentioned to Ken we should go check on them. I went out first and noticed that they were doing fine. I tied them together and was headed back upstairs when I was joined by Ken and Emma. Emma was the only child left awake for the night. When we went back up to our condo we realized that we were locked out! Neither of us brought a key. We didn't realized the door was locked, we kept it unlocked most of the time. We tried knocking, though not very loudly because we didn't want to disturb the neighbors at midnight. All our attempts to awaken a sleeping child failed. We tried to "break in" using card board and paper plates. I know that sounds lame. We were desperate. That was another failure. We really only had two choices, neither if them that great. One we could sleep outside or in the van, or two, Ken could try climbing up the fire escape. We chose choice number two. Our condo was on the third floor. The fire escape ladder started on the second floor. I boosted Ken up and he managed to climb the fire escape up to our balcony and into our condo to unlock the door. He was the hero of the night! I was glad to be sleeping in a bed with all my babies close by. It was not really a fun experience but one I can smile over now that it is over.
I'm already looking forward to our next family outing, whatever that may be.
