Bear Lake With the Whites

We haven't ever had the opportunity to vacation with Jeremy's family so we decided that this was the year to do it.  Jeremy and I planned a long weekend vacation to Bear Lake to spend time with his family.  We rented a cabin that fit and everyone and had a great time.  The kids especially loved being with their cousins.

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and met up with Jason, Melodie and their family.  We ate some lunch together at a place called Zipz that was delicious.  We of course had tasty Bear Lake shakes.

 Photobomb courtesy of Jaxon.

 After lunch, we met up with Brady, Kellie and their boys and hiked through Minnetonka Cave.

 

The boys had fun with their cousins (despite Jaxon's face) exploring the inside of the cave.  There were lots of stalactites and stalagmites and other formations.  The cave was quite chilly though!

 

At the very end of the cave they turned out the lights.  Brady's little boy Taylor didn't like that much and asked if we could go home.  Once the lights were back on we got a group picture.

 

 Josh and Kayden taking a rest after exploring the cave with their cousins.

 

Once we got to the cabin and got settled in, the kids all decided to have a hot tub party.  There were a lot of kids in one hot tub and it overflowed!

 

The kids didn't last too long in the hot tub seeing how it was so hot outside already.  But they had fun and made memories.

 

Jason and Melodie were able to borrow a boat from one of Melodie's family members.  We spent two days boating and hanging out on the beach.  We also rented Sea-dos and we all loved riding on those as well.

 

Since the water was quite shallow, they had to park the boat a ways out and wade through the water to get to the beach.  That Bear Lake water is chilly!  On our first day boating, first run out, Melodie broke her arm while riding on the tube.  It was a crazy accident and sadly Jason and Melodie spent the whole first beach day in Logan in the ER.  She was a trooper and tried her very best to enjoy the rest of the vacation.

 

On Saturday night we went into town to the Pickleville Playhouse and saw Jaunito Bandito whom is pictured with Kayden above.  We all loved the show and laughed and laughed. 

We had to make one last stop at Zipz for another Bear Lake Shake (and some of the best fries ever).  The boys and their cousins had a good time eating their shakes in the comfort of a ski boat table.
 

On Sunday morning we cleaned and packed up to head home.  It was a memorable vacation.  We took some pictures before we headed out.  Above Jeremy is pictured with his siblings and parents.

This is the whole crew--minus two that had to head back home a little early.  It was so fun to be with everyone and to make memories.

Even if we are all a little crazy!

Josh and Clear Creek

In between fifth and sixth grade kids in our school district have the opportunity to go to Clear Creek Camp.  Both McKay and Jaxon got to go and this year was Josh's turn.  He had a great time and loved everything at camp (except for maybe some of the food).  I will let Josh tell you about his camp experience:

Every time we had an activity we would meet at the flag pole.  We had a flag ceremony on Thursday and Friday, but the teachers forgot all the other days.  I got to go to Clear Creek with one of my best friends, Eli.  This is when we got off the bus at the end of the week.

We did relay races on the first day.  We also played getting to know you games.  I got to know some of the kids in my group.

We got to eat snacks at night.  They told us not to be hyper after eating the candy bar.  Most kids got hyper anyway.  In the bottom picture, we were learning about the wild.  We also got to visit Skyline Mine (right).

We got to listen to an actual miner and learn about his job.  The bus ride there and back was fun too.  We did learning activities every day (right).

We had fun out in the wilderness and even played in a stream (bottom).  I got to trap pot guts so I took a selfie right by my trap (top).  On this day we got to make corn dolls out of corn husks (right).

We made and played with boon-dogles (top left).  We went to Schofield and learned about the mine disaster at Winter Quarters Mine (top right).  We went to an old jail.  It was called Cooler Jail--because it was cool in there but it was a prison.  Then we went to the Scholfield school.  It was old, but it was actually in pretty good shape.

The top left picture was part of the Skyline Mine.  Part of the mine even went under Clear Creek!  I found a Sego Lilly--it is our state flower.  We did wood cuts.  We polished the wood and then wrote on them.  I decided to take a picture of my wood cut.  The bones are a skeleton of a dead deer.  I thought it was disgusting.

We collected bugs from the stream that we played in (top left).  There are six cabins.  Four were for students.  The top right was when the bus driver ran into a ditch and hit a sewer lid.  It put a big dent in the bus--luckily we weren't on the bus!  The bottom right picture was the outside of the Cooler Jail that we visited.

This a bunch of animals and insects that we saw in a museum.  I liked the grizzly bear and it's wide open mouth the best (bottom left).

 This is the inside of the Scholfield school.  Why is there a ping pong table in there?

This is a picture of all the cabins.  The one on the farthest left was my cabin.  It was Buck Horn Inn.  I got to sleep on a top bunk right next to my friend Eli's top bunk.

This is my trap.  We decorated it with bacon duct tape.  The pot guts must like bacon because I caught six pot guts!  I was a master trapper.

I had fun and camp and I am glad that I got to go this year!

Snowbird 2016

We were able to visit and enjoy the White family timeshare at Snowbird together as a family.  Juli and her kids were in town so we invited them up with Grandma to spend the day with us.  We had a great time!

 McKay took a turn too fast on the Alpine Slide and wiped out.  He burned a hole in his shirt and on his shoulder.  His knee and calf had some nasty burns on it as well.  We patched him up with a first aid kit that was available at the bottom of the Alpine Slide and after a root beer, ibuprofen and a lollipop he felt much better.

 

While shopping for meds and sugar to help him feel better, McKay found this at the local photographer's window.  It is him riding the Mountain Coaster.

 

 Riding the Mountain Coaster.  We all had fun riding together and it was definitely a favorite of the day.

 Jaxon and Meaghan on the Snowbird tram.  What a great view behind them!
 

 At the top of the tram selfie.

 

 Josh doing some fancy tricks on the bungee trampoline.
 

Riding the chairlift up to ride the Alpine Slide with two handsome guys.

 Josh and Camron riding the Zipline.

 McKay and Jaxon taking a turn.
 

Look at this handsome couple riding the Zipline together.

Kayden got quite daring and did some free fall repelling.

He thought it was nice, so he did it twice!

It was a fun weekend!

Wild 4th of July

We went up to Idaho for our annual 4th of July Independence Day celebration.  The weather wasn't great for boating, but we had a few wild rides on the tube.  Uncle Paul knows how to give a ride that makes your heart rate soar--as well as your body.

 Things started out pretty mild.  The most daring they got was standing on the tube while it was going.  

But pretty soon it turned to this:

Upper left you can see that Jaxon, McKay and their cousin Meaghan caught some pretty good air.  Bottom left Jaxon was struggling to stay on the tube.  The right picture is Jaxon, Meaghan, me and Samantha holding on for dear life.  It was supposed to me a semi-wild ride.  The ride ended when Jaxon, Meaghan and Sam all flew off the tube and I face planted on the tube wishing I had just let go.  I was sore for a couple of days after that ride and retired from going on any more "semi-wild" rides.

It was a great weekend being with family and celebrating the birth of our country and the rights and liberties we enjoy every day.