Bear Lake Vacation

We're not taking a vacation to some foreign exotic place, so we decided to take our yearly family vacation at Bear Lake.  We stayed 8 days and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  This trip included my parents, the Allreds and Josh and his friend.  Unfortunately Carrol and Errol didn't make it.  They had problem after problem until it just wasn't feasible for them to make it.  We were sad, but understood.

The week started with the boys taking a dip in the pond.  I grabbed the camera just to take a picture of the boys, but once I started snapping pictures, I noticed that the sunset that evening was simply gorgeous.  I loved the way the boys showed up just as a silhouette in the light.  It was so beautiful.

We definitely didn't waste time getting into the fun.  We played fuse ball, air hockey, played in the sand, admired the new tractor, and caught frogs.  Kyson loves frogs.  We he loves animals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects of all kind, but we happened to arrive in time for the hatching of the babies.  There were dozens of frogs hopping all over the beach and Kyson didn't pass up an opportunity to catch them.  At one point, between Kyson and Josh, they caught over 20 frogs.

These poor frogs were tortured and held as POWs for a time.  They were held captive in the island that has a little pool in the center.  They would hop all over and try to jump out.  Every once in a while when Kyson wasn't watching one would "hop out."  They may have had a little assistance to escape, but Kyson didn't know that.  Eventually we let all the frogs go and turned our attention to other things - like Grandpa's yacht.

This was Kodi's first memorable adventure on the yacht.  The two kids really seemed to enjoy it and wanted to go out more.  It was so fun to see the kids smile while riding in a dinky motor boat.  It's nice that it doesn't take much to please children.  Grandpa's fun didn't end with the yacht though.

While we were all on the island, Kyson started a water fight with my dad, and my dad willing obliged.  It was so funny to see Kyson's mischievous look as he would pour water on my dad who wasn't ready for it.  I loved hearing Kyson's little giggles as my dad gasped from the cold water.

Because we've been trying to get to Bear Lake for Raspberry Days for four years, we didn't want to miss the parade.  I can't remember the last time I went to the parade, but boy it was fun.  They throw out so much candy, it was like Halloween when we got home.  There was a yak and llamas, and of course horses and police.  Kodi loved the beauty queens because she thought they were princesses.  it was so much fun.

One of my favorite things this entire week was watching the Olympics.  If I had been home, I never would have been able to watch the 2012 London Summer Olympics every night and see everything going on.  It was amazing to watch Michael Phelps break the record for the most medals ever and Missy Franklin, a high school student, swim her way to gold multiple times.  We all cried for Jordyn Wieber when she was eliminated from the all-around, but cheer and beam with pride as the women's team took the team gold.  It was the highlight for me.

I'm so grateful for a place to go to escape.  I hope that some day I can do something like this for our children because it's one thing that I always look forward to.