What doesn't kill us...: Summer Vacation 2009... Part 2: Bear Lake

The whole reason behind our big vacation was a family reunion with Dave's family. It was the first time in 7 years that everyone was together. We had a "really fun" time. I'm "really glad" that we could do it and I "really wish" we could do it more often. (My sister in law mocked me for referring to her family as "really fun" in a previous post... so Jen.. that's for you!)

We went to Bear Lake which is a huge lake that is on the Utah/Idaho border. The water is a gorgeous blue and we had a great time. We stayed in a huge house... The Inn at Snow Meadows. It is usually a B&B so there were tons of beautiful rooms each with their own bathrooms and everyone had their own room. We actually got 2 rooms since we came with the most kids. I wish I would have thought to take pictures of the rooms, but oh well.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our week there.

K has 2 cousins that were born within a couple of months of her. All she could talked about for weeks before going was that she was going to see them. Here are the 3 little girls together.

M, L, CK

KL has a bunch of cousins born close to her too (but that picture is to follow). Here she is with Alex (or as Dave likes to call him, Jr. because they share a middle name. A fact Dave is infinitely proud of). Anyway, I was working in the kitchen and found these two hanging out eating all that was in their reach.

Of course it was much cuter from this angle:

This last Christmas, we didn't do a cousin gift exchange because we decided to do it when they could all be together. Here are all the kids getting ready to exchange presents.

Of course, we spent lots of time at the beach. One of favorite activities was making sand castles:

My nephew J (holding the green bucket pouring in the water) was pretty adamant about trying to create the proper restraints for the water so it wouldn't leak. Whenever the water would start to spill over the proper walls, you would hear him yelling, "Damn it! Damn it!" It was pretty funny because he had no idea why that might sound inappropriate. After all, he was using it in it's proper context. Nonetheless, it was funny to the rest of us.

Just a shot of everyone lounging on the beach

Jr., Kapua, KL

I took quite a few cute picture of the kids walking too and from the beach becuase I just thought it was cute to see them holding hands. Here is B, with my nephew Gable and my bro-in-law Kalihi.

Dave and KL

B and K

Me and D

CK after she decided the water was a little cold.

We had Jet Skies one day. My brother and sister in law went out on it with their little boy and he fell asleep in between them as soon as they set out. The stayed out for a while and brought him back and laid him in the back of the car all the while, he didn't wake up. He is a pretty cute little kid.

One day, the kids decided to bury L in the sand:

B, D, Taylor, Preston and L (the kids who worked so hard to bury her down there)

L on the Jet Ski

(I took him out on it once and he screamed at me the whole time because I was going to fast. I gave him a hard time about that, but once I let him take control, he did fine. He just didn't like anyone else to do it.)

It seems I took quite a few picture of Gable. I guess I just kept finding him doing things that struck me as cute and funny. Here he is eating chips.

Uncle Jon invited the boys out to go and play tackle football in the water:

KL just loved playing with her Grandma Shirley. This is after she drug grandma in to "play" video games. Of course, she really doesn't know how, but if so many other kids seem to think it is fun to sit on those chairs pushing buttons, it must be fun, right?

Jen (my sister in law who put all of this together) got a bunch of water guns for a water gun fight one day. The kids (especially the husbands) loved it.

The last night, we decided we wanted to have a girls night. Unfortunately, Bear Lake isn't hugely populated. There are a few small towns around the lake. We were in Garden City. There was really nothing there to do, so we ended up getting shaved ice. We walked in and no one was in there. We waited for quite a while, still no one. Finally we went next door to a clothing store to ask about what was going on. It seems that 1 person works both stores. She came in and made our shaved ice then left back to the other store. A few minutes later she came in and told us she was leaving for the day, but didn't tell us we had to leave. Apparently, someone else was going to coming to look over both stores. After she left, Stephanie decided she would help out.

We did family pictures one day. We had our individual family picture taken down on the beach. Here is Dave walking back down the boardwalk with the 2 little girls:

There was a park by the beach where we would always park then walk down. After our pictures, we let teh kids play at the park. This Dave (behind the pole), L, and D.

KL's all time favoite activity is the swings. She just can never get enough.

Dave and Gable trading sunglasses.
(really, there were lots of other cute kids there. I guess he was always just around when I had my camera out)

Here are the 5 kids that were all born within a year of each other:

Keanu, KL, Gable, K, Jr.

(By the way, it has been asked of me a time or 2 before why I use the initials of my kids, but the names of other kids I put on here. Generally, my policy is that if the parents of other kids use their full names, I will too, but they just use initials, then I do as well).

The pool table was a huge hit with the kids. One day, I walked upstairs and saw these 2 kids both with pool cues. They could barely see over the top of the table but they were having fun playing nonetheless.

Brennan, Gable, and Brian