Bear Lake - a family affair

More of the things I enjoyed about Bear Lake:

My brother, Todd, always brings his homemade candy cannon (he's an engineer, what do you expect?) Here's my nephew, Jake, taking a turn shooting it.


The kids are all awaiting the candy and/or prizes that shoot out!


The collection race is on!


We celebrated my darling niece's, Avery, 3rd birthday with ice cream cones and brownies!


We ate well! Here's my aunt, Kathy, my husband, Kevin, and my cousin, Brant in the "kitchen".


And, of course, Alec always enjoys his cousins! Here he is with my niece, Natalie, who is getting ready to head off to college in 2 weeks.


Jolyn brought up foam swords with PVC handles and the kids had hours of fun fighting with them. My uncle, Reed, brought up badminton and PVC golf. Chandler would hardly get off the bicycles. We had fun on the waverunners, the 4-wheelers, the boat, the banana/rocket, the rubber raft, and on the tube. There was lots of great sand for the kids to dig in! Shanley caught a couple of frogs. Long-lost "cousin", Belly Bob (Darin in disguise) showed up to tell us the campfire story of Rindercella. We sang campfire songs and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

The things that were NOT highlights:

*the wind - it blew Brant's tent down, snapping 2 poles and putting several holes in it. It also blew down my parents' tent and Natalie's tent (sending Natalie screaming from it). It beached the boat requiring a new anchoring in the middle of the night.

*illness - Brant and a couple of his kids got really sick and ended up calling it quits on Friday morning (sickness and loss of tent was just too much). Reed, Kathy, and Kara were all sick and also left Friday. Natalie and Emma were sick and spent most of the time in their tent and/or camper.

*cold temps - Saturday morning it was very cold and rainy causing us to depart earlier than originally planned.

All in all, we did have a good time and the wind stories will be legends for many family reunions to come! Why is it you always get better stories and more memories with the adversities than with the fun times?