Shenanigans at Bear Lake

 

We had the opportunity to head down to Bear Lake with the whole Williams' clan (minus a few husbands and Tucker) for a few days at the end of July.  My Mom's youngest sister, Tricia, lives there and hooked us up with a sweet place to stay and entertained us with her boat.  Melissa and I packed up our kiddos in her car on Monday July 27th, both of our husbands had to work, and took off for Utah.  Once we figured out what was banging on the roof and tied that down, it was a fairly easy drive.  The kids did pretty well, thank you kindles and junk food.  Monday evening we just settled in and enjoyed time as a family.  Tuesday we did a little exploring after a quick morning run.  The kids did a nature scavenger hunt, followed by lunch at a park (which really might have just been someones backyard) and then a quick hike.  We tried to head to the lake in the afternoon, but the wind really picked up and we headed straight back to the house. That evening after dinner we headed into town for the famous raspberry shakes.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent most of the day at the lake and beach.  The kids had a blast playing in the water and sand.  Brooklyn loved "riding the waves".  Brooklyn also tried knee boarding for the first time and McKay loved just riding in the boat.  They both liked that the water is so shallow right off the shore and that they could walk out really far.  I loved how beautifully blue the water is.  We layered on sunscreen and for the most part stayed sunburn free.

My Aunt Tricia and her family joined us at the lake and also for dinner each night.  It was so good to see them and get to know their kiddos better.  Friday morning we packed up and cleaned the house and then headed back on the road toward home.  Again the kids did pretty well, Ivy may have ended up completely covered in a fruit pouch, but was happy.  There were times that it was pretty chaotic with so many people around, but it is always nice to get family together.  It was a lot of work to get my dad there and all of the things he needed to be comfortable, but it was definitely worth it.  Bear Lake was beautiful and I definitely want to get back there soon.  The kids as always had a blast with their cousins and also my cousins kids.  Hyrum kept them all entertained with "stuball" and stories.  A lot of people made sacrifices to make this trip work and I am so glad because this ended up being a sort of last hoorah with my dad.  What fun memories were made by all!

Camping at Hazard Lake

 

The kids have been begging to go camping since we went 2 summers ago, so we decided to get it all planned out.  Stan and Diane rented a trailer and we got all of our gear gathered and food bought and coordinated meals with Craig's parents and his brother Eric's family.  We drove up to McCall Saturday morning and stopped to do a hike on our way.  We had tried to do this hike earlier in the summer but it was still covered in snow.  We hiked into Lost and Hidden Lakes.  It was a fairly steep hike and so we had a 3 year old that complained quite a bit but we ended up making it to both beautiful lakes and back for a total of 3.5 miles.

After our hike we headed into McCall and stayed the night at the cabin.  That evening we got a few more things ready like our tin foil dinners for the next night.  Sunday morning after breakfast and a quick at home church we headed up to the Hazard Lake campground.  We were able to snag two campsites right next to each other and got our camp all set up.  We explored around the lake, practiced our casting, climbed a lot of rocks, tested out the tent, and McKay even took a nap on Pops. We then ate a yummy tin foil dinner and s'mores for dessert.  We then headed to bed before the stars even came out.

Monday morning we ate a quick breakfast of muffins and granola and yogurt before we set out for our hike.  Diane stayed in camp waiting for Eric and Kim's family to get there and Stan came with us.  We decided to hike into a few new lakes.  We first got to Lower Twin Lake and then Upper twin lake.  Craig and I then left the kids at Upper Twin Lake with Stan to start fishing while we hiked on to Hard Butte Lake.  It was only another quarter mile but there was quite a bit of snow, but it was so beautiful and worth that little bit of extra effort.  When we got back to the kiddos they had just started fishing.  Brooklyn caught a little Brooke Trout on her first cast, she thought it was so cool that the fish was named after her.  McKay then gave it a shot.  There were a couple smart little fish out there, his line got nibbled on and worm got eaten 6 or 7 times, but he never got one hooked.  To say he was disappointed would be an understatement.  We then started our hike back once we ran out of worms.  We got off trail for a quick minute but quickly made our way back once Craig and Stan decided to believe me that we hadn't crossed a particular stream on our way in.  The kids did great. McKay rode on Craig's shoulders for about 5 minutes of the 7 miles and Brooklyn hiked the whole thing.  

By the time we got back to camp, Eric and Kim's family had gotten there.  McKay of course fell asleep within two minutes of being back in the truck and so he slept in his car seat for a while.  Once he woke up the kids were so excited to have cousins there to play with.  They played card games, explored the woods, made up games, and watched Pops and Nana put together the dutch oven dinner for that evening.  They spoiled us with chicken and potatoes, salad, biscuits and best of all....2 kinds of cobbler!  We again headed to bed before the stars came out, the kids were asking to go to bed because they were so tired (and really who is going to fight that).   Tuesday morning after getting the fire started and drinking hot chocolate we made up some bacon, pancakes, and eggs over the fire (Pops and Nana really have that down to an art).  It is amazing how much better food tastes when you are camping and a little bacon grease helps too.  After breakfast we then packed up all our stuff, the other families stayed one more night.  We stopped in McCall for some lunch, we tried to get My Father's Place again but it was closed that day for some repairs, seriously disappointing. We swung by the cabin to grab a few things and then headed home to do laundry and take some much needed showers.  We had such a great time.  The kids slept pretty dang good both nights, McKay may have ended up with about 6 band-aids by the end but luckily no major injuries, Brooklyn had a decent amount of bug bites (her left eye was swollen because of some bites on her eye lid).  It sure makes it more enjoyable when you get to split up the work and preparations with other families and to have Pops and Nana who are seasoned pros when it come to camping.  2 nights was the perfect amount of time and the kids have already starting asking about doing it next summer.