Bear Lake 2009

Bear Lake has been a favorite vacation destination of mine for as long as I can remember. I've gone every summer at least once since I was born. It's a fantastic vacation for kids as well as adults. The kids play in a calm, shallow lake and the adults enjoy some stress-free reading and relaxing. Okay, it's not that stress-free. There are kids to take care of, but we love spending time with our family and we look forward to it every year. Here are some things that made this trip ultra-special. Most importantly, Josh was only able to accompany us on the vacation for our 2 day, 14 hour drive there, and the 2 day, 14 hour drive back. He had to fly home to work in between. If you think that's bad, read the account of said drive home below.

Jonah loves Bear Lake. He spends all day, every day on the beach, building sandcastles, playing in the raft, riding on the boat, bobbing around in the water, or participating in any other beach-centric activity. Here he is about 30 minutes after we arrive at the lake.

And no, we do not dress him in shorty-shorts. He's just wading in the freezing cold water on a windy, cold evening. Kids are weird.

Further emphasizing his weirdness, even though he's deathly afraid of his swimming lessons, we can't get him out of the water.
Noel, on the other hand, spent most of the trip whining about not wanting to go the beach, and then, after much coaxing, sitting on the beach and eating BBQ potato chips.

And capri sun: (p.s. Doesn't he look like a wax figurine in this photo?)
And whining some more about how he wants to go golfing. And then, after golfing, whining about how he wants to go golfing again.


Strangely, the boat rides were whine-free.
And here's Lila, who's an angel wherever she is. Also, she's wearing a swimming suit, cover-up, sun hat, legwarmers and a life jacket so that she can. . .what? Swim?
We missed Josh but had an amazing time. Thanks, mom and dad! It was almost worth it when, on the drive home, our tire exploded off of our car. . .1.5 hours from home. . .when the kids were finally sleeping after the drive from hell. . .and we had just breathed a sigh of relief that we were really going to make it. But we put on the spare and drove really slowly for the rest of the drive, and now it will just become one of the days of which we will never speak. After I write about it on this blog, that is.