Bear Lake - Day 2

Day 2 at Bear Lake was a water filled, boating day. We started the day off with a long trip down the lake to one of the only remaining beaches, in our cool party barge.

Sadie was an excellent driver.

We spent a lot of time playing on the beach and in the water.

We also had a speed boat that all of the kids went tubing behind. Alas I have no pics, because I was not on the boat at that time. However, I do have pictures of something rather extraordinary!

Um....yeah. That is me! Wakeboarding! Have I mentioned that I don't exactly excel at sports? No one was more surprised than me when I discovered I could do it.

After getting home, we had dinner, put the kids to bed, and stayed up LATE playing games.

Bear Lake - Day 3

On Day 3 we woke up and took the boat out for a ride one more time.

This time Jackson and Megan took turns driving.

You may notice Sadie throwing quite the fit in the above pictures. Life with a 3 year old!

Have I mentioned how happy I was that I was not the one in charge of parking this thing? Luckily Eric is a pro.

We spent quite a bit of time packing up cars, while the kids all played. Before leaving the cabin, we took some family pictures.

Eric's parents will all of the grandkids (except for 1).

We were missing one of Eric's brothers and his daughter, but other than that, everyone was there.

We finished packing up, and all went back to Logan. We visited some more with Eric's Grandpa, spent some time at the park, and then sadly had to say goodbye to Eric who had to fly home and go back to work. The kids and I then headed over to my moms house to spend the next week with her.

One other thing to note. Due to the large amounts of water in Utah this year, there were small parts of the road that were damaged in Logan canyon. We happened to hit one of these parts and got a flat tire. Which would be inconvenient enough, but it also damaged our rim. And the rim could not be fixed. And the tire could not be fixed. And the rim is a custom rim. And the tire is a custom tire. And no one could get the rim in for a over a week unless I paid over-night shipping. So......One New Tire and One New Rim cost me $700!!

It ended up being quite a thorn in my side.

Utah - Part 1

We spent the first of our 10 days in Utah in Logan for Eric's family reunion. I first have to say something very, very important about Logan. It is the PERFECT place to visit in the summer. Seriously PERFECT. I don't think I adequately appreciated the summer enough while growing up there. But after living in Las Vegas, I sure as hell do now. Anyway, the reunion started on Friday, but we were not able to arrive until Saturday late afternoon/evening. Although we missed a lot of the reunion we were very happy to finally make it and be able to see Eric's 95 year old Grandpa.

Eric's immediate family had a rather small showing this year, but most of the rest of them joined us the next day in Bear Lake.

We spent most of the night playing games at the church.



My team lost. Big Time! We didn't win even one game. Megan's team ended up being the big winners, winning all 5 games they played.

Here she is with her prize.

Incidentally, although Eric's team did not win, he was the big winner at the marshmallow toss. It involved one person throwing marshmallows to another person who was required to catch them in their mouth. He caught 39 in a minute! He has mad skills.

One game involved transferring a life saver from one person to another using toothpicks. These two were partners and were determined to do it! Seriously too adorable for words.

Eric's Grandpa has 50 something great-grandkids and loves each one of them so much.

That night we swam in the hotel pool, until way past bedtime.

The next day we all went to church with Grandpa, and then attended a family luncheon at the park (no pics). We then headed over to Bear Lake to spend a few days with Eric's immediate family.

Jackson's Birthday Celebration

Jackson's birthday plum wore me out this year! We started the festivities off with a small party. It was quite possibly the easiest party I have ever thrown. We basically just played outside in the water for 2 hours. And as I previously mentioned, Jackson's guest list is always very small, so it made it even easier!

We started with a water gun fight:

Moved on to numerous water balloon games:

Played on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it:

And finally, we broke out the new Slip-n-Slide:

The game soon transformed into Eric throwing them down it:

We then moved inside for a car race:

And lunch:

During lunch the kids had an impromptu burping contest. Thrilling!

We opened presents, and then had cake!

Later that day, Jackson opened more of his presents:

He was very excited about all of them, but especially about getting Criss Cross Crash which he has been wanting for months:

This year Jackson chose to go to dinner at IHOP, and then take a trip to the Mini Grand Prix. Which is exactly the same thing he has chosen to do for the last 2 years!

Poor Sade was just barely tall enough to ride the small go-carts, and really struggled to get them to move: 

It was so cute and hilarious to watch:

Megan was very happy to finally be tall enough to ride some of the bigger go-carts alone:

Before leaving we made sure to ride the other kiddie rides. Sadie refused to ride anything else, because we had traumatized her earlier in the night by making her ride the tiny dragon roller coaster.

Whew.....It was a long day, but worth it for my little Jackson.