Bear Lake Beach Bums

The last part of the week really warmed up so Bear Lake made the perfect playground.  Nikkala and her kids came over both days to hang out with us.

Delsie sporting her sock.

Brent with Sayler and Delsie

Sutten and Ruby

Crazy Cousins

Sand and water can keep kids and me busy for hours.

Ruby and Lincoln are quite the imaginative bunch.  They were in their own little world.

It was the first time using the kayak and they were lots of fun.

Brent even tried his hand at sailing.

Jake, Dalanie, Hudson, Sydney, Hailey, and Ruby

St Charles Canyon

Back after I had Delsie and Brent was gone so much, I decided to book a camping spot by Bear Lake to give me something to look forward to.  It seemed to have worked and before I knew it, summer was here and it was time to pack up. 
*As a funny side note:
We rolled into the campground at 11:00pm and could not find our reserved spot anywhere.  Nothing was making sense.  Finally we decided to set up in a vacant spot.  It wasn't until the next morning that I realized we were in the wrong campground.  After scouting out our real spot and finding it to be quite shady, we decided to pack things up and move.

The kids could have spent all week baiting rock chucks with food and trying to catch them with a 5 gal bucket.

We spent our first day riding in Green Canyon.  It was a beautiful day for hitting the trail.

At lunch Hudson put his pocket knife to work (he's always packing at least 2) and altered the cookie message to 'bunk bed first' instead of 'dunk head first.'

After coming down a really rocky trail, Dalanie was the only one brave enough to do it again with Brent.  She thought the bouncing around was fun. . . until they tipped the 4-wheeler over on the rock she's standing on.  It scared her for only a minute but me for much longer.

The girls got a kick out of washing their clothes in a bucket with a plunger.

The second morning when I was fixing breakfast, I had Dalanie hold Delsie for me.  Before I knew it, the chair had tipped and Delsie was lying on the ground.  I ran and got her.   It took me a minute to realize that her hand had been burned.  It was a total lack of judgment on my part since the chair was by the fire.  I felt horrible that she had been hurt and that Dalanie felt so sad about it.  We kept it in a cup of cold water for most of the day and then covered it with a sock to keep it clean.

Tyree Hokanson and their kids met us to go to Minnetonka Cave.  It was a first for all of us.

 I was surprised at how big it was.  It just kept going and going.  The formations were neat and it was a nice respite from the heat.

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There was so much to do in the surrounding area that we didn't spend much time just sitting around camp.  But we did manage to squeeze in a camp craft of two.

Tracy and NiCole's crew joined us for one night.

Hudson became the official fire started and perfected his roasting skills.  Check out those golden brown beauties.

Water Logged

We hosted a few water parties through out the summer.  Just the combination of heat and water and sand and you've got an entire afternoon's worth of entertainment.

 Dalanie's little water stand- free refills.

 Kett car converted to a water truck.  Engineered by Hudson.

 The 'big kids' hanging out and doing tricks.

 Water noodle sword fight.

Camping Adventure

Presley Messick's family had an extra golden retriever puppy that was too cute to pass up.  Especially since our kids had been longing for a puppy.  We picked her up before heading out camping at Mill Creek, so she got to go with us.  (We had to go and get the camper that they boys left out after Father & Sons.)

It was a quick over-night trip, but we fit in plenty of fun.  The bulk of our time was spent looking for a good fishing hole.  This made for plenty of opportunities to balance on the fallen logs spanning the creek and to enjoy the company of our puppy.

Turns out that Dalanie is quite the fisher woman.  She has the touch and plenty of finesse when casting.  She can place the worm just where she wants it.  Brent's muscle only landed him snag after snag.  During the course of her fishing, she pulled in 4 little brookies.

The wild flowers were out and impressive.  It was a great outing for everyone before hustling back for the adult meeting of stake conference.