Our Bear Lake Adventure!

I will start by saying that I'm lucky to even be alive to do this post. Okay, so maybe that is a little dramatic, but we sure had our share of problems up there. The drive up was pretty uneventful. We went up through Evanston, Wyoming and we were sorely tempted to stay for the night to do pig wrestling at the county fair. But alas, we continued on to Bear Lake. We were staying in our friends sisters condo which was really nice and had a beautiful view of the lake. The weather wasn't great--quite overcast and a bit windy, but we went out on the water anyway. We pulled everyone (except me) around on the tube and they had a great time. I have only been pulled around once before and it was a very disturbing experience and I wasn't anxious to repeat it. Nick and Shane had a great time and we gave them quite the ride!

Look at the color of the lake. Isn't it beautiful?

So Thursday morning we go out to head down to the lake and the battery on the boat is dead. After messing with it for awhile, Shane finally figures out that a cable is loose and he gets it fixed up and we are on our way (after being yelled at by some ornery old man for letting the kids climb on some rocks "Get those kids down, they are going to kill themselves. We don't allow that here"). We get out on the lake and it is beautiful! They finally convince me that they won't kill me on the tube so I get in, but make sure I have Seth with me so they will keep it mild. I have serious issues with things not being in my control!!! So it is me, Nick and Seth going for a ride.

We went for a little while and then Seth says "I don't want to play anymore" so in to the boat he goes. By this time, I have concluded that I can stay in the tube even as it is skimming across the wake and so I tell them to go for it. I have to admit, it was so much fun. Once we were done, Shane and his son were going to take a turn. At this point, the boat started having serious issues. Shane and Nick worked on it for quite a while, but there is only so much you can do in 100+ feet of water. After working on it for over an hour and drifting quite a bit, we decided it was time to call for reinforcements. Let me give you this advice now--when going boating, get the number of help BEFORE you leave! We called information--no help. We tried to call the place we were staying--no answer. We finally had to call 911 and tell them we were stuck out in the middle of the lake. At this point it was starting to rain. Luckily they had a canopy and so we were all crowded under that trying to stay dry and keep the kids (mostly Seth) entertained and occupied. After being stuck for about 2 hours, the park ranger finally found us and towed us back to shore.

Our little sailor Sam

It was quite the trial getting the boat loaded up on the trailer. We had to hand pull it in chest deep water (I say we, but it was really just Shane). At this point, Seth is trying to climb in the back of their Expedition and he falls and comes crying to us. We then notice that the wires that hook up the lights on the trailer to the expedition have been ripped out--Seth must have stepped on them or something. We weren't able to fix that either, despite much effort, so no brake lights for the rest of the trip. After getting back to the condo much earlier than expected, we just hung out. Chase was climbing around on the rocks again and soon we hear a blood curdling scream and we look out to find him face down hanging on to the rocks. He cut up his nose, lip and knee. And that silly old man thought the kids would kill themselves!

Friday was spent at the beach which was quite fun. We just hung out and the kids played in the water. I think they actually preferred the beach over the boat. There weren't any problems except when Seth's tube went rolling away in the wind. This is our own little Baywatch moment, except it was not the same body parts that were bouncing up and down while running down the beach. I love this picture of Nick chasing the tube while Seth is crying thinking that he had lost it forever. The fun on Friday was when we were trying to leave for home. We accidentally took a different road out of the beach than we took in and by the time we realized it, we were up to our front axles in sand. The van was totally stuck but luckily Shane made it through and came back around. He had taken his tow rope out before he left and all we had was a boating rope (a brand new rope that we had borrowed from some other friends). Nick was able to find something to hook it on under the van and luckily it held and Shane was able to pull us out with very minor damage to the rope. Unfortunately, damage is damage and it wasn't ours and I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be cheap to replace. There were a few other problems that we had, so it just seemed like it was one big drama up there. But it was still a lot of fun and it made for some great memories. Here are a couple of more pictures.

In other news, our friends Becky and Paul and their kids were visiting from Texas and we were able to spend some time with them. It is always fun to catch up with friends you don't get to see very often. It is hard to believe it has been probably 15 years since we were roommates. Wow, time goes so fast.

Sam is growing up so fast. He is eating cereal now on occasion and I don't think he is a huge fan of it. I'm not pushing it on him, just a couple of times a week to see if he starts to take more of an interest in it. He is doing really well at sitting up. Especially if he is in my lap, he can go for quite a while. He still doesn't seem to interested in rolling over, he would rather scoot forward when he is on his belly and he loves to stand up. His favorite thing is to be stripped down. He is always happiest when he is naked--silly boy. Seth is as busy as ever. He is starting to get a real attitude and the last couple of weeks in church have been torture. We have really got to start learning some better parenting tricks for that one--he is a handful. But he can be so sweet and cute and he is so smart. I just need to channel that intelligence away from the dark side :)

Tomorrow our ward is having a Girls Night Out at Bajio. We do it every couple of months at a different restaurant and it is always a great time. Then on Thursday, Nick and I are going to Tucanos for dinner. Our cholesterol levels will be much higher after that trip. I guess we haven't had enough of the water as Nick and I are going on a sunset cruise on a sailboat around Utah Lake this Friday. It will be a shock going from the beautiful blue waters of Bear Lake to the brownish green murky water at Utah Lake, but hey--hopefully it will be a great sunset.

Well, I think that is all for now. Sorry about the long posts, but if I am only doing it once in awhile and when I actually have some fun things going on in my lfe, I'm going to write about them. Don't worry, the exciting things are pretty much done.