Shelley's family takes turns planning a family reunion each year. This year, all 44 of us went o Bear Lake where we stayed in a very large house, with I think 12 bedrooms and plenty of room for everyone!
We'd all been to Bear Lake before, but it was a long time ago. Bear Lake straddles the Utah and Idaho border, with the border going right through the middle of the lake. It's a large lake - about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. It's nickname is the "Caribbean of the Rockies" because of the unique turquoise-blue water, that changes colors according to the time of day and how the sun hits the water. The water has high levels of limestone deposits suspended in the water which causes the refraction of the light and the color. It's the 2nd largest fresh water lake in Utah, with only Utah Lake being bigger.
Bear Lake is over 250,000 years old and is a natural forming lake, meaning there is no man-made dam or reservoir. At 208 feet deep, it's pretty deep and it's said there is an unknown "monster" that inhabits the lake (similar to the one that is supposed to be in Lake Tahoe). Being a high mountain lake, at about 6000 feet elevation, the water is colder until very late in the summer. Because of the unique weather - warm days and cold nights, the entire Bear Lake valley is known for excellent raspberries, and there are tons of shake shops all over - and of course each one says THEY have the best famous shakes around.
The house we stayed in was straight out of the 70's and looked like the Brady Bunch house - it was decorated like it was frozen in time from when I was a little kid. It overlooked the valley and the lake. It was a great reunion!!
View from the house
Plenty of room outside to play
Very large deck
Lots of things to keep everyone busy having fun
Each "family" took a turn with a meal for everyone. So you only had to worry about making and cleaning up a meal once. It was great!
I felt like they shopped at Home Goods for unique items....or thrift shops to decorate the house
This chair was different, as was the life-size doll that ended up getting "hid" in rooms to scare people at night
We had one of these string art pictures when I was a kid....and I think it might have been this same eagle!
Jacob running the "bases"
Caitlyn made this HUGE twister game!
Gpa and Gma brought sunglasses for all the kids to wear. Gpa was telling a story about when he was a kid and the sun blinded his eyes (I think that is what he was saying), and that they should be extra careful and always wear these glasses cuz the sun is bright up here!
Not wanting to disobey, Jacob wore his sunglasses all the time
All the cousins
Very exciting "Minute to Win It" games
Keep the balloon in the air
VIDEO:
Pass the fuzzies with a straw
Cup stacking
One evening, we went down to the lake to get some family photos taken by Saundra. Jacob showed off his rock skipping skills
We tried having a prop for this pic
We celebrated Shelley's birthday while we were there
A friendly game of "Sting Pong" where the winner gets to hit a ping pong ball as hard as they can at all the losers, with their shirts off. This is a welt from one such hit
VIDEO: So the way you play, is each person hits the ball once and then rotates. If you miss, that's one life lost - everyone has 3 lives. The last person alive wins, and then gets to hit the ball as hard as they can with everyone else standing with their backs exposed on the other end of the table.
VIDEO:
VIDEO:
About 15 mins away, we found a short hike to a Limber Pine tree that is over 2500 years old
It's actually a cluster of about 4-5 trees that have grown together. This set of trees is much much older than all the other tress in the area. Not sure why or how it's here, but it's here.
Of course there was a geo-cache nearby we had to find
One afternoon was spent shooting
VIDEO:
Not sure what was happening here. I looked up and saw Grandma washing her hair in the kitchen sink
VIDEO: One evening, Austin decided to eat a moth.
Hannah was going very high on the swing
One afternoon we went to the lake - there was a short boardwalk that led to a small beach
It was very windy that day, but not windy enough to stop Grandma from posing
Time to get dinner ready - this night was tamales, tacos, chips, dips
We went to town one evening for "famous shakes" - we had to choose between about 15 different places - all claiming to have the best 'world famous' shakes
Time for some volleyball
We also went Razor riding (which was very dusty but fun), played games, watched movies and more. We had a great time and it was a lot of fun!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment