Bear Lake — the end

After I dropped off Grace at EFY (back here) I went back up to the lake so hang with my little girls for the week until Grace was done and we would head back to the desert.

There’s just nothing like them.  The discussions that come out on the beach…

(watching gorgeous sunsets)

…and watch relationships blossom and flower.

…and melt our hearts.

And we are THERE.


In the present.

I love that.

This year the dishwasher broke a few times spreading cascades of water all over the wood floor, so we had a few scenes like this:

I loved waking up each morning to this:

I hardly set foot on our good old trusty boat this year…just too many kids wanting turns.

But I did get a couple pictures from the boating action from my siblings:

She wasn’t a huge fan of the beach this year.

But when she did come, we sure made some whiz-bang castles with those polly pockets.

Charity and Ian took off a little early to finish packing and moving to London.

Read about their grand adventures so far over HERE.

…get in a little horseback riding:

…soak in some extra cousin bonding:

And a last sunset walk.

And last but certainly not least, we HAD to get in one “ski on the gold” before we left.

So Eli, Sayds and I, the last siblings left, snuck out after the little ones were in bed for one last ski.

(Most of which was missed by my out-of-memory camera, but it was a great ski.)

Then it was my turn.

I got up for the first turn and then the boat started to chug.

A little slower…

Then slower….

Until I was down….

…and we realized our fate:

We were out of gas.

And we were far away from that shoreline.

And we didn’t have any paddles except for some funny decorative one from TJ Maxx.

Now, I have no clue why that paddle happened to be in the boat right at that moment, but I sure am glad that it was!

I sat up on the bow and we took turns with the TJ Maxx paddle and waterskis and paddled our little hearts out.

We weren’t making a whole lot of headway (mostly because we didn’t put the darn motor up which we didn’t realize until later) and the sky was darkening by the minute, but as I sat up there on the bow of that boat, my sister and brother in tow and the darkness starting to blanket the familiar shore, I had a giant smile on my face.

Maybe it was because of sheer lack of sleep, but right then and there rowing along with that huge cumbersome slalom ski on the front of the boat I got a bad case of the giggles.

I couldn’t help myself.  It was all just so beautiful.

The lake.

The siblings.

The old twenty-five year old boat that holds so many memories.

The end of another great summer.

The gleaming lights of the cabin up on the beach that I love so much.

The fact that Dave and my kids are now such a part of this bigger family I adore so much.

All the things I had learned over the summer…all the thoughts, all things that worked to rejuvenate my spirit,

All of it just somehow hit as a beautiful picture (and somehow a little bit funny) as we rowed and rowed and rowed that night.

Before too long my Dad noticed we weren’t home and came to the rescue in the sailboat.

…and as he pulled us right on into the safe harbor I couldn’t help relating that to how he and my mom have always helped us find those safe harbors in life, large and small.

How grateful I am for them and that they have given me these best friends:

Sure, we all have a whole bunch to work on.

We all have our issues, some rather big ones.

But I’m so grateful for them and the journey we’re all on to build each other up as much as we can and find ways to incorporate “Love More” into life in our own unique ways.