So much happened over the summer many of the following things really deserve a post all of their own.  But man alive, I want to catch up on this record keeping so I can write more “thought keeping” because there are so many things I want to write about!  Plus house stuff which I apologize I can never seem to get to…it’s my goal this school year though so we’ll see how that goes!  
Let’s wrap up our Utah/Idaho summer right here and now.

The day after the reunion, a few of my brothers loaded up my brother’s huge van and headed off for another adventure in Oregon (more about our “growing-up” trip there back HERE…and more about how my brothers started a tradition of going back to that holy-to-our-family-ground with their own kids HERE).  They try to go every year with their kids ..one of these years I will join.
Anyway, they left, my dad and one brother who had to leave town stayed back with the kids, and my mom, sisters and I took off for a very abbreviated “MFME“…this time with the teenage girls in tow (hence the name “MFME” rather than “ME”…since all of us original members are mothers now)…phew, quite a description!

We went to the other side of the lake and hiked through this beauty:

 (Limber Pine Trail)

 

There is this really cool “7-trunk” tree that has grown from several pines all weaving together creating a huge tree.  Loved how strong it was because it was intertwined…couldn’t help but make an analogy to family and these women I am lucky enough to be woven close with.

Had to take a picture of course…

 Loved all the discussions that intertwined us all at different times along the path.

We also ate, and talked, and snuggled babies, and talked some more.
Each person divulged things that others may not know about them (you think you know a lot about your family, but the teenagers didn’t know a lot about those mamas…and those mamas were so happy to get to know lot more about them).  We also talked about what we’re most excited about this year, and most worried about (we do this every time at MFME).
Then Grace and I took off on a little “date” to get her down to take off on her adventure of a lifetime…to the Dominican Republic for HEFY.
I’ll do a whole post about this soon…hopefully with Grace…but for now I’ll just say that although it doesn’t show in this picture, she was scared to death:

She’s traveled by herself a bunch before, but something about not knowing a single other soul who was going to that foreign place was a little daunting.
Luckily she ran into our next-door-neighbor right past the gate, as well as my sister-in-law who was leaving on another flight…as well as half of her GROUP who were on the same flight, all set to meet the rest of the group in Los Angeles.  
Oh boy, that girl had the time of her whole life there.
More about that soon hopefully.
I slipped back up to the lake…got this picture en route from the cousins “skiing on the gold” up there…eeking out the last of the lake days:
It was so strange for me to only have my two little girls for the next few days.
The next few days were spent snuggling babies:
Snuggling dogs:
Games galore:

Cookie baking:

For some reason it seems that must be done every night at the lake…

And this year, lots of post-reunion tennis.

I honestly think that was one of my very favorite things at the lake this year.

There was one morning where Julie and Kristi played against Claire and me and I’m telling you, it was SO FUN.

Claire is getting so good and

This is what the younger kids do while people play:
I think the only shows at the lake are Lion King and Dot and the Kangaroo, and it’s hilarious because they’re videos…the big old chunky ones that the kids couldn’t figure out why they would start in the middle rather than at the beginning…you have to rewind them yourself??  What??
Loved this note I found that Lucy left somewhere…

Oh man, that poor girl is struggling with lots of things right now, but I love that she’s so willing to say she’s sorry.  Love her with all my heart.

Meals overlooking the lake:

 (with my sister’s dog Scout firmly planted at the “kids’ table”…ha!)

Lots of discussions around these tables.

And more sunset after-dinner walks:

 
One night Lucy and I snuck away to go see Bandito. 

She had stars in her eyes about that thing…especially because our good friend was one of the leading roles this year.

 She was amazing! 

 Go Summer!!

We did Bloomington Lake:

All about that back HERE.

We ate as many shakes as we could get our hands on:

(Which is actually a little tricky since they’re on the other side of the lake…)

More baby snuggling…

Church in the Dingle Ward…love that great ward we have spent our summers going to each year. 

Love this painting that hangs in the Relief Society room…especially since it was close to the 24th of July:

One “sunset walk” in particular that I brought my camera along for…

Little did we know when we took this pic. that we’d end up using it for Claire’s freshman Vice President campaign going on right now…

 Scenes of the lake from my sister’s phone that I love:

 (Thanks Sar…love those!)

…and back to my more wimpy phone:

Yes, Bear Lake is a grand place.

I haven’t talked much about these “talking couches”…where we have sat with different configurations of people we adore for hours on end talking about everything from politics to parenting to church doctrine to woes to celebrations to just plain shooting the breeze:

I think the Sunday we were there post-reunion we sat there literally from one o’clock in the afternoon until one o’clock in the morning.
For real.

Some may call that lazy, but I call is summer wonder.  
I think that was the night my brother made this new screen saver for me during one of our technology discussions:

 (Gotta have something to help me stay on task when I get on my phone sometimes…hope I can talk more about that later.)

As we wrapped up that last night at the lake I am so glad I remembered to snap a quick picture of these two wonders I get to call my parents:

 I am the luckiest.  So so grateful for them!

En route back HOME, we stopped with the whole remaining family to celebrate the anniversary of my grandparents (my Dad’s parents) who were married in this beautiful Logan temple seventy-five years ago:

 My parents were also married there, as well as my dad’s brother and his wife (who were with us for the celebration).

They told us some cool stories sitting there by that beauty that morning:

 And then we walked around and “touched” that thing…

 …since that’s what we do 🙂

 Let’s get a little closer look at those good folks:

 …and these cuties too.

Oh and the main cuties:

 (happy anniversary Mom and Dad!)

We drove over to check out this tower where they got engaged too:

And had lunch at the famous old Bluebird before heading out of town…back to the desert.

 …back to the desert with just my two (er, I mean three including Bo:) girls…here we are at a pit-stop heading home…

…to the climbing temperatures that hit us hard in the face every time we stopped.

Our poor car was a little worse for the wear after that trip…this from being rear ended in California…and birds…

…and the front from a poor deer up at Bear Lake too (sad stuff).

No, the car didn’t fare very well, but our hearts and spirits did, and we came home to greet Dave and jumpy Bo with pretty brimming over gratitude for summer and that lake that holds so many memories.

3 Comments

  3. Oh man! I’m from Logan, we spend lots of time up at Bear Lake (we do the lumber pine trail lots), we lived in Gilbert for a while and Maureen was our sons nursery leader in our last ward (she was the BEST)! One day I’m hoping our worlds collide so I can meet you! Love your blog and all your thoughts on mothering in this crazy world!

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