Bear Lake 2020

There are a few posts that seem overwhelming to put together. Bear Lake is one of them. Oddly, when I started pulling pictures from multiple phones (as always) there weren't that many. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. It means there will be more words than pictures in this post. But it also means we had a really good time and couldn't be bothered to get our phones out a lot of the time. 

We went to Bear Lake last year and had a fantastic time. I wasn't really planning to go back in 2020. I wasn't planning to go anywhere because of Covid. But then something came up. The youth were going to do a big activity and go to Bear Lake and they had reserved a camp site at the beginning of August. When everything fell through because of the pandemic, the ward still had a reservation, so our Bishopric member called a few people and invited them to come and partake of the free site. 

I think our tent is broken or Tyler wanted to check out some real estate, but we decided to go to Bear Lake but stay in a condo instead. That is my kind of trip. Sadly, the timing was wrong and it was right during band camp. Robyn, responsibly, decided to stay so we were one child light. So don't look for Robyn in any of the following pictures. You'll be looking a long time.

On the first day, I dropped Robyn off at camp, came home and packed and prepped the last few things we needed and we were on the road by 10, headed toward Bear Lake. We took separate vehicles because Tyler needed to stop by Layton. He was still in the thick of finishing the rental, but he planned to get there later that evening. 

Our drive was very nice. We saw the Sinclair dino dressed up in disco clothes which is pretty epic.

We played the music game where you pick a song and hope it comes up on Spotify. If your song comes up, you are guaranteed a shake during the trip. Naturally everyone was crossing their fingers for their song. Daisy's came up right away! Then Pearl a little later. Nice. 

We didn't lose the GPS signal like last time, which was nice, but we had some other problems. The directions that were given to us only had hints as to where the camp site was. It wasn't exact coordinates. We drove too far and stopped at East Beach for directions. Then we called Hillman to figure it out. Finally, we found the sign that said Primitive Sight 300. It was reserved, which is why I had passed it. Apparently, it was reserved for us. We were the first ones there! So we unloaded and got out the paddleboards and tubes and hit the water. Why not?

The paddleboards were borrowed from Camille again. The tubes I got on Amazon just a few days before. A couple were not too bad, but two of them were ridiculous. They were almost impossible to blow up. I think one had a hole, so that would do it. I was not impressed. But I'm glad we had them, because they made the water part so much more fun. The area where we were was very shallow. You could walk out quite a ways without it being too deep, but it was also very rocky. Sometimes it was annoying that it was so shallow because feet and toes kept rubbing on unwanted jagged objects.

The Wiszt's arrived a little later and the boys came out and played with us. But Hillman never showed up while we were there and we didn't take any pictures. Oops. But June got this awesome shot of the lake with the suns rays shining through clouds.

Finally we decided to leave to find our Air BnB. It was time to check in and get some food into the kids. It took us a couple tries to find the right place, but we made it and all codes and keys worked. It was a very nice place that could sleep around 14 people. There were a LOT of beds. One room looked like it could sleep at least six with double bunk beds that were really large. We brought our own food since there was a fridge and the kids spent some time exploring to see what they could find. My favorite was June who pulled out the coffee filters and said, "Look at this HUGE cupcake liners!!"

We made mini pizzas for dinner and Tyler arrived later. We had fun playing some games. You can see I was killing it.

The beds were actually really comfortable. We gave June and Ivory the big room with the nice  bathroom because there were two beds in there. Then they chose to sleep in the same bed anyway. The littles chose the bunk beds and Tyler and I slept in another room. (Seriously, lots of beds.)

Ivory was instrumental in helping us get Netflix set up. It was a newer Air BnB so not everything was set up. Yes, my kids are better with technology than I am. That is why I keep them around. 

The day was a success. I wore a new swimsuit that rubbed my neck in a new place and that was a little raw. Add to that a slight sunburn and my skin was a little tender. But none of that mattered because right before bed, my song came up on the playlist. That means a shake for me!!

The next morning, I was really tired. We had plans to go to Bloomington Lake and I almost stayed home. I'm really glad I didn't. It was an experience. The Hulse's told us about it. Jonny mentioned there was a dirt road, but he didn't mention how LONG it was. It was pretty rough too. Rough enough that Pearl was getting car sick by the time we reached the parking lot. On the way we played new versions of categories that were really fun. And I may have mistaken a stick for a cow. (The kids wouldn't let me forget it.)

We were the first ones up to the Lake. No cars in the parking lot, just this little guy.

 So we put on sunscreen and started our hike. 

There were a couple lakes that were connected. It was really lovely.

It didn't take us long to find the famous rope swing. The water was quite chilly, but that wasn't going to stop us from going in. It was really fun. Everyone took a turn. Here are a few videos.

By the time we were taking second turns, a sizeable group had come behind us. So we didn't stay long. Instead, we hiked around the lake and did some climbing. It was purely magical. Ivory spent some time taking pictures of flowers. They look good.

Like I said, I'm so glad that I came. The ride home was still the same bumpy road, but I think Pearl was in a better place.

Back at home, I took a nice relaxing bath. We stayed in for the afternoon and snuggled in soft blankets and watched a lot of Jeopardy. The kids had never seen the actual show, so it was fun for them to see it in action. I even knew some of the answers.

The Wiszt's and Turner's had gone to the caves (a place I want to visit on another trip). Caroline stopped by on the way back to prep her dinner. I think it was much easier in a kitchen than on a metal picnic table. We had fajitas that were scrumptious. Some of the kids were eager to get back in the water, so we sent Dad back over to the camp site with the littles while June and I stayed in and watched Only You and Charlie's Angels. That was very nice of him since it is a 30 minute drive each way to the camp site. It was on the other side of the lake. June and I called Robyn and she was doing well at home and watching movies without us. Touché.

Day three dawned and we spent the morning getting all our stuff packed up since we wouldn't be coming back to the Air BnB. Instead we headed over to the campsite. We planned to spend the day with our friends playing in the water. There are a few large beaches that are popular. We stayed on South Beach the first time we came to Bear Lake. I hear North Beach is very nice, but this time, the camp site was right next to East Beach, so that made the most sense. 

We could have loaded everything in the cars and taken them to East Beach, but we didn't think we were that far away. So we decided to paddle over. There were two kayaks and two paddleboards and we figured it would be a nice trip. Ivory and I took the boards and Daisy and June used the kayaks. 

We were actually faster than I thought we'd be. It took us less than a half hour to paddle over to East Beach. 

Then we took no more pictures because we played ALL DAY! It was a blast. We played a lot of Spikeball on the nice grassy areas. Caroline got a picture for me. 

There was shade up there too in case you didn't want to be in the sun. Later we taught Hillman how to play Spikeball and it was funny because he never passed the ball. Not even once. 

We also spent a lot of time in the water, obviously. You could walk out so far and it was nice and sandy at the beach. (No rocks.) We used the paddle boards and floaties and played games and relaxed and had no schedule. We tried getting four people to stand and balance on the paddleboard without success. :) This picture is also from Caroline. You can see Pearl on the left.

It was a great day. All the kids got burned. Ivory and Daisy didn't even bother to put on sunscreen. Sometimes they can be so dumb. I certainly told them to put it on. And I did!! No sunburn for me that day. This was taken later. Nice toasty kids.

In the afternoon, the wind picked up a little and it was time for us to hit the road. Tyler had left early, so I grabbed the girls and we stopped briefly at Zipz to get our shakes. Technically June and Ivory never had their song come up, but Pearl donated a song, as well as Tyler, so everyone got a shake. 

Then it was the long drive home. We had some funny moments. I saw a silhouette metal cutout dog and said, "I almost thought it was a real dog." Turns out it was a real dog and it really startled me when it moved.

Later Ivory got her words jumbled up and while she was looking at the rolled up bales of hay, she said 'Stales of Hay Bay'. 

Things like this sound dumb, but when we are tired after a long day of sun and water, we can get pretty giggly. We didn't get home until pretty late. Robyn was there waiting for us. We sure missed her. We'll have to go again next year. I'm thinking this should definitely become an annual tradition.