Bear Lake 2023

(July 29th, 2023)

You should know by now that Bear Lake is a given. It is going to happen sometime during the summer. It might be only one day (and usually is) but it wouldn't be summer without it. This year we had to wait for June to come home, since she missed last year. Then, to make it more exciting, we invited the Hulse's to come with us. It was such a blast.

Since we do it all in one day, we get up early to make the most of our time. Some people are more awake than others. Can you see Daisy snoozing in the back?

The drive was pretty good. We listened to music the whole way up since June was missing her jams. We made good time and got to North Beach pretty early. This is where we learned that the beach was already full for the day. I guess you can make reservations online. This was news to me. So they had enough reservations to fill the beach throughout the day and that didn't include us. Oops. Luckily, East Beach is not far away and they were still taking patrons who were unfortunate enough not to know about the reservations. 

East beach was fantastic though. There is a grassy area and we set up base camp right away. We get better each year at knowing what to bring. The pop up tent is essential and chairs and a table are great for snacks and seating.

  

The Hulse's brought jet skis which I assume were really fun but I never rode one since I played Spikeball almost the entire time. It was so fun. We went out to about mid-calf depth, brought our floating set, and had a blast.

Everyone did their own thing and had a great time. People sunbathed, played in the sand, jet-skied, played on paddleboards, ran across the VERY HOT sand, ate snacks, played games, and sunburned. The Hulse's are quite fair and they got the worst of it. (Please note that Ivory found what I think are Mentos on the ground and decorated her sand art with them. Um..yuck.)

I started taking photos trying to catch everyone, but only made it through the people that were nearby. So...here is half the group. 

We played all day. It was stupendous. As we were packing up around 7, we noticed a large group of people in a queue headed out into the water. 

It only took us a few minutes to figure out it was a baptism. That is pretty cool. I've never seen a baptism in a lake before. That is commitment from the guests. 

Last stop on the way out was Zips. It's tradition. Shakes and dinner. And the Blue Clothing Company is quickly becoming a hit too. Last year it was hats. This year we got shorts. (Also, I'm pretty sure I tried to take a picture of our group at dinner and probably missed pushing the button. Classic Maleen.)

Bear Lake has some of my favorite memories. I hope we continue to go every year for a long while. 

p.s. Apologies to Maggie, who didn't make ANY of the pictures, and Beth, who barely made one. Technically Beau too, but it's hard to take pictures of someone who wasn't there. Beau sadly had to work. :(