Bear Lake in July

We also went to Bear Lake in July.  

The kids got dirty quickly upon arrival at the lake, and I had to give them a foot bath before bed.

The kids LOVE it when Becca takes them for walks.  She is so great with them.

Me and my guy on the slide.

He is such a cutie.

My brother and his wife and kids came upto the lake too, which was really fun.  They live in Kansas City, KS, so we don't get to see them often.  Here's Angela pushing the kiddos on the merry-go-round.

I love this face.  :)

Caroline is quite the little diva.  And she loves to sing.  (Reminds me of Melia).  Here she is singing a Taylor Swift song to my dad.  She had quite the little attitude.  I love the look on my dad's face.  :)

Breakfast!!

I love this picture of all the cute girl cousins in the hot tub.  Melia, Hannah, Caroline, Hailey, Becca, Lizzie and Aubrey.  (Just 3 girls missing and we'd have the whole clan of girls!)

John catching some rays!

Love this silly kid wearing his sun blocking hat, just like his daddy!

Zach and Rachael helped the kids build a sand castle.  Pretty sure all the little girls thought Zach was the greatest thing ever!  :)

Evera throwing rocks.

Just like his daddy!

Skipping rocks with Dad.

Some of the girls and I found a dead crawdad on the beach earlier in the day.  We had taken it back to the condo in a bucket and had saved it to show to John.  He really likes that sort of stuff and so when he got back I took him out to the deck privately and showed it to him.  He knew so many details about its species and was very interested.  He kept saying, "Poor little guy.  Poor little guy."  And was quite insistent that the two of us needed to go down to the beach to give him a proper burial.  The castle the kids had built earlier that day had been destroyed so we decided to bury "the poor little guy" in the castle's remains.  Then we had to give a little sermon for his life.  

Zach and Rachael took all the little girls on a snipe hunt.  They had to put toothpaste on all the kids' faces because that attracts the snipes...duh!  :)  My mom provided the toothpaste.  I'm thinking "Extreme Clean Whitening" toothpaste may not be the best option (as it totally burned the girls' faces)!  Perhaps next time we'll go with sensitive toothpaste.  :)

Becca is such a great sport and is sooooo sweet with Melia.  I really do think Melia would probably classify Becca as her best friend.  They dressed up like princesses together.

We watched Becca and Hannah climb the coconut trees.

Evera thought it was pretty cool.

Melia enjoyed watching too.

We also went to the other side of the lake to visit Spencer at scout camp.  It was fun to go see him.

I love this dirty little bum.

And THIS dirty little face.  :)

After watching Becca and Hannah climb the coconut trees, Melia begged and begged to do it too.  The next day I finally gave in.  :)  Here she is getting suited up.

She was pretty excited.

She is so little she could just swing on the rope without it pulling down.  She loved that.

Climbing!

Becca and Hannah climbed the trees with her to help her out.  I love this picture with her peeking around the tree.  :)

I was super impressed with her repelling skills!!

Of course, if Melia could do it, Evera had to do it too.  :)  He was pretty excited to get suited up--and was quite the little flirt with the employee.  :)

I was helping him--and he's got that tongue out for concentration!  :)

He wasn't exactly sure how he felt about the experience.

Becca climbed up and helped lift him higher.

After a while he started to get a bit nervous.  For a kid who is terrified of swings, I was pretty impressed.

He decided he was done though.  :)

I love his little pointed toes.

He liked being on the ground a little better.

I decided if both my kids could and would climb the trees, I better do it too.

I'll admit, I'm a little afraid of heights.  I had to pull a Kristy and just hug the tree for a minute before repelling back down.

Evera loved jumping around in the bounce house.  There is a bounce house up there for rent.  We didn't rent it, but it was set up and just sitting there...we thought having the kids jump in it might make it more easily rentable if others could see how fun it was.  ;)

This little bear that we have at the entrance to the condo has been here for as long as Melia can remember.  He has always held a little sign that said, "Welcome."  Unfortunately when we got there this time, the sign was broken off.  But Melia was THRILLED with that, because his hand was out just perfect for holding.  :)

I got some cute pictures of Hannah and Evera on the old gas platform out in the water.

I love all the shells up at Bear Lake.

It was a great trip.

When we got home that night I was too exhausted to completely unpack.  I just pulled out our PJs and threw the dirty clothes on the floor to be washed before going to bed.  When we got up in the morning I found Chief comfortably snuggled up INSIDE OUR BAG.  Lol.  Crazy dog!