More Bear Lake Pictures

  When I first wrote about our trip to Bear Lake I only had the pictures off of my camera and they were almost exclusively the day at the beach.   I finally went though Thomas' camera, who had some of the campground as well.

Our Site

The kids made a "fence" with the tent stakes.  They had a lot of fun.

Breakfast and a little mischief 

And those pesky squirrels.  Did I mention that one of them ran of with half of Isabelle's abandoned breakfast?  I know that I told about them terrorizing the food box and my chocolate bar!

 I had forgotten until I went through the pictures that we had a flock of wild turkeys run through camp.  I didn't even know there was such a think still as wild turkeys.  At first there was just one, then I saw another and another.  I think there was seven or eight all together.  Thomas chased after them with his camera.  He got some pretty good shots, but they were on their way somewhere and didn't stop to pose.

 Once we were dressed for the beach, everyone was excited to get in the car.

This was how I made lunch at the beach.  Most of our stuff was being stored in the back of the van, so we had it all with us, except the plates. Amazingly only one of the pieces of bread fell on the ground. 







Isabelle is still talking about the trip and asking when we are going to go to the lake again.  I told we probably could next summer. 

Squirrels, Sandcastles, and Splashes

Bear Lake

 

One More Trip

I was feeling a little bit sad about summer coming to an end.  So many people keep saying how excited they are for Fall, but I don't want to let go of Summer.  I didn't really feel like we had had a real vacation.  I love family reunions, but they don't really count as a vacation.  I wanted to do something with just our family, and Isabelle wanted to go camping again.  I started thinking about Bear Lake and was surprised that there were camp grounds open.  I think that it helped that we wanted until the 21st of August to go.  Several school districts in the area have already started.  There were a lot of open spots at the campground, and lots of space at the beach.

Heading Out

We had to wait until after the kids dentist appointment to leave.  Isabelle was a little panicked about going, but she did fairly well.  She apparently wouldn't bite down and they were unable to do x-rays.  She also didn't open as wide as the hygienist would have liked, but she did a good job and didn't have any cavities.  Tristan fought the whole time.  This was his first visit.  I was curious to see what the dentist would say about him.  He didn't get any teeth until he was 14 months.  He is still missing two of his bottom teeth; ones that most kids at about 6 months.  He said not to worry unless they still haven't come in by March at his next appointment.  I think he is just slow on his teeth.    It didn't matter that we had to wait for the dentist appointment because we weren't done packing until after twelve anyway.  I also had to stop at the store and buy a swimsuit.  I got an awesome deal at a store here in town called Hapori, that I didn't even know existed until a couple of days before.  Both of the kids were so excited to go they got in the van and hung out way before we were done packing.  Finally we headed out.  I like that Bear Lake is only two hours away.  It is closer than a lot of other places I like to go.  (For example, I wish Yellowstone were a couple of hours closer!)

The Campground

I had looked at the state park, but I didn't know which of the three campgrounds I wanted.  Also did we really want to camp right on the beach with small children?  My brother recommended Sunrise Campground.  It is just off the highway when you come our of the canyon, but before you head down the hill.  The turn off is right before you see the lake.  It is a nice campground, and we really liked our spot.  It was very shady with a lot of tall pine trees.  We also picked it because it was near the restrooms.  Without my mom (and her trailer) there, I was a little worried about nighttime potty emergencies.  After we had set up we found that the water spigot was also next to our site.  After we got all set up we went for a walk.  The campground was only about a quarter full.  There were a lot of reservations for the weekend, but not as many for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  After the walk we made dinner.  Tacos are a pretty easy meal to make while camping.  It only took about 10 minutes to prepare.  It was fun to use all of the camping supplies I've been collecting.  Since we usually go with my mom, I often end up using her stuff.  Especially things like her stove.  I think this was about the 3rd time we've used ours in seven years.  The same for our lantern.

My two biggest complaints about the campground were bees and squirrels/chipmunks.  I think there were some of both; Thomas explained the difference.  There were a ton of bees; especially when you were eating.  They didn't bother us, but you had to keep swatting them away from the food you were eating.   The squirrels on the other hand were a real nuisance.  Because it was supposed to rain, we left most of our stuff in the van.  We left the back window open, and just got out what we needed.  I didn't really think about it, and after getting into the cooler, I left the side door open as well.  We were just sitting down to eat when I looked up and noticed a squirrel perched on top of our food bin, which he had gotten to via the side door.  I was so shocked it took me a moment to even say anything.  Then Thomas jumped up and ran over hollering at it. It of course took off.  The food bin looked OK, but the package of buns for the next night sitting in one of the car seats had suffered.  There was a giant hole in the bag and half a hotdog bun was missing.    I also later discovered claw marks on my Chocolate bar!  I was so angry.  After that we had to keep an eye out.  The next morning when certain children wouldn't eat and had abandoned their breakfast, it was carried off by small furry creatures. It was kind of cute, but appalling at the same time.

At the Lake

After dinner we drove down to town.  The lake was still high and there was no beach access in Garden City.  We drove down to Rendezvous State Park.  It is $8.00 to get in and the beach has a fair amount of greens growing in it.  We heard the Idaho State Park at the North end had better sand, so when we headed out the next day we went there.  It was only $5.00.  There wasn't very many people and we pretty much had the area we were in to ourselves.  The first order of business was building sandcastles.  There were a lot of holes and channels left by others we could improve upon.   After a couple of hours we made lunch, then headed out in Grandma's boat.  I was horrible at rowing and we ended up just pulling the kids around in it.  Tristan kept dipping his hand in the water and sucking the water off.  We told him if he kept doing it he would fall out of the boat.  We were all surprised when he actually did fall out.  He was of course wearing a life jacket and was fine, but he was not happy about it.  The fall sapped out the last of his energy and he seemed to just start fading after that.  His lids got heavier and heavier and his little chin slipped down into his life jacket and then onto the edge of the boat.  It was really cute.  He ended up sleeping that way for about a half hour.  It was shortly after this that we decided it was time to go.  Isabelle didn't want to leave.  She had so much fun.  I told her we would have to plan a trip for next year.  Maybe something that was more than just a day. 

 Since Tristan was napping anyway, we decided to drive back along the east side of the lake.  Neither of us had ever seen that side.  Apparently that is the deeper side of the lake.  The shoreline looked fairly similar, but there was less of it that was developed.  What was developed had more new, large, fancy houses.  The main beach, Cisco Beach, had some campgrounds, but we didn't' see anybody there.   We didn't see much sand either, just rocks.  Oh course before we headed back up to camp we had to stop and get a famous raspberry shake.

Heading Home

Back at camp we made dinner, had another walk, built a fire, then headed off to bed.  I almost forgot to mention that a certain small boy refused to sleep in his sleeping bag.  Refused to sleep at all.  He thought that bed time was really playtime, and mommy was the jungle gym.  We did get him to sleep both nights, but it was in our bed and not his.  Not very comfortable. I didn't realize how much he moves at night.  In the morning we packed up and headed home.  The biggest problem with camping at the lake, is the lack of showers.  We all needed to get home and clean up.

It was short, but it was still a good trip.  It was nice to get away and not think about the end of summer and the impending school year.  (Although not everyone is dreading it.  Isabelle yells out Kindergarten School!  every time we drive by her new school.)  Thomas loves the water, and enjoyed playing with the kids, who also appear to love the water.  I look forward to being able to go again.

Ledgefork Campfround at Smith and Morehouse Reservoir

 

It has been about three weeks since we went camping, but I just haven't had time to write about it.  Because my sister missed the family reunion and their moving date got pushed back, she wanted to go.  We decided to go two weeks after the reunion on the last week in June.  She wanted to check out Ledgefork because we had gone to Smith and Morehouse last year.  They are about two miles apart.  Smith and Morehouse is near the reservoir damn, and Ledgefork is on the other end of the reservoir.  Ledgefork has about 70 campsites, but the bridge to the one side is damaged.  Half the campground has been closed for three year.  That only leaves about 30 sites. The good thing about it is that it is first come first choose.  I don't like reserving sites on the internet, because you don't know what they are like.  Plus they charge you a ten dollar service fee.  As long as you come up the first part of the week, there is no problem getting a site.  Thursday through the week end you would want to be there first thing in the morning, although the people leaving have until one o'clock to pack up.

My dad ended up taking off work to come with us, unlike last year, when it was just the girls.  My of course came as did my sister  with four of her five kids.  Her oldest daughter and my youngest sister are in high school, and both have summer jobs.  They have been very busy this year.  Thomas couldn't come the whole time, but he and my sister Jennae came up half way through the trip. 

As we were getting ready to go I looked back at last years entry to see how long we were there, and what we did.  This year ended up being a little less structured.  We played games, but more short ones.  I think that we did more sitting around. Here are some of the highlights. 

The first day we were there, I was in charge of dinner.  I had seen directions on the internet about cooking Pizza over the first using a pizza stone.  I thought that sounded like fun.  I decided to buy the pizzas from Papa Murphy's our favorite pizza place.  The first problem we encountered was how to get the pizza off the cardboard backing sheet.  We ended up just leaving it on.  The directions were to just cook it over the fire, which was my original plan. The campground has some really nice swiveling cooking grills.  My dad thought it would be better to cook it with brickets.  So that is what we did.  In the oven you have heat all around , but outdoors you lose a lot of your heat, so I ended up covering the pizza with tinfoil.  Just after this we noticed that the pizza stone was cracked.  I think that it got heated too quickly.  At this point we ended up dumping the brickets in the fire pit, adding some wood and putting the broken stone on the grill.  It ended up a little bit crunchy in the center and a little doughy on the edges, but it was still good.  We cooked the second pizza in the oven in my mom's trailer, but it ended up more burnt than the fire cooked one.  After dinner we cooked s'mores on the leftover coals. 

We went on several walks while we were there. There was a stream nearby that we had to go visit each day.  We also had occasional walks to the outhouse.  I was close to the end of the book I was reading and read it while walking a couple of times.  Luckily the roads in the campground are paved.    I also brought my bike.  I was the only one, so we didn't go a lot, but at least once a day I would take the kids on a ride around the loop.  Tristan wanted to go anytime he noticed the bike trailer.  

He also enjoyed helping grandpa.  Both kids seemed to enjoy being there a lot.  After the family reunion Isabelle said, "That wasn't camping.  I want to go mountain camping!"  Lucky for us this qualified for mountain camping.  She loved the stream. They also like going across the log bridge on the edge of camp.  It was over a dry stream bed.  It was really dry and dusty, and they spent quite a bit of time just getting dirty. 

Thursday when everyone was there we decided to go over to the damn since several people hadn't been there last year, and I never made it over to see the spillway.   We spent a little time playing near the water, where we ate our lunch we had packed.  They we walked over to the spillway.  Last year, it was a raging river.  This year it was dry.    Paul complained about walking, but we made him anyway. 

Everyone enjoyed the day.  It was a nice walk. 

Isabelle's main question of course is, "When can we going camping again?"

Family Reunion at Mount Pleasant

  
It was a Taylor year for the family reunion.  Aunt Lucy's family were in charge.  They own some property down in Mount Pleasant and were able to use the group site for the reunion.  We have the Taylor reunion every two years.  This is my grandmother's family.  She had eight siblings in her family, so there are a lot of people who come.  It isn't as many as it could be because not everybody comes.  It seems like it is often the same people who do come though.  I enjoy the reunions, because I get to connect with some of my favorite people.  It is sad though to see some of  older family members aging and getting frail.  My grandma came, but my grandpa didn't make it.  He just wanted to stay at home.  There were also a lot of younger people that I had no idea who they are.  You figure though that this reunion has my grandparents and siblings as the first generation, my mom and her cousins as the second, Me as third generation, my kids the fourth generation, and a couple of the families are close to a fifth generation. Not many people know their second cousins the way we do.  My niece became best friends with a girl who is her third cousin.  How cool is that. 

The reunion was supposed to be what my sister was waiting for to move.  Her original plan was to stay for the reunion and then more the Monday after.  My nephew Paul ended up having to have surgery (I will do a post about that soon.)   The surgery was Monday and the Reunion started Wednesday, but they said we could come up any time.  My mom ended up spending most of Monday with my sister up at Primary Children's Hospital, so nothing got packed.  The plan was to leave Tuesday afternoon.  That became Wednesday early, which ended up being Wednesday Afternoon.  I was driving separately and so was doing my own thing.  I was always planning on leaving Wednesday morning.  It still took me longer to get ready than planned as well.  It ended  up that we were both ready to pull onto the freeway at about the same time.  I had to wait a couple of minutes.  After getting on the freeway, my parents almost immediately pulled over.  Turned out they had a flat tire on their trailer.  They had to put on the spare, then stop at a Big-O to get it fixed.  I didn't wait for them.  I ended up getting there about an hour and a half before them, but I still missed the group lunch.   My biggest complaint about the reunion was that there were several things planned for the first day, that we missed out on because we weren't there first thing in the morning.  I thought the first day was mostly just going to be setting up and visiting.  We did have fun though once we got there and got everything set up.  We did spend the majority of our time sitting around visiting.   Thomas came up thursday night.  It was nice that he could come at least part of the time.  

Friday Morning they went into town for some horseback riding. Thomas took his camera.  Isabelle was not afraid of the horse at all and had a great time riding.

Grandma got to ride as well.  She took the horse for a gallop.  

Friday evening we made s'mores over my cousin Aubry's camp stove.   Saturday we just packed up and went home.   It was a lot of fun. Although Isabelle said she didn't have any fun.  She wanted to go "mountain camping."   A big field was not her idea of camping.  Also, I think there were too many people for the kids.  They were both a little cranky.    I was a little irritated that I forgot my camera.  Thomas didn't take very many people pictures  (expect the 50 pictures of the horse ride.)    I will need to get my mom's pictures.  Maybe I will post some of those when I get them. 

 

Hawaii Update

It is funny the way things work out sometimes.  I think that I mentioned in my last post about how I had been trying to post about Hawaii for a long time, it was posted five months after we went.  I also mentioned that the biggest negative impact on the trip was losing my dad's GPS,which was not the start, but the big drop off for my emotional roller-coaster, which I couldn't get off of.  I think that the trip would have been much better if that hadn't happened.   Thomas and I both prayed that it would show up and that we would find it, but it never turned up.  We spent several hours of our very short trip looking for it.  We both felt like the answer we got to our prays was not to worry about it.  What kind of an answer is that?  Obviously I couldn't just let it go.  Even after we returned and we bought my dad a new one, I stressed and fretted about it and what had happened to it.  Five months later, I finally get my post written and posted.  That night I am watching television when Thomas walks in.  He has a funny look on his face and something hidden behind his back.  He pulls it out and I just stare at him.  I don't know what it is; then it hits me.  It is the missing GPS.  I had never truly felt like it was stolen because we still had the mount and the cable.  If I was a thief I would take the whole thing.  We had looked everywhere though.  We search the rental car multiple times.  We search Thomas' camera bag.  It wasn't anywhere.  I still had unrealistic hopes that it might show up. I expected a package in the mail, or a call from the temple.  Where was it I ask?  He shrugs his shoulders and says "In my bag."  He was looking for batteries, and there it was.  He had apparently put it in upside down, so it blended in with the bag, and then it slid so that it was underneath multiple dividers.  I still don't understand it.  I remember taking everything out of the bag and having it lying all over the hotel bed. How could we not find it in an empty bag?  Why were we not directed to it when we prayed if it was right there!  It bugs me a little bit, but I think that mostly I have moved on. Maybe there was a reason, even if I can't see it.  The plus side is that we now have our own GPS.  (Although the activities we would have done instead of searching would have been cheaper.) 

Hawaii

It has taken awhile, but I am finally getting some Hawaii pictures posted.  Sometime near the beginning of October, Thomas' sister got engaged.  We were very excited for her.  She had said since she was small that she was going to get married in Hawaii, and she stuck to that. 

We got in to Hawaii at about 11:00 and it took a while to get to the hotel and get settled, so that first day didn't really count.  All we saw was the Alamo rental station and the hotel.

Day 1 was the wedding.  We had planned on going to session at the temple before the wedding, but due to me being sick on the flight the day before and Thomas feeling a little bit nauseous that morning, we didn't leave quite early enough.  We still left fairly early, but we took our time and didn't rush.  One of my favorite things about Hawaii was coming out of the tunnel that separates the South and North sides of the island.  It was amazing to be back in the sunlight with a view of the ocean and excessive amounts of green everywhere.  Since we were early, we stopped at one of the small beaches that line the road.  It was a small cove with no one else there.  When we got to the temple it was still really early, so we drove a ways up the North Shore. We felt overdressed for the beach there.

The Wedding was beautiful.  Everyone was amazed that we all came so far to support the happy couple.  The sealer shared several little known stories about the temple and how it came to be built. 

After the wedding we went to Papa Ole's Kitchen.  We took the food to the beach, where we did some additional photos. 

On the way back to Honolulu we realized that we had lost my dad's GPS that we borrowed.  We had been really careful with it, but there was some confusion on the way into the temple and we couldn't remember if we had taken it off the dash.  We either forgot and it was stolen, or it was dropped somewhere.  I was sick about it a good portion of the trip.  We spent a couple of hours the next day retracing our steps trying to find it.  Unfortunately it never showed up.  The good news was, the day we got back was Black Friday.  I got an identical one for about $40.00 less than my Dad had paid. 

After returning to the hotel that first night we decided to go for a walk.  We were about two blocks from the Waikiki beach.  We strolled down the beach for about 6 blocks and then came back through the shops.  It was a nice walk, but when we got back we realized we didn't have a key to our room.  The lady at the front desk was very helpful. 

Day 2:  We spent the morning at Pearl Harbor.  It was very interesting.  There was so much to see there and we only had a couple of hours.  We did go over to the Arizona memorial.  It was sad, but also... I am not sure how to describe it.  You see all those names of men who died before they even knew what was happening.  You see the oil still bubbling up after nearly 70 years.  I would definitely like to have a change to go back and learn more. 

After Pearl Harbor we headed back to Leia to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We were a little unsure at first how it was supposed to work, and what we were supposed to do.  There are seven different islands represented at each one they do a presentation at a specific time.  You have to follow the schedule, which we didn't realize at first.  My favorite part was the Canoe show.  They do traditional dances from each island on a canoe.  We also splurged on some really good ice cream.  In the evening we went to the Luau for dinner. I didn't like most of the food.  I did however enjoy the purple poi rolls.  After dinner was the big show.  Fire dancing is always fun.

Day 3: Thomas got up and went snorkeling.  I did not go.  I was worried about being cold and misserable. I really don't like being cold.  This was actually my birthday.  My brother and sister in-law invited me down to thier room for some birthday cake they had bought.  It was very nice of them.  After that I headed out to do some shopping.  I got some ornaments for the christmas tree.  I also got a couple of surongs and some makadameina nuts.  Once Thomas returned we checked out and headed to the Dole Pinaple plantation. Thomas loves pineapple, so this was a must see on his list, or rather it was a must taste. We ate lunch in cafe, which was fun.  I had a terriatky burger.  It was pretty good. I wasn't that impressed with the main part of the plantation. I don't know that the train ride was really worth it.  The botanical garden though was gorgeous.  It was fun to see so many exotic plants growing natuarlly.  They also have a giant hedge maze there that I wanted to do, but we were short on time. 

Besides being my birthday it was also Thanksgiving.  I was a little sad about missing the big day at home.  It is one of my favorite holidays.  I really like turkey.  Everybody met up dinner at a place called Chuck's Cellar.  After a small emotional incident while waiting for everyone to show up, Thomas and I headed down to the beach.  I felt bad that we hadn't really gotten a chance to just hang out on the beach.  I played in the surf while Thomas took pictures of the sunset.  After the sun set, we headed back to the restaurant.  My pants were wet, and it was a little cold, but I felt better.  I enjoyed the dinner, although it was the first time I had ever had fish for Thanksgiving.  Following dinner we did a bit more shopping then headed back to the rental car place and the airport. 

Despite a few momments it was a nice trip.  Definately too short.  It just means that I need to go back again.  I think everyone needs a little bit of tropic in the middle of the winter.