Bear Lake for General Conference

We were invited up to Bear Lake with some of Nate's family for Conference Weekend.  I had been looking forward to it a lot, as kind of our last "vacation" since we never really did one to finish off our summer.  It was something to look forward to even though nasty school had started.  It was also somewhat of a light at the end of the tunnel while I was sick.  We had SUCH a good time.  

We got up there Saturday morning, surprisingly right on time for Conference!  We didn't check into our place, but sat and watched the first session of conference with Jared talking our ears off the whole time :).  It was actually one of my new favorite memories with Jared.  He was a jabbermouth!  I couldn't be bugged at him because I was mostly just happy that he was happy and talking.  It's been a while since he was like that.  Unfortunately, I think it was because his brain was not functioning on all cylinders.  He was a lot of fun.  The girls were bugged that they couldn't hear conference, so that was kinda cool too :).  In a bummer sort of way.  Is it weird that I'm glad my kids were bugged??  I just love that they love conference I guess.

After the first session we went and played on the playground and with the frisbees.  That was a lot of fun.  Just nice and relaxing.  Jack loved the little playground and finding "babies" which were actually rocks and wood chips.  It was hilarious actually.  Kelly was helping him to stack his "babies".  It was nice and relaxing for the most part :).

After that we went and watched the second session.  I felt like we were able to hear so much more during that one... Jared must have fallen asleep.  

After conference, we got our place, unpacked, and then had a late dinner with the whole family.  Then of course we went swimming!  A must!!

Sunday morning we got up early to make Creamed Eggs on Toast for everyone (we made them change the eating schedule so that we could have our traditional breakfast that morning :) which everyone was okay with).  They all loved it but still critiqued Nate's cooking job... kinda funny... and then we watched Conference.

In between sessions we made our way down to the lake to collect seashells and, in my case, take lots and LOTS of pictures :).  The majority of the pictures I took on this trip were there.... Here they are:

I was fiddling around a lot with Manual, as you can see... I thought the color still looked kinda cool on these ones though :)

I still can't believe how far in these guys were... my toes froze off one little step in, so I didn't go back out there.  They had a blast though.

Jack Jack did too... finding rocks and throwing them in the water.

Sometimes the rocks he found were too big for him to pick up and throw, so he had his awesome, STRONG brothers do it for him :)  It was cute to watch him... It was like a real job or something that HAD to be done.

Picture of Sweetwater for Nate.  I should mention what a trip down memory lane this was for Nate.  He was reminiscing the whole vacation, but most of all while we were at the lake.  It was cute.  I love that he has fond memories with his family and wants to share them with our kids.  

I got more of these than I thought... and lots of the backs of people's heads... oh well :)

Kids can turn anything into a gun... am I right?

Nate and a few of the kids disappeared down the shore... it was fun to watch them get so excited about the seashells (do you still call them that when they're in a lake?).  Cup-fulls came home with us.

Luke found a crab leg!

Puddle-jumping-Jack

We had a lot of fun.  Looks like I need to get all my pictures off my phone, because I did take more!

The rest of the trip was full of swimming and fishing and laughing about Jared's cheerfulness :).  We did manage to squeeze in a fun quadruple date with Nate's brothers, their wives and parents, to this really nice seafood restaurant.  I totally can't think of the name right now!  But it was delicious!  We had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful view of the lake.  Fun memories.

Tuesday we got up, packed, sang Happy Birthday to Bradley a bunch... ate Grandma's delicious breakfast, and then drove home. It was fun to surprise Bradley with another birthday gift after each stop.  We stopped to let him "go fishing on his birthday" his only birthday request :).  We did have to kind of hurry home to get Nate to work on time, but it was such a nice little vacation.