Day 4!

Happy 4th of July!

We woke up, threw our suits on and were excited to spend another day at the beach!

First we drove to a cute, shabby chic crepe place for some breakfast.

It didn't seem crowded when we pulled up, but once we ordered  he said

it would be ready in 30 minutes.

Geez! 

Luckily they had corn hole to play and we walked down the street to an off road, 

RZR rental and looked around

So that killed some time while we waited. 

It was worth it!

The boys each got the smores and holy moly, it was rich!

I don't know how they managed to eat it all without doubling over.

Just like last year with the Provo parade and the massive crowds, 

I was nervous about how this beach day was going to turn out. 

I mentally was prepared for chaos.

In my mind I told myself, whatever happens will be ok, we will just make the best of it!

We decided to go to Rendezvous beach again since we knew what to expect and it was the less crowded of the 2 beaches. 

As we were getting closer, we could see the HUNDREDS of pop up canopies lining the sand.

I was about to tell Casey to turn around but I had faith it would all turn out and be a fun day!

Sure enough the parking lot was PACKED.
We luckily found a spot, unloaded and were off to find a tiny spot of sand to
 fit out little family in.

Seriously, it was mayhem.
Hoards and hoards of people, full on bbq grills they hauled from home,
 blow up unicorn floaties galore,
loud music, you name it!

I just started walking through the masses.
It was a hot day and I did not want to be in the back not by the water.
I was on a mission to find the best spot amongst all these people.
I'm pretty sure Casey thought I was crazy.

You could see all the eye darts as I moved in.
Much like on an airplane.
Eyes scanning you from the side praying you don't sit in
 the middle seat so you can have extra room.

I didn't care what they were thinking, I wanted a good
spot and this ain't their beach, lol!

Sure enough I spotted a perfect spot.
Close to the water, enough space on both sides from the other people.
PERFECT!

I dropped our stuff and hollered THIS IS THE PLACE!
Haha.
It sure felt like I found a needle in a haystack.


We pretty much were in the same spot as the day before.

So a side view from the right:

And the left.

You can't even see the rental shack!

Such a crazy difference from the day before.

As we were setting up our umbrella, a  lady and her daughter came up to grab some life

 jackets that were on a picnic table in front of us. 

At first I was thinking crap, they are going to kick us out of this perfect spot.

Instead they were super nice and friendly!

They hadn't noticed their life jackets got put over away from their group until we showed up.

I think that was the reason nobody was sitting there yet. 

They thought the life jackets were reserving it?

I guess I didn't care:/

We got to talking.

They had a large group and said they were having their family reunion.

She pointed over to a bunch of canopies right next to us. 

She was the grandma and her daughter was one of  her 7 children.

They live all over the country so it was a big deal to have everyone together.

 I stated my husband and I come from a family of 7 so that kicked off

our long, fun conversation!

We both have the same religion, and

 even made connections to people we both know, small world!

Towards the end, she was showing me pictures on her phone of their past vacations 

and we became instant friends!

I felt like my mother:)

She makes friends with strangers all of the time.

This was their group.

I knew we would be blessed to find the perfect spot!

It sounds silly, but I was thankful Heavenly Father was so mindful of

 us in that situation.

We instantly got to playing!

Della sat in that spot for a pretty long time.

She is a busy girl, so she must have been intrigued scooping 

out that sand and piling on the bench.

I thought she would shoo her sister away, because she normally does.

But she ended up letting her join in.

I love the smiles on their faces.

While the girls were on land happily playing together, 

the boys were in the water surprisingly having a good time as well!

We did end up renting a jet ski for the last couple of hours. 

They would have been fine without it, but it was fun to take turns going out.

You could see to the bottom of the lake in some spots. 

The water was so unreal. 

While they waited for their turn they would jump the waves.

Or skip rocks

Or dig in the sand.

She conked out FAST on her ride!

It totally rocked her to sleep.

About 6pm they were ready for some dinner.

We were all craving LeBeaus, what we had the first night.

No complaints here!

That peach, cashew shake was money!

We still talk about it.
Of course we needed a raspberry and I think german chocolate was the other.

We went back to the resort. 

The kids played on the playground while I bathed Della and put her to bed.

The kids were excited for the fireworks.

We played some card games on our porch until it was dusk.

We had our fire lit and were sitting and talking until Casey got out our left over pizza.

He started out just holding the box over the fire to warm it up.

Then he rigged up his own little wood fire pizza oven stand.

See it there?

He was quite proud of it. 

By that time, while it was "cooking",  fireworks were going off in 

 all different directions over the lake.

I was busy videoing and oo"ing and aw'ing !

 The kids and Casey were too busy eating  and raving about this amazing pizza and how good it was.

I looked up to see Lane roasting his pizza with the skewer!

I was in the middle of videoing  the grand finale when Casey in the background is telling me

"you have to try this pizza, its so good. Seriously babe, you gotta try this crust"

And Rusty is chanting PIZZA BUSINESS! 

After it was over I stopped the video I said, ok I'll try the pizza!

Casey: oh, I didn't know you were video taping.

I think they were oblivious to the fireworks and so focused on that pizza!

We watched the video and it gave us serious giggles.

I'm glad they all had a great 4th of July and midnight snack!

Day 3!

Like previously mentioned, Bear Lake was completely new to us.

It is hard/scary going on vacation and not knowing what to expect.

I tried my hardest to ask as many people that I knew who has been

here on what to pack, do, etc.

Most of everybody had connections to lake front houses and that's 

where they stay and play.

Our little glamping resort wasn't water front,

 so we needed to figure out where to go!

After asking the front desk people, the only 2 options on the UT side was North beach,

which was the most popular, and Rendezvous beach.

Since we had heard over and over how crowded Bear Lake can get the week of the 4th, we went with Rendezvous!

It was an over cast day.

I was loving it since we don't get very many of those days in Arizona.

And in my mind I was thinking it would clear right up once the day progressed, 

much like the beach in CA.

We stopped at the only breakfast type place to eat in the tiny town.

Of course it was called Bear Trapped restaurant!

We devoured our breakfast. 

Maybe having everything smothered in raspberries made it extra yummy?

Raspberry syrup 

Homemade raspberry jam

We drove about 10 minutes to get to Rendezvous beach.

We pulled in and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't crowded at all!

I wondered if the weather had scared people off. 

We found a good spot to set up camp for the day.

A view from the right.

 To the left you can see a grayish "shack" right past that white pop up.

That is where you could rent paddle boards, kayaks,  jet ski's, pretty much anything water related.

We could see them backing in boat rentals all day long.

Those floating yellow things are water tramps you could rent by the hour.

I am glad my brain kicked in before leaving AZ on our trip.

I bought this sports umbrella last minute and somehow managed to squeeze a camping chair in

the car with everything else jam packed in.

SO glad I did. 

I assumed we would just sit on towels, but it was nice having one chair
to sit on under some shade.

I could only bring minimal beach toys since our car couldn't hold a lot of extra stuff.

Surprisingly only having a few things to play with was all they needed for hours of fun!

The water is GORGEOUS!  

A tad cold at first but man, so crystal clear, clean and BLUE!

Later I heard it is called the Caribbean lake... because it looks like the Caribbean.

Definitely a bazillion times more beautiful than our mucky lakes.

The weather was so funky. 

It would get super cloudy then super sunny.

It would also sprinkle hard for a few minutes then clear right up. 

At one point we were all hunkered under our little tent for a good 10 minutes while it down poured!

We watched everyone freak out and pack up their stuff in a hurry and book it out of there. 

Once it stopped and the sun was out again we had the place to ourselves! 

This $4 baseball bat was the best thing. 

They played non stop!

This NEVER happens!

She got a good hour nap in on my lap.

I loved it.

We thought about renting some stuff but they were pretty content on just playing on the beach!

After our snacks had run out and it was starting to get a little chilly, we packed up our stuff and headed back into town for dinner!

The pizza restaurant, which was right next door to the Bear Trapper, opened at 5 and it was 4:30.

Lucky for us, it had a chocolate boutique type store attached to it for us to wander around while we waited.
There were people waiting in line for something a lady was scooping into bags.
It must be good if there was a long line for it.
I asked what it was and of course, it was chocolate covered raspberries!
 I'll take 2 bags, please!

We ate them outside while they rode these quarter machines. 

For some reason pizza hits the spot after a long day in the water!

We thought our pizza was big until we spotted them carrying a box of "Old Ephram" for carry out.

Holy massive!! 

You can see the pan size hanging on the wall. 

We went back to the resort and played some more outside.

This is where Casey and I looked at each other and said, "Lane can play volleyball!"

We knew he was athletic, but man he was spiking that ball like nobody's business!

This was the best babysitter ever.

She went up and down that slide a bazillion times.

I would look over to make sure she was still around, yep.

Happy as could be on that thing!

Of course we needed dessert.

We checked out bikes from the front desk and off we went for some shakes!

I wish I had one of these at home.

This girl will probably be 10 by the time she figures out how to ride 

a bike. 

Poor Casey got his work cut out with this wiggle worm.

We tried a new place this time.

I wish I got a picture of the line up of all the different shake shacks right next to each other.

I love this picture, Welcome to Bear Lake!

More playing!

The game tent

Of course we couldn't sit by our fire without some free hot chocolate to top off our chocolate raspberries, pizza, shakes, all consumed within 2 hours of each other!

Awe, presh:)

Another breath taking sunset.

I wish this picture could capture my feelings.

The furnace was letting off the most loving glow all throughout our tent.

The kids were out cold, snuggled all nice and cozy in their lush, fluffy beds.

I was laying by Casey, so grateful for the fun we were having together.

This was such a different experience of a vacation.

I almost felt guilty we were able to be doing this.

But then I thought about how hard we work throughout the year. 

Kids in school demanding so much from them.

 Even at home with hours of homework, chores, sports and such. 

Casey working non stop. 

Waking up at 4am and slaving in the different weather elements 6 days of the week.

 Plus all of his church commitments.

It hit me how much we ALL needed this vacation.

I also realized all of my many blessings. 

How I am blessed with such a great husband who sacrifices so much for us to have

 the things we have. 

For great children who try to do their best most of the time.

I started looking at this trip as an investment in our connections and relationships.

Not once had a heard grumbling (except for the super awesome drive up, lol).

Not once had a seen fighting or arguing. 

THIS is what I want them to remember.

That we CAN have a good time together, with no friends, television, etc. 

Anyway, I was just very grateful that everything was turning out ok and this trip 

wasn't bombing big time, haha!