Bear Lake Hikes

The Williams family planned a vacation at the cabin the first weekend in August. We came up a day a couple days early and brought Dallin with us. 

We arrived Thursday night and hiked the Limber Pine Trial.

This tree us 2,650 years old! The much smaller trees around it were 500 years old - pretty amazing.

Friday morning we went to Bloomington Lake. We were the first car in the parking lot and within 15 seconds a family reunion group pulled in and by the time we left the parking lot was packed. As we were hiking out so many people were hiking in- girls camp groups, more family reunions. We were glad to be leaving.

This was such a beautiful hike! 

We were the only ones on this side of the lake. The family reunion took over the other half.

Back at the cabin the kids played and we went on Tyrex rides.

Jake's parents and Matt and his kids joined us Friday night. 

The rest of July

We played in the river with the Call's....

They caught a crayfish and made all of us hold it.

I wasn't very excited but took my turn. 

I restained my kitchen table. It's a hand me down from Jake's grandpa. It had definitely seen better days.

I worked on it for days...

We went to the Family Fest at Kliner park. 

We didn't stay long and the kids were upset we didn't pay for them to go on ant rides...

While I worked on my table the kids watched tv, fought a lot and did some of their own projects. Emma made this person out of paper. 

Austin maked paper rockets and airplanes nonstop.

Brooke sewed a bunny (with a lot of help) and absolutely loves it!

We played in the river again with the Meyets.

Jake and I went to the temple. It's nice to have kids old enough to babysit.

The table is done!! It took hours but I'm happy with how it turned out.

We hiked Mores Mountain loop on a Saturday.

The kids weren't very happy to be on a hike. It was perfect weather and beautiful (despite all the wildfire smoke).

Brooke in particular had a really bad attitude about it until we told them we were going to their cousins house that night.

We had dinner, did a giant slip n' slide, launched paper rockets, and picked peaches.

My kids LOVE going to the Oto's!

We had a Hogwarts style feast for Harry Potter's birthday.

Girls Backpacking

My friend Sara asked us to go on a backpacking trip with her and her girls. I've never been backpacking before and I was a little nervous about it since I had to bring Emma. I was worried about how she would do hiking.

We went to Upper Hazard Lake. It was an easy 2 mile hike. The only strenuous part was when Sara and I had to help rescue a stranded motorcycler.  He had fallen and couldn't get his bike back up and turned around. It was a super heavy bike on a skinny, rocky section of the trial. He was an older man and was wearing a leather jacket and big helmet. He was sweating like crazy and I was afraid he would have a heart attack or something. After a lot of strain we got him turned around and on his way.

The rest of the trip went smooth. Emma wasn't the fastest hiker so we were always a way back from the others but she did it!

The girls played in the lake while we set up camp.

Emma got so dirty!

For dinner we had our dehydrated meals- not bad.

As it started to cool down the mosquitos came out in droves. We started a fire to try to drive and drive off the mosquitos but it didn't work. 

At least we got to roast marshmallows and have smores.

We retreated to the tents to get away from the mosquitos. It was squishy with 7 of us in a 3-4 person tent.

The sunset that night was beautiful. Kaylee and I stayed out long enough to take a picture and prep a fire for the next morning. 

We didn't sleep that well. I had a very thin pad and the kids didn't have one. 

The next day the kids played around the campground. Emma must touch her face a lot during the day cause she sure got dirty.

Just before lunch we packed up and hiked  the 2 miles back out,

On the way home we stopped for ice cream.

Austin was really sad he didn't get to go camping so Jake took him fishing.