Bear Lake

Caleb running along the beach

Close-up of Caleb

Me hiding from the sun.

Conner running along the beach

Close-up of Conner

We go to bear lake every year.  This year would have been easy to skip.  We just had a baby and we have a lot going on at our house.
Looking back at the pictures of last years trim and all the talking the boys do about bear lake, I could not in good conscience skip the trip this year.  I was going to have to buck up and to the right thing.
Lori made this decision a bit easier by offering to keep Sam at home with her.  I am torn… on the one hand, I would love to see the smile on Sam’s face while playing and having fun on the beach.  On the other hand, the added amount of work required to  bring a smaller child (still in diapers) seemed like a daunting task for a dad (no problems for a mom).  So it ended up just being Conner, Caleb and myself.
We went up after I got home from work on Friday.  Because of the current price for gas, we took my car.  That was not a bad idea.  The boys like to ride in my car, not because it is better than our other car, but because they rarely get a chance to.
We got to bear lake shortly after 9pm.  Lucky for us, my brother Phil had room (or at least made room) for us in his travel tent.  I was happy not to have to set up a tent.  We spent an hour or two around the camp fire and then finally went to bed.
The next morning, we had some cold cereal and changed our clothes for the beach.  I love big breakfasts (except for hauling the food, preparing the food, and cleaning up  a bunch of dishes while camping) so we opted for cold cereal and doughnuts.  Then we went to the beach.
We went to the same place we did last year.  Just outside of the campground.  You have to leave the road a bit and ride down to the lake but it is a pretty good setup there.  There is a littel island about 50 yards into the lake that is perfect for building sand castles and digging around.  Conner and Caleb did a lot of digging.  Plus, all arond for about 100 yards, all the kids can walk around in the water w/o it getting too deep.  No chance to accidentally get into trouble.  It is a nice place to relax and play around.
My brother Ben brought up his boat and was gracious enough to give everyone a ride that wanted one.  Everyone got a chance to ride in the tube or on the wake board etc.  The wind was pretty strong and offered up some pretty big waves.  It made for a fun ride on the tube.  Ben has a tube that holds two people.  Ben said that the nice thing about the tube is that no one had ever been bounced out of it (you know where this is going don’t you).
My first ride in the tube was with my brother Darrin.  Darrin is a  “fun lovin’” guy.  Ben took us on a great ride.  We got going pretty fast and were consistantly bouncing on the waves and catching a couple of feet of air.  We (here it comes) we finally hit the perfect storm and got that wave that launched Darrin and myself out of the tube.  It was pretty crazy.  We both got back in and went for another ride.  It was a lot of fun.
Later, Ben and I wen out for another ride.  This time Ben’s wife Nicole was driving.  She said she wasn’t going any faster than we were before (about 20 mph)… I don’t know if the waves were bigger or the driving was different but Ben and I seemed to be catching even bigger air than I had in the previous ride.  Ben actually bounced clear out of the tube and up into the air, but was able to get back down into the tube before wiping out.  Then again as these things happe, we hit the perfect storm.  We were being whipped around so fast that my vision was start to go (maybe my imagination was getting the better of me or maybe it just help with the story).  We finally were thrown from the tube.  This time we both hit really hard.  This time it hurt. Ben and I both just sat there in the water until the boat came to pick us up.  That was the end of our turn.  We gladly gave it up for someone else to have a turn.
Thanks to Ben and Nicole for sharing their boat with us.
After a long day of boating and playing on the beach.  Conner Caleb and I headed for home.  We decided to follow Mom, Renee and Darrin and stop in Logan for dinner (as is their tradition).  We have to stop at the Sizzler.  It was actually pretty good.  I had the Salmon and a salad bar and the boys both had the salad bar.  Caleb had fallen a sleep on the way and was very difficult to rouse enough to even eat his dinner.  Not to worry, just as we were getting ready to leave, he caught his second wind and came alive.  Now that we were all ready to leave, he decided that he wanted to finish his dinner and have some ice cream as well.  Thanks for your patience family while we finished up.
On the rest of the ride home, we listened to Brian Regan.  It was entertaining and the boys even liked it.  They understood enough to find it entertaining.
We made it home safely and had another successful bear lake trip.  I am glad that we did it.

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