Bare Lake 2012

After a quick stop in Salt Lake, my family headed up to the lake and I stayed for a day to visit my fiercely awesome friend Brooke down at the new City Creek Mall (I think it was the first time Brooke and I have ever been to a mall together…) and to visit my inspiring cousin Brittany who recently broke her back and was at a physical therapy center in the Salt Lake area. She currently is paralyzed from the chest down, but we all still pray for extensive recovery. It was a heart lifter to visit her and my aunt JoRita, especially since I haven’t seen them in a couple years.

After those visits and some errands, I drove up and met up with my family and all of Jonah’s family. He’s the fifth of nine children, so it is always a big time party when the reunion gets under way at his family’s “compound” on the east side of Bear Lake. There are 23 kids and counting, plus the 18 adults. It’s always a blast. Jonah’s sisters and mom have covered the reunion marvelously on their blogs. If you need to know more about the reunion, I think we have it covered:

Shawni's 71toes blog, part 1

Shawni's 71toes blog, part 2

Shawni's 71toes blog, part 3

Saren's Five Kids in Five Years blog, part 1

Saren's Five Kids in Five Years blog, part 2

Saren's Five Kids in Five Years blog, part 3

Charity is a lovely single woman with lots of awesomeness

Jonah's mom is a fantastic lady

Jonah's mom can write like no other

Jonah's mom Linda does Grammy Camp, part 1

Linda's recount of the Fear Factor

Linda's Reunion Recap

Linda's Reunion Before and After

Linda does Grammy Camp, part 2

 

Since their recaps of the reunion are far more poetic than mine would be, I’ll just stick to the minimal photo descriptions….

Po loves the beach! Bear Lake has some great beach, for a lake especially. I really like having the kitchen, bathroom and lawn chairs right there on the beach. Plus there’s a hose!

 

On Sunday we stopped at an old haunted mansion to take the infamous yearly photos. Luckily I got to be on the far edge again this year so the lens enlarged my arm thrice-fold. Other than that, I felt like it went fairly smooth, especially for a 40+ person photo.

(This one has my arm cut off, which is an improvement).

 

This is easily Cam’s least favourite part of the reunion.

 

Elsie and her cousin Lyla having some cuzzie bonding time.

 

Jonah’s niece Elle helped us take some family photos…

…. but see that big gap in front of me where he was supposed to stand so I could cut out the pillar? Cam did not want to cooperate. Grrrr. Neither did my face, but I’m used to that.

 

 

Lyla and Elsie are always photographically cooperative. Love those blondies!

 

Ana is getting too old!

 

I still can’t shake the fact that some of my favorite times at the reunion are during my youngest' kid’s naps. I either get to go out and have some real fun, or I can choose to stay in and read in the private of my room. Ahhhh. Bliss.

 

Cam probably gleans the most out of his cousin time, carefully scheduling his days so that he can play non-stop from about 7 am to 10 pm. Here he is organizing the four other 6-8 year old boys for a dance/martial arts demonstration set to Michael Jackson’s Beat It.

 

Tal and Anita were in charge of the reunion this year and they had Eli and Julie put on a Fear Factor type game for the kids where they had to eat a myriad of gross or exotic foods until they just couldn’t handle it. Cam was geared up, especially since it leaked that most of the foods were going to be Japanese delicacies (Cam loves all things Japan).

Ana very graciously bowed out after the second round (I think it was a big wad of seaweed).  (And also here is my one photo of the “triplet” cousins, all born within nine weeks of each other and inseparable chums)

 

Cam was actually completely fine until they brought out the canned hard boiled quail eggs. He hates hard boiled eggs, just like me. I had to give him some coaching and he finally, courageously, scarfed it down.

 

Elsie, on the other hand, didn’t make it past the tomato juice.

 

Here are some of the final contenders as the pickled squid comes out.

Equally entertaining was the delight of the crowd.

 

We also went on a bird watching excursion. I got to be with the 4/5 year old girls group. They are such a treasure. I love five years old!!!

 

 

And Cam in all of his glory…

 

Being at Bear Lake made me so glad we live on Maui because this girl belongs on a beach.

 

 

One of my other favorite things to do is to go out on the boat with Jonah’s brothers and watch them ski and wakeboard. I always love catching some sweet as photos too…

That ski did not want to take Eli one more inch!

 

Jonah’s perfecting his “throw the rope back in the boat” moves….

This move is called, “Look out! There’s a snake!”

Actually, Jonah rocks with the water sports, but you don’t want to see all the show off photos, right? Besides, I deleted all of those.

 

Po was taking mental notes.

Noah is trying a reverse innie back face smack on the water.

And, he got it!!

(I bet you can tell how this one ended up…)

 

 

Love these two kids… three days apart and completely goofy and fun when they get together.

 

Po really enjoyed sitting in the high chair and eating when she wasn’t at the beach. She can literally eat for hours.

 

 

Finally, a photo with all four 4/5 girls! (Emmeline was dodging my photos until now, I guess)

 

Don’t worry, it’s just lake water.

 

Jonah, Po and I volunteered to take Shawni and her two oldest kids down to Salt Lake to catch their flight to India. It was a fun two days’ vacation from the vacation, and I especially liked showing Jonah the art exhibit at the LDS Church History Museum. I had seen it with my friend Brooke and it was astounding, so I just had to take Jonah. Here were some of my favorite pieces…

And from the Sea back to the Lake for some parting love and photos:

Isn’t family great!?

 

Mahalo Bare Lake for another glorious summer reunion!