Bear Lake '09

Bear Lake with the family: We stayed a couple of nights at a local campground and spent a day at the lake relaxing, reading, playing, digging in the sand. Unfortunately Larry and Carlee couldn't be with us this year. (Hopefully Mike, Nicole and family might even be able to join us next year, too.)

Collin says: We all had a great time!!! (He is getting to be good at typing, too.)

His favorite part of the trip was riding the wave runner with Brandt - you can tell by the big smile on his face here.

We decided to buy what appeared to be a "heck of a deal", a 1990 personal watercraft as they're called for a mere $600. We thought we'd take it with us on our trip to Bear Lake hoping that the nearly 20 year old machine was more than just a pile of junk. In any case, the trailer it came with would be worth at least half of the price we paid so we felt it was worth the gamble. We new it wouldn't be the quickest or coolest-looking machine in the water but wanted to see if owning a wave runner would be something we would enjoy with the possiblity of trading it in for something better at a later time.

It worked great and we spent the whole day taking turns on it. Maybe we'll keep it?

The cutest baby in the water:

Even Nana took the machine for a spin.

Sydney usually collects lots and lots of sea shells. This year, she also found a pet that she kept with her nearly the whole day: a little ladybug. We just had to take a picture of her with it.

New tradition (year 2): Last year, Nana and Papa brought paint for the kids to put handprints on their tent to remember the trip. The kids all choose a different color and signed their names to their handprints.

And the jumping pillow, of course, was another favorite part of the trip for the kids.