Ockey Family Adventures: Bear Lake

We love Bear Lake.

We had four wonderful days at Bear Lake. Rawhide Rendezvous, which has the really big yard, was available again this year, and we were glad to be back in St. Charles. The boys always love their time in the yard and play many baseball games, steal the flag, and of course, Grandma Olympics. This year we even set up our spider pong table on the deck for the kids to enjoy.

Bear Lake started on Sunday with a short reunion of the Daniels Family. We spent a few hours at the park in Garden City with much of Grandpa's family. Unfortunately, Grandpa had an infection in his leg and was unable to come, but was in the ER getting things checked out. (He was okay to come on the trip, thank goodness). Then we drove to the house to stake out rooms and get settled in. Mom made pasta for dinner, and the kid played in the yard.

A bunch of the cousins on the Daniels side.

Monday morning we woke up to Tiff and Jonny's crepes. After breakfast, we headed directly to the beach. Since we had a great water year, there was much less beach, thankfully, but you could still drive right out on the sand and set up pavilions. We spent longer at the beach than usual, but everyone was having a great time. The adults passed James around while Bob took kids for boat rides. Most of the kids enjoyed kayaks, football, and filling in holes that past beachgoers had dug. We were at the beach until after three, and it was pleasant the entire time. Of course, we stopped for shakes and fries on the way home, even though we spoiled our dinner. That night, we watched a movie after dinner. The kids really enjoyed Rio 2. Mark enjoyed staying up late to play cards with the adults.

Lots of baseball at the beach.

Seth really loves playing in the sand.

Mom and Dad love the beach at Bear Lake.

Mark and James are great buddies.

We have lots of fun hanging out.

Cousin time at the beach.

Dax loves playing in the water.

Family pic at the beach.

The kids loved playing night games.

Tuesday was another beach day. It was much the same, except for this time, Bob and the boat went fishing. Our boys went, and though they hooked a few fish, they very graciously let Ben, Daniel, and Charlie, who'd never caught fish before, reel them in. These were big carp, so they were especially fun. Again, it was a long day at the beach, and there were shakes at the end.

There was also a lot of football going on.

Seth & Dax live on the kayaks.

Everyone loved Dax's hair!

This was right after a huge poop incident. (James was the pooper, not Dad.)

The boys all got in the water with Bob.

Another awesome Dax hair pic!

James is always a highlight as youngest cousin!

Bear Lake has become one of our best traditions.

All the cousins!

Shakes and fries are a must after the beach.

Grandma had a special new activity this year. She had the kids work toward a simple service project. For the smallest, this meant measuring and ripping cloth into strips to make quilts. All the kids participated in this, and it was really good for them. We also ended each night with scriptures, so we didn't get behind on our study.

The kids loved doing a service project.

They cut a bunch of squares.

Scriptures every night!

On our final day, we drove up to the Oregon Trail Center Museum in Montpelier. Most of the little kids don't remember this place at all, because it has been seven years since we visited in 2016. Only a few of the older children remembered it. Everyone enjoyed the stories and the rocky wagon ride. The kids liked playing the pioneer piano, too.

We like the stories they share at the museum.

Grandma and Mark

Seth can pick up the bathtub.

Grandma & Grandpa with the grandkids.

The whole gang!

We stopped for our favorite Idaho bird refuge on the way back to St. Charles. There didn't seem to be a lot of birds out this year, maybe due to the heat, but we saw the usual osprey and geese with a few others. There were really cool black terns we'd never seen before. They prompted us to get some birding apps to try out. On the far side of the refuge we spotted a bull moose. We'd seen him in years past, so we were happy to see that he was still around.

We spotted a new bird: Black Tern.

We got a great look at this bull moose.

When we arrived back at the house, we did Grandma Olympics.

Grandma always plans fun stuff for the kids.

Our last big adventure was the play The Little Mermaid at Pickleville Playhouse. Ariel had an amazing voice, and because most of the story was underwater, there were some really fun special effects, like King Triton riding a hoverboard so he appeared to be floating. It was a great show, and we took some pictures with the cast afterward.

We love this little theater.

Grabbed some dinner after the play.

More baseball!

For the rest of the evening, we played games and hung around the house. We tried to get things ready for an early departure, too. We stopped at the Limber Pine trail on the way to Logan since we hadn't done this trail in several years.

We had one last adventure before heading home. The Opera House gave all students and teachers free tickets to see one of their shows. So we only had to buy Mom a ticket. We picked Oliver since it was the show at 1:00 on the day after Bear Lake, and little did we know that Grandma & Grandpa had tickets to the same show. Elder Uchtdorf and his wife were in attendance, too. Everyone thought the show was well acted, but no one really cared for the story line! But we had a great time anyway.

And Mom and Dad made it back in time to go to a wedding reception. It was a busy last day!