Ockey Family Adventures: Bear Lake Day 3

We had such a great time with the cousins on this trip. Everyone in the family was there except for Jonny and Bob, who had work things to take care of. Grandma wasn’t feeling so well, and Grandpa got sick on the last day, but everyone was happy (mostly). Audrey gravitated to Mark and wanted to follow him around everywhere. He was really cute with her, and we’re glad he takes his role as oldest cousin seriously. Dax was good buddies with Josh. They played quite a bit, though Dax still sticks most closely with Mark, which is fine with us. Seth, Raymond, and Charlie played a lot of Rescue-bots together. They hardly ever fought over them! Dad mostly liked to hold Katelynn. Every time he picked her up, they both fell asleep for a catnap. Dad actually nicknamed her Tranquilizer Baby. Mom tried and tried to help Tiff with Hattie, who cried every time Tiff set her down. It took Mom all 4 days to win Hattie over, but she finally kept it down to a sniffle while Mom held her and Tiffany took a shower on the last day.

Day three was rainy, and we had planned a bike ride at the KOA. They have bikes called surreys, which are made for 4 big people and some smaller ones. We wanted to go all together, but there were far too many people and far too few surreys, so we ended up going to the park for an hour and then taking our bike ride alone. We rented the bikes for an hour, and wondered if we should do two, but as soon as we started down the trail we realized that an hour would be more than enough. It was really hard to pedal! Mom and Dad started up front, with Dax and Mark in the back and Seth in the basket. Our thighs were burning before we got out of the parking lot! Dax was too short to sit and pedal, but he worked hard to stand up and pedal most of the time. We all took turns driving the surrey, and we learned two things: Mark is a horrible driver, and Dax is a pretty good driver when he pays attention. We’ll have to work on that! The bike ride was really fun, though, and we made it for over 50 minutes without anyone passing out.

Dax loved spinning on this toy!

I love when the boys act like they like each other.

We are excited....because we don't know how hard it's going to be!!

Nice photo bomb by Mark!

Seth LOVED riding in the front, but he did wish he could drive.

It was fun and difficult all at the same time. We loved it!

Luckily Grandpa and Stephanie came along so we could get a family picture on the surry.

In the afternoon everyone except Dad wanted to go back to the beach. This time we drove to the city park and walked the things down to the water. It was nearly a quarter-mile, and the boys insisted on taking the kayaks. They lugged them down there and used them pretty much the whole time. Stephanie and Melanie’s families came with us. Grandpa and Josh also tagged along. It was cold and drizzly when we first got there, but that didn’t stop the boys from jumping right in. They are begging for their own kayak after borrowing Abby’s for most of the trip. This beach had a little pool of water before the sand and the lake water. Whenever we got cold, we would put our feet in the slightly warmer water closer to the shore. There were also some avocets running around in this warm water and we wished Dad had come with us. We had planned to stay for only 30 minutes or so because it was so cold, but the sun came out and we ended up staying over two hours. Mom still had to drag the boys away from the water.

Mark and Dax loved kayaking.

Grandpa didn't want to get his feet wet, so he stayed across the shallow pool while we played.

Raymond pulled Seth in the water.

And then Seth pulled Raymond! :)

The avocets we knew dad would love seeing.

We had a great second day at the beach!

When Mom and the boys got back to the house, it was after 6:00 and Dad was starving. Melanie was starting dinner, but we ran and got some pizza because Dad had skipped lunch, and we knew the boys wouldn’t eat taco soup anyway. When we got back from the restaurant, everyone was cleaning up dinner and Grandma was ready to start Grandma Olympics.

Grandma had gone all out this year. Each of the kids had a torch to run. She had flags from each country of our heritage, and there were, of course, tons of fun games. These included discus, shot put, relay races, paper airplane throwing, hula hoops, and other small activities. Our kids love Grandma Olympics, and the adults loved laughing at the kids. After Grandma Olympics we had another cake, this one for Jason’s birthday. Then the Ferlans and Grandma and Grandpa told stories before bedtime. It was a fun end to another fun day.