Priest Lake

Isn't it so beautiful?! Priest Lake. It truly is a beautiful place with awful sand and wind almost every afternoon. It's beautiful nonetheless and we went with B's family. Since we have this one,

And the fact that I'm a snot, staying in a tent was out of the question. Actually renting a trailer was B's idea. He just didn't have to do a whole lot of convincing. I agreed that it was a great idea before he even got the whole word, trailer, out of his mouth. Sleeping in a bed all week and having a bite size shower and a fridge was magical. When I say the shower was bite size, I'm not kidding. The tub was so so tiny that when we put her in it she almost touched the ends with her head and feet and she couldn't extend her arms out to the side without hitting the sides of the tub. But, it had warm, clean, running water so that's all that matters. The kiddos loved having bunk beds and they would shove cousins in the beds with them at night. M usually had two other cousins sleeping with her. You can imagine how cozy that was. But, they loved it and actually slept so that's all that really matters. Aaaaaaanyway, 

Going to the water. Some of us were way more excited about it than others. Little B could hardly wait to get there. Telling him that we needed to put on sunscreen was like telling a fat kid that there's no more ice cream. There were tears and protests but, he survived, barely, and made it to the water before 10 in the morning.

When they weren't on the boat, they loved playing in the water. They are brave humans that's for sure. If water isn't 100 degrees or close to it, like, 99.9, it's too cold for me. I was on baby duty and spent a lot of the week at the trailer reading. What book you ask? A Man Called Ove. It's amazing! The main guy reminded me so much of my dad. I laughed and cried and missed my dad a lot. It's so good. I digress. I had a love hate relationship with staying at the trailer. I loved the book but I didn't love being by myself. I know, A was there. but she was sleeping. I wanted to be at the beach so I could at least see my family. I did go down there one time when she was awake and she just screamed her head off. So I took her back to the trailer.

They got to go on the tube and they loved it. I don't know who took this picture, but I love that they did! I am so happy that they got to ride together.

One morning we went on a short little hike before they went to the water. What a weird sign right? Well, I thought that since there are arrows pointing in opposite directions for the same hike, that it must be a loop. The other folks we were with must have had similar thoughts. We picked, choosing the right, and went to the right. We made it about 5 minutes down the trail before we hit a dead end and had to turn around. Talk about a backfire when you're trying to teach your kids that life's like the sign and they should always choose the right. When we hit the dead end we had to add, and sometimes things don't go your way, so turn around and keep going. That earned us a couple of smirks from our oldest. Thankfully K was in his own little world and just kept whistling and walking. 

After the hike, they went boating. I love this picture! I think it looks like M's cousin, A, has plans to pull M off by her feet. I wish that she would have, that would have been so funny! Thankfully she didn't and M stayed safely on the tube.

Both M and K tried water skiing. The ski's didn't go small enough so they kept popping off. If we had had the right sized ski's, both of them would have been able to get up without any problem. They were both pretty nervous to try it, but they did awesome and I'm so proud of them for giving it a go!

M even tried wake boarding! B says that if she had been able to get the board out of the water more, she would have been able to stand all the way up. She really liked it. K was feeling pretty traumatized from trying skiing so he opted out of the wake boarding experience.

One of the days we did the waterslide hike. It's a mile long hike to this natural warerslide. One has to wear a garbage bag over your swim suit so your suit doesn't get torn up. That's what people say. I think it's so you can go a lot faster as you're sliding down but, I was on baby duty and couldn't go down so what do I know? M said she liked it but, the water was so cold, like burn your feet because it's so cold, that she only went down a couple times. The boys, on the other hand, loved it!

I wish you could hear him. He is laughing as he's sliding down backwards. K didn't care at all that the water was hurt your skin cold. He loved it!

I was a little worried to have little B go down by himself, but I shouldn't have been. He loved it and when he got to the bottom he would run up to the top to go again. 

 

After we got back from the hike, we went on the boat. I was tired of sitting alone at the trailer,(and I had finished my book) so, we knew that A would fall asleep on the boat. Off we went and she was asleep within minutes. She looks so big in this picture. She's not really. She still wears 0-3 month clothes.

WHOA!!!! M is on the outside edge, her 18 year old cousin, J, is in the middle and B is on the side closest to the water. They somehow landed back on the water dry, and none worse for the wear. When they got back in the boat they all said they thought they were flipping over on this one.

I love him! He loves boating. He loves driving it, skiing behind it or pulling people on the tube. He loves that it's something our entire family can do regardless of age. He has big plans to own a boat someday and when people tell him it's a waste of money, he will tells them they're wrong because of the great time his family had with their boat growing up. He says the best vacations were boating ones. He says a boat is worth every penny. 

Jumping off the dock is a must whilst visiting Priest Lake. The water is freezing, but worth the plunge. I don't know how the boys can jump in without plugging their noses. I keep every opening I have squeezed tight so there's no rushing water.

BAHAHAHA!!!!! I love this one! I love B's face! Right as they were getting to the end of the dock, little B slipped. Thankfully he didn't hit his head. Instead he came out of the water laughing and yelling,"did you see that?!" 

CANNON BALL!!!!!

All of B's siblings were there with their families except for one brother. Can you see how A is FREAKING out? Why oh why are we doing family pictures at 7:00 at night? I know for 98% of the people that were there, 7:00 is a great time. The sun's not beating in your face and it's not too hot. You've had dinner so kids won't be hungry. But by 7:00 babies are melting down. All of B's mom's siblings were there with most of their kids. It was a big group and some of them only saw A at the family picture. Or when we got together at 7:00 on Sunday night to sing hymns. Another, late night for a baby, event. One of them asked me if A was always so colicky because any time she saw her, she was screaming her face off. I told her she's usually a super happy baby, just not when it's bedtime and we're waiting in line to take a picture or trying to sing a song. In three years when we go back, hopefully it'll be someone else's baby freaking out. Of course by then, A will be three and a different kind of rotten for family pictures. The week went by too fast but, we loved Priest Lake. We loved being with family and can't wait for the next reunion!

Utah!

With summer comes a trip to Utah. Not that we wait until summer to go to Utah. We just feel no guilt because we don't have to pull our kids out of school to go. Now, we all know that my mom is nuts in every sense of the word. My grandma Jepson, my mom's mom, is 100 this year. When I tell people that they usually say something like,"wow! That's cool." They are in fact, correct. However, grandma died. In 2004. She would have been 100 in October. Two questions, why did we have a birthday party for her and why did we do it in June? Two very good questions. I am convinced that grandma does not care at all about her mortal birthday. I think she's busy. People would say my mom was just using it as an excuse to have people get together. I don't think so. I think my mom just wanted to celebrate her mom. With good reason, grandma was awesome! She was pretty short, probably like 5'0 and when she would sit on a chair, when she would laugh really hard, her feet would pop out in front of her. She loved to read and as a little kid when we would go stay at her house, she would read us the book, Twig. It's a really cute story about a little girl named, Twig. Twig turns into a fairy and lives in the back yard of her apartment building. I love the book and I love that grandma read it to us every time we were there. Grandma made amazing homemade white bread. She NEVER made wheat bread. I truly think she probably thought wheat bread was against the word of wisdom. She used Downy fabric softener and Bounce dryer sheets and her house always smelled so good. She always had ice cream in her freezer and would make us chocolate cookies. Fact, they're brownies. If you made the mistake of calling them brownies she would get feisty and tell you that they aren't brownies, they are chocolate cookies. She always had those oatmeal cookies with white frosting from the store. They would sit in her cookie jar for so long they would be crunchy. I went my whole life thinking those cookies were made crunchy. After she died I tried one right out of the package and two things happened. First I was able to bite into it instead of using my back teeth to break a piece off. Then I spit the nasty soft cookie out of my mouth. I was truly disgusted that it was soft. I haven't eaten one since because they aren't crunchy like grandma's. She had a pet bird named, Chirp. She would bring Chirp to our house when she came to visit. He was green and yellow and so cute. I loved listening to Chirp as he sat on the nightstand where we kept our shoes. Grandma always kissed on the lips and when I was a teenager  I would try to turn my head so she would kiss my cheek but she wouldn't have it. She loved cheese and candy. She was stubborn and very set in her ways and I miss her a lot. Annnnyway, we made the 12 hour drive down and A did so amazing until the last 45 minutes. Then she was done and just wanted to be out of the car. We stayed in Heber for the night because that's where grandma was born. There was a campfire where people shared memories of grandma. I heard it was great but I was trying to get a little baby to calm down. She finally gave into sleep and that made the entire family happy. We were staying in cabin's at a girls camp that the church owns. It was a pretty sweet set up. All the cousins wanted to be in one cabin. We thought that was genius because they could stay up doing whatever shenanigans children do at all hours of the night and the adults could go to sleep at a decent hour. That way we would have the stamina to deal with the cranky kids that were up being wild and crazy people until all hours of the night. Our plan went off without a hitch and the next day we played blindfolded tag.

  It was so funny! Everyone playing had to be blindfolded and they stood inside a circle. Each player had a guide that told them where to move. The person that was it had a bopper and their guide tried to guide them into people. It was so funny! Some people would guide their players right into the bopper. Truly, it was pee your pants funny!

There was a very small zip line that they got to try. Well, the actual zip part was short, but they had to climb up a 30 foot pole to get there. The littles were pretty nervous about it. I was so proud of them for shimmying up to the top.

That afternoon, T was awesome and taught K had to long board. He told him that he would be a pro by the end of the week. K feels like he is in fact a pro and wants a long board of his own, even though the picture above was the last time that he's used a long board. 

Playing a family softball game was a must on my list. I loved playing it but it did make me miss my dad a whole lot. He loved playing softball with us and could be heard in the outfield chanting,"swing batter, batter, batter, batter, swing!" I missed seeing him sit on a chair next to my mom. Nonetheless, the game was awesome!

Little B didn't like understand the concept of taking a turn in the outfield. He batted after almost every other batter. He loves it because he can usually hit the ball. He's so dang cute standing up there in his little hitting stance that no one insisted on him waiting his turn in the line up. 

I think M lasted one time before she was off playing with the other cousins that didn't want to play.

Little B up to bat.

K running home. He almost passed his little cousin, C, who was running the bases in front of him.

I know this looks like the same picture as the other one. It's not. Little B just batted so often that the other people in the pictures don't move much.

This is the only time little B was out there. He stood there for a few minutes and then he ran back in so that he could hit. Again.

We borrowed B's mom's boat and went boating one day. Oh the fun that was had! There was tubing and skiing and wake boarding. 

I did go tubing with four of my sisters and a niece. I didn't want to get wet because Deer Creek is         fa-reezing and there was a breeze which made a wet body feel even colder. I agreed to go tubing in the hopes that I wouldn't get too wet. I had no intention of falling off. I was so confident that I didn't even take my $2.50 specials off my face. Welp, I didn't fall off but I got a lot more wet than I wanted to. The stupid rope kept splashing me in the face. G was on the tube with me and she kept laughing at me. I should have pushed her in. Rats! I wish I would have thought of that then. Next time G, next time.

Little B wanted to kayak and G's husband, J was so nice and jimmy rigged a tow so that he could pull little B around. What a guy huh? So nice and kind and helpful. Unlike his wife who laughs at people in their time of need.😉 We loved our time in Utah. B was able to go to a couple movies and I was able to have some much needed sister time. Our kids got to play with cousins and friends and when it was time to go home, we cried. We love our family and it's always hard to say goodbye.