Bear Lake Family Reunion: Day 2 (cont'd) - Game Night

We stayed at the beach for about an hour and left around 4:45 since it was about time for dinner. For dinner, Bryce and Makayla made their delicious, world-famous ribs. I think most everyone really
loved the ribs.

Enjoying dinner!

After dinner, we just hung around the cabin:

Drawing some silly things in Lisa's sketch book

The living room had plenty of seats for all of us.

Calories don't count on vacation.

My mom took these pictures.

The upstairs den had foosball, air hockey, and pool tables for the kids to enjoy.

More hanging around

A game of chess between Elisa and Aaliyah. The kids really liked this game table.

My dad relaxing on the sofa.

The beautiful scenic view from our cabin.

Playing some fun Jackbox games after (most of) the kids went to bed.

Bear Lake Family Reunion: Arriving, Day 1, and Day 2 - North Beach

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

We spent most of the morning sleeping in, but we didn't sleep as long as I hoped we all would. The kids insisted on eating lunch at their favorite restaurant in St. George: Chuck-A-Rama. After lunch, we spent the afternoon driving up to my parents house in South Jordan.

Ian loves Chuck-A-Rama!

Being silly in the van while driving up to South Jordan.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

We spent most of the morning at my parents' house doing laundry and packing. The projected weather for Fish Heaven ID was much cooler than I thought, so I had to wash all of our warm clothes from our Ireland trip. 

Ian snoozed in the bed next to mine when he wasn't at his cousin's house.

We stopped at Sam’s club for gas and some food for the cabin, and Erik made a brief stop at Walmart. I got a lot of fruit, a tres leches strawberry cake, and a few other things that we ended up not needing to buy because other people bought the same stuff. We ended up with doubles and even triples of things come to find out later. For lunch, I found a new chicken place just up the road on the way called Pretty Bird. It was pretty yummy and filling, but at $13 a sandwich, really pricey. The drive from South Jordan to Fish Haven took approximately 3 hrs. We arrived at 3pm and were the first ones there for a few hours. Erik started right away simmering his smoked chili. Everyone else gradually arrived, except for Bryce who didn't arrive until the middle of the night. The kids enjoyed exploring all the features of the cabin: chess, checkers, air hockey, pool table, bunk bed superhero room, outdoor swing, lots of board games. 

Ian playing checkers with Aiden

Ready to eat!

The chili and cornbread muffin

Thursday, June 22,2023

Most of the cabin was woken up before 6am by a few certain little boys. I’m not sure if I was or not—I was kind of awake anyway. I got up to make sure the boys stayed somewhat quiet, so they didn’t wake up the rest of the cabin. Meanwhile, I worked on my Duolingo app while swinging on the big swing (I think it’s called a saucer swing). Erik went over to the clubhouse to exercise, and my dad was busy biking an insane 60 miles around the lake. Everyone emerged from their rooms one by one, with one of the last being my mom just before 10. Actually, I think the last was Bryce, but he didn’t come to the cabin until 2am the night before. Grandma, grandpa, and Makayla went to pick up some breakfast and cinnamon rolls which they shared with a few of us. We took all the kids except Gabe to the pool at the rec center to swim. Eric, Lisa, and I walked. Even though it was kind of chilly, the pool was warm, and the kids had fun swimming. We were the first to arrive, so we had the pool all to ourselves for a little until hordes of kids started coming about an hour into swimming, but the kids were about done anyway.

Elisa and Aaliyah enjoying the pool

The pool got really busy after we left.

The girls enjoyed the swing--until it betrayed them

For lunch we ate hot dogs that Lisa helped to grill. After lunch a few of us drove up to north beach to see about the pricing and hours and stopped at a few souvenir shops. We came back with a few sodas, and grandpa bought some jam, syrup, and a raspberry treat.

Hot dogs, grapes, and chips for lunch

Finding some treats to enjoy at Float On.

Back at the house, we got the boys ready with their swimsuits on, and Erik, Lisa, and I took them to the north beach to play in the sand and splash in the water. It was pretty chilly water, so the boys didn’t swim much. However, they sure enjoyed playing in the sand.

The boys played in the sand more than they played in the water.

We always try to spot the BOFA cabin while we're at Bear Lake.

Ireland Trip: Day 7 - Part 2, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and Day 8 - Goodbye Eire!

Not too far from the Giant's Causeway was the rope bridge, Carrick-a-Rede. Another good physical exercise experience! It was a long hike down towards the bridge. Grandma didn’t cross the bridge but instead waited for us just before.

Another family picture!

A view just before getting on the bridge

Crossing the bridge was fun and not scary at all (at least to me). The kids played in the long grass and the rest of us enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. The way back was quite the workout—it was a really steep climb!

On the other side...

That was our last activity in Ireland! Next, we drove and drove to our very last rental home in Ireland! It was a nice 1-level house with exactly enough beds for everyone. The best thing was the animals! The kids liked petting the goats and especially the pony! There were some boy calves too, but they weren’t much interested in us, though I did manage to pat one on the nose.

Gabe and Elisa and their new friends!

Gabe, giving dad a hug on Father's Day

For dinner we called in a to-go order at a nearby pub. Their online menu wasn’t up to date, so we just ordered a few soups and appetizers. We waited longer than I would have liked for the food, and unfortunately, it wasn’t quite worth the wait. It was good I guess, but definitely not great. The calamari was good, but there wasn’t much of it. Everything else was just okay. That night I actually slept the best.

My calamari. It was good, but didn't quite fill me up.

Monday June 19, 2023

I woke up a little early hoping to go to the grocery store for some last-minute souvenirs/food, but no one else was on board with me. We all just took our sweet time packing and eating and getting dressed.

The kids loved their bunkbed!

We were annoyed to find out that we were to be charged $100 because Ian had sat on some of his chocolate coins and got it all up in the seat. Ridiculous. If I had known, I would have cleaned it up myself. We did manage to buy a few more souvenirs (as in chocolate) at  one of the airport gift shops. The rest of the day—and part of the next day—were spent traveling. 9 hr flight from Dublin to Seattle. I watched several movies, played games, and was fed a snack, dinner, ice cream, and some weird Spanish chicken pastry. 

My airplane dinner. 

After that it was a nearly 3-hour layover in the Seattle airport. I brushed my teeth in the bathroom because my mouth felt nasty. Erik, Gabe, and I walked around, looked in shops, and bought some chocolates and even a metal airplane model kit for Gabe. Ian and Elisa slept on some chairs. 

These two were exhausted!

Then we flew to the 2-hr flight to Las Vegas. I sat next to Ian and he slept the entire flight. I didn't even hardly close my eyes. The other two slept the whole way as well. If that wasn’t enough traveling, we had a two-hour drive to St. George after the flight. I had a surprisingly hard time falling asleep (nearly 3am) that night, go figure.