Family Reunion at Bear Lake

We traveled to Bear Lake (right on the Idaho/Utah border) for our family reunion July 29-August 1. We were going to leave earlier, but James' uncle Joe passed away suddenly of a heart attack and he and his mom were out of town until Wednesday morning, so when they got back we left Wednesday afternoon. Well, I should say we tried to leave because about 10 minutes outside of Idaho Falls we had a HUGE tire blowout. The tire wrapped around the axle and broke the brake line. Thankfully a nice family from Twin Falls stopped (Thanks to the Harrisses, you're truly angels) and the dad and varsity scout changed the tire and put on the spare. Then we just had to drive carefully back to Idaho Falls. And thanks to Monte at Tunex, our van was fixed by about 4:00 and we got back on the road at 6:00. Every two minutes Abby and Augie asked, "When will we be at the beach? When will I see my cousins?"

We made it to Bear Lake by 9:00 p.m. So that day was about done, but we did get to gaze at the stars and see Jupiter just above the east horizon. The cabin we stayed at was a beautiful, two bedroom, three-level house in Bear Lake West, which has it's own golf course and private beach. It was half way up the mountain, (to get to the lake you had to drive and navigate huge potholes and lagoons) but the area was nice and had a great view of the turquoise lake.
Great view! Thanks to Ben and Mona for ar ranging for the cabin.
The next day we had family pictures. Of course my children would not all smile and look in the same direction at the same time and I was so very frustrated. I didn't see a single good shot of our family. Oh well, the group family shots were good. Everyone was in them except my husband James and Hyrum who's on his mission.

Then we played at the beach all day. We had a boat, thanks to Clay and Vern, and I attempted to kneeboard for the first time in probably 12 years. No luck, just bruises all up and down my arms. There was a fun little kayak for paddling around the lake, and we had fun in the sand and waves. Abby in the sand and wind, Jimmy in the boat, Augie and Abby in "his" boat.
Dad and Valerie on the beach; note Dad's classic swim attire.
This is the only picture I got of Sam; the rest of the time he was in the water.

That evening we had the Johnson family Got Talent show. And I think that while our family does have some talents, they weren't too apparent this night. It was more the "wacky/ tacky" kind of show. Our favorite was Mona and Ben's song "Down by the Bay" which the kids sang the rest of the week. We also had a gift exchange to celebrate everyone's birthday party, and yummy cake out of the dutch oven.
Abby shows her budding violin talent.
Zach and Janessa in their birthday gift hats.

Friday was supposed to be a big play day at the lake, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was windy and the lake was choppy. Clay had rented a tube to pull behind the boat, and Sammy had the ride of his life. The way he tells the story, he flew 40 feet in the air and did 10 back flips as he was launched over these huge waves and into the lake. It's really a hilarious tale. Jimmy also rode, but unlike adventurous Sam he gripped white-knuckle and gritted his teeth and closed his eyes and was soon done with that. When the wind got to be about 30 miles an hour and was blowing down our shelter and chairs we packed up and headed back to the cabin.
The three amigos: Bridger, Augie, Johnny
That night some of us went to a rodeo (Jimmy) and the rest went with Clay to visit his mom in their RV campground. The kids played at a little playground. The next morning was the big Raspberry Days celebration, so we went into town and walked around the craft fair with the other 10,000 tourists and then got delicious shakes at La Beaus (which technically should be Le Beaus or La Belles, if you were to use grammatically correct French). The shakes were tall and creamy and much better than the $3 snow cones the craft fair vendors were selling. Then we headed back, had hamburgers and hot dogs, packed up and headed home.
A picture of all the family who were left on the last day, on the balcony of the cabin. Ammon, Sammy, Augie, me, Jimmy, Val, Clay, Abby, Rach, Taylor, Dad, Mom, Ben, Bridger (Mona was taking the picture and Carter and Zachary and Johnny were sleeping).

On the way home the drive was hot and we stopped in Montpelier, Idaho at the Oregon/California trail museum. I thought we'd just have a quick tour, but it was actually kind of long. But it was very interesting. We had a simulated wagon ride across the prairie and had some pioneer ladies tell us about beating off the bears with their frying pans to save their bacon. (Literally, a slice of bacon. The bear died. They ate it for dinner, too.) There were lots of awesome paintings of life on the Oregon trail through Idaho. It was really neat. Jimmy asked a ton of questions and took lots of pictures, so some of those I'll try to add in here. There were too many to include them all.

In the simulated wagon ride... the lady who killed the bear... in the gunsmith shop... a camp site display.

We were back on the road at 6:30 and home by 9:00. Yay! home finally with my husband who, except for a couple of hours Wednesday, I hadn't seen in 8 days. Home to my comfortable bed and no more leaky air mattress. Home for showers and washers and dryers and church the next day. And then I got the flu and was sick with a fever for two days. Oh well. It was a great vacation and I was glad the kids got to go and see their cousins. And you're all invited to next year's reunion which will be in Idaho Falls, the most beautiful place on earth!