Bloomington Lake

The last few years, when we go to Bear Lake, our friends' families' annual Bear Lake trips overlap with ours a day or two so we'll see them in town or meet up for a quick get together while we are there. This year both Micah and Rachel's family and the Swanson family had their vacations the same week as us. It was fun getting together to hang out. On Sunday afternoon we were able to go to the Swanson's for Derek and Becky's baby Ruby's blessing.

Later on in the week we met up with Micah and Rachel's family for a trip to Bloomington Lake. You drive north to the town of Bloomington, ID, head up Bloomington Canyon and then hike a short, but beautiful, trail to Bloomington Lake. The lake is cold and has a couple of rope swings into it. Of course as soon as Eric heard the words "rope swing" he was ALL in! I'm glad, because it truly was fun and gorgeous.

Eric

 Micah

 Nakita

 Eric again, mid-backflip

 Rachel's family

 And last, and most importantly, Rachel and her 8 month pregnant belly. I love the way she held her belly as she went into the water. And I also love that she was strong enough to go on a rope swing with the extra belly weight - impressive :)!

This hike will now be part of our annual Bear Lake trip!

Bear Lake

I'm just getting further and further behind on my blogs - OH boy! At the first of August we went on the annual Messick/Roberts/Remund/Carter/Kimmel Bear Lake trip. As always, it was fun to catch up with so many people we see so infrequently.  We were planning on staying only a night, that turned into the whole week. It was so fun to be able to stay the whole time!

The weather was warm but rained and stormed a ton. One night, our tent was literally folded on top of us, the only thing keeping it up was the playpens and Eric's leg sticking straight in the air, while laying in bed. Kind of scary, but cool, and the kids slept right through it somehow.

 The wind made for great kite flying.

Escalante/Wide Hollow Reservoir

At the end of July we went to Escalante with my family and camped at Wide Hollow Reservoir. On our way there, our GPS led us astray and took us on a 50+ mile dirt road. Eric is good at driving fast on dirt roads so he ended up shaving off 1 1/2 hours off the estimated trip time. That was nice. It was actually quite pretty driving on that road. The different elevations brought different landscapes. There was a memorial at one point that continues to impact me. The plaque told a story of a family whose truck broke down at that point on the road, during the winter, on their way to visit some family. The dad started walking the road to find help. The mom became desparate while waiting in the truck with the baby and started walking towards an area with a ranger station to see if she could call for help. She padded her feet with pillows and took off into the woods with her baby. She was later found dead with her body wrapped around her alive and warm little baby. The story is haunting but also displays the love of a mother.

Anywho... onto a lighter subject... it was a blast camping right at the reservoir. The weather was hot and sunny so whenever we felt too warm we just ran over and jumped into the water. Swimsuits all day long - that always equals a fun trip.

One day we hiked to Upper Calf Creek Falls. It was crazily hot hiking in, so the cold water was totally welcoming and refreshing. I only wish I could've bottled up the coolness and saved it for the hike out because oh MY, it was exhaustingly hot.

 The kids both sacked out on the hike out. They were obviously extremely tired, because I don't know how someone could fall asleep in that heat.

Fundraiser for Ruby

Have you heard about little Ruby? She needs a liver transplant and is fighting hard!!

First and far most, PLEASE keep little Ruby and her family in your prayers. It is truly heart wrenching, what they are going through and they need all the help and peace available right now.

You can read their story here.

 

There will be a fundraiser for her and her family August 15 - 22, see the flyer below. Please spread the word.

Back at the end of July

Camla came up and stayed with us and we decided we'd show her the awesomeness of SLC by taking her to the nightly musical entertainment. The concert was at the main library and when I looked online before going, it said that the entertainment would be "family friendly". So....we went, and it was more like R-rated-friendly - not cool - and although Reese didn't comprehend the lyrics, and was enjoying head banging and grooving to the tunes, we decided to go play in the water and walk on the top of the library instead.

 A couple days later Camla had her 15th birthday! She really is the best!

 And the most fun to spoil :)

Pics

B-Money's birthday party at Red Robin

 4th of July BBQ and fireworks at Lindsay Grauling's.

 Weekly trips to 7 peaks with Naffzigers and Kristin.

 Cousin Eli, who always wants to hold Ivan.