I love days like today when I spend most of my time reading my book and the kids entertain themselves with cousins.

This morning I met my Mom and sisters for a quick trip to Tai Pan Trading.  Since I've never even seen my house in Fort Worth, I wasn't too motivated to buy any cute decorations.  I'll probably go crazy next summer.

Tonight, Haley and I took our kids to see "Chimpanzee", a live-action movie about a baby chimp in the wild.  Not really my type of show, but the popcorn was good.

For the three years we lived in Germany - in fact, for the five years we lived in Michigan before that - this is what I knew we were missing on Sunday nights:

Both here at Brad's parents' house and also at my parents' house, family gathers on the deck to visit after dinner on Sunday.  This is the scene I'd conjure up when I wanted to feel sorry for myself for living so far away.

I will now add this scene to my future Pity Parties - Adam snuggled next to Grandpa watching Disney movies.  

I'm not ready to move to Texas and return to boring, family-less Sundays.

You'd think Jess would be mad at Zeus for the whole broken toe incident, but clearly he is forgiven.  Here she is with Pep and Luke giving Zeus the bath she was trying to give him yesterday.

Sadly, today we had to pack up and leave Bear Lake.  As we drove away, Jess and I consoled ourselves that at least we get to come back up in a week with my family.  

We are now staying with Mark and Lois, which for Jess means we are staying with the horses and their dog Zeus.  This afternoon, Jess was running outside with Zeus when he doubled back and she jammed her toe into his leg.  She came stumbling into the house and tearfully announced that she thought her toe was broken.

So, Mark took us to the clinic where he practices and sure enough, the toe was broken.

This is how it looked on the outside.   Even without an x-ray, it was pretty obvious that something wasn't right with that little pinky toe.

This is how it looked on the inside.  She snapped it good.

So now it is set, taped, and wrapped in a big, black, walking boot.  The doctor told her she wouldn't be able to swim for eight weeks because with a break like that, as soon as the tape came off, the ligaments would pull the bone out of place again.  So, tubing at Larson Bear Lake is out.  More tears were shed.

This billboard is over by the clinic.  I had to take a picture of my handsome father-in-law, my handsome grandfather-in-law, and my handsome brother-in-law.  Isn't that cool?

This wing of Davis Hospital is also fairly new, and it is named after Brad's grandpa.  I hate to brag, but I sure married into a great family.

Today was spent mostly at the beach.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

  

And tonight we did my very most favorite Bear Lake tradition -- Pickleville Playhouse!

 We sat on the back row, which is fine in such a small theater.  It was actually pretty great, because Luke would laugh SUPER hard - like a nearly hysterical belly-laugh - and it would echo throughout the whole theater.  There were a few times when the whole audience would turn around to see who the laughy kid was.  It was even funnier than what was happening on stage!

Not a great photo, but it gives you the gist of the play.  Yes, that is a white guy playing an obnoxious hispanic villain who raps in a Laker's jersey while cowboys, Indians, and crazy side-kicks join in.  In the words of Juanito Bandito, "Oh yeah.  That just happened." 

How much do I love Juanito Bandito?  There are no words.  I think this is the sixth year in a row that I've seen a Juanito Bandito play.  I hope they never stop doing them!

Today was sunny and beautiful, and we took full advantage of the weather.

(PS:  I actually took 52 photos of today.  Don't worry, I'm not posting them all.  But, let the record show that today was 52-photo-worthy.  That's a good day.)

  

After dinner, Becky (aka The Cruise Director) had another fun activity planned.  What's better than a big banana split?  A GINORMOUS, 10-foot-long banana split!

And, what happens when 20 people try to eat the ginormous, 10-foot-long banana split?

FOOD FIGHT!

     

 

After the kids had all been dunked in the lake and the seagulls had finished cleaning up the ice creamy, banana-y, sprinkle-y goodness, a few of us finished off the night with a surfing trip on Brian's boat.

 Becky has surfed before, but this was the first time she was able to drop the rope and do it hard-core.  I think she's officially addicted.

Brian's son Cole (11 years old) is a seasoned pro.  He could have stood there all night.  Cole also impressed the dickens out of Pepper when he drove the boat while Brian surfed.

 Pepper wanted to give it a go, and Brad nearly burst with fatherly pride when Pepper tossed aside the rope.

Brad tried this last year and LOVED it.  Even though it was getting dark, there was no way Brad was going to pass on a turn.

We stayed out on the lake and surfed until well past dark (shhh...don't tell the coast guard).  When we finally pulled the boat out, we realized we had too many people to fit in Brian's truck.  So, the kids and Derek lay down in the boat and had a very chilly ride back to the condos (shhh...don't tell the police).  It was an amazingly fun - albeit slightly illegal - night!

Today was a little cloudy and grey, but we still managed to find things to do.  

Lois rented a blow-up trampoline thing that floats out on the lake, so we braved the slight rain and spent the morning at the beach.

 

 

 

  

In the afternoon, Brad took Jess, Pep, and Adam golfing, so I went mini-golfing with Luke, Hannah, and Sophie.  There was a great deal of cheating.

Then, we spent some quality time at the playground with William and Gabers.

 

 

After dinner, we played Bit-O-Party, a game Zach and Becky made up.

It played like Jeopardy.  They had five categories of questions about the Bitner family that we tried to answer.  Everyone laughed so hard at the stories, Bitnerisms, and crazy stuff from when Brad's siblings were growing up.  I think the kids learned some things about their parents that they probably shouldn't know.