Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let these pictures speak for themselves.

And that, my friends, was our summer.  Lovely.

And so it ends...

On our last night in the States, the Bitners (headed by Becky) had a big party to say good-bye.  It also happened to be Jessica's 14th birthday, so we celebrated that too.

Anyone who knows Becky knows that she loves to throw a good party, and this was no exception.  She arranged for a big, blow-up bouncy house, and of course all the kids thought they'd died and gone straight to heaven!

Becky by the bouncy house.

Luke comes down the slide.

Tiana

Emma

Livvy

Taevyn and Adam

Jessica opening presents.

So cute!

Sweet Lauren

  What a great group to party with! 

Everyone in Brad's family was there except for Dave, who is working in CA this summer.  I am so blessed that I have these people as my in-laws. I truly love them like my own family.

Reunions

Every summer for the last few years, I have made the trek to Utah with every intention of using my time there to connect with old friends.  And every summer, I leave Utah wishing I'd gotten together with more people.

Well, this year I finally got my act together.  Thanks largely to Facebook, I was able to connect with some friends from high school and college that I haven't seen in a while.  It was truly delightful! 

These are some of my great friends from high school: Paula, Michelle, and Julie.  We had a lovely dinner together at PF Changs in Orem and could have stayed there all night talking and catching up.  I love these girls!

I wasn't smart enough to get pictures, but I also had some lunches with friends from my Ballroom days at BYU.  Anna, Marci, and Roxanne all were kind enough to meet me and let me catch up with them.  Being around friends from my younger days is so good for my self-esteem - it makes me feel young to be around them, and yet I still feel wise when we talk about how much we've learned since then.  I have been blessed to have some amazingly talented, warm, funny, and delightful friends!

This August was also Brad's 20 year high school reunion.  While I didn't go to high school with Brad, I've had the chance to know many of his friends from Layton High.  So, it was fun to tag along on Brad's trip down memory lane.

Brad, Chad, Kyle, and Darren

With the wives: Me, Brad, Chad, Molly, Kyle, Darren, Jessica, Andy, and Rachel

This was the first time we've seen many of these people in a few years.  It always surprises me how The Same everyone is, even after all that time.  And even though we may have a few more pounds and wrinkles, I think everyone actually looks better now that we've grown into ourselves.

Boating at East Canyon

Because the weather at Bear Lake didn't exactly cooperate while we were there, Brad promised the kids he'd take them boating the next week so they could try wakeboarding.  So, on Thursday, we packed up some snacks, rented a kids' wakeboard, and spent the day up at East Canyon.  Haley came with her kids, and John, Brigham, and Becky joined us later after work.

Adam and Isaac

Gabers

Lukie

(is it me, or are there a million pictures of Luke playing in the water with a boat on this blog?)

Pepper

Livvy

Mud Monsters!

Well, I guess smooth water was just not in the cards for us this year.  Even though we watched the weather and planned to go on the warmest day of the week, we still had wind and choppy water nearly all day at East Canyon.  Here is Pepper going on a tube ride.

Even though it wasn't great wakeboarding water, the kids still all had fun playing on the beach and riding in the boat. 

When evening rolled around, the water did smooth out a little, and all the kids that wanted to gave wakeboarding a try.  When I say,"All the kids that wanted to", of course I mean, "All the kids that Brad could force to give it a try".   So, that meant Jessica, Pepper, and Adam all joined Brad in the lake for a wakeboarding lesson.  Adam especially DID NOT want to get in the water.  Here is how our conversation went:

Adam:  I don't WANT to jump in the water!

Me:  You can either do it happy or sad.

Adam:  What is sad?

Me:  Me pushing you in the water.

(You can cast your votes for Mother of the Year here...)

There may have been some tears going in, but they were all proud of themselves when they finished.  I am pleased to announce that all three of them did get up, although staying up was a different story.  Oh well. 

Happy Place, Book 2

On August 2, Brad arrrived from Germany and we headed up to Bear Lake the next day to spend the week with my family.  When we go with the Larsons, we always stay at Grandpa and Grandma Darrington's cabin.  They built it back when I was about 10 years old, and it has served the family well since then.  What it lacks in modern style, it more than makes up for in nostalgia and good memories.

Everyone came this year except for Josh, who is busy with medical school in Texas.  With all of my siblings and their families, we were pretty crowded in the cabin this year.  Jeff and his family brought up a camper/trailer to stay in ("That there's an RV"), and Jason and Whitney converted their cargo trailer into a bedroom, too.  Poor Jenny and Mike ended up in a tent on the lower porch.  The rest of us were crammed into any available space in the cabin.

All the older kids had beds in the Ping Pong room.  You can see Jenny and Mike's tent out on the porch.

Despite the close quarters, we had another great year at Bear Lake.  We were able to get some time in at the beach, between wind, rain, and hail (yes, I said HAIL!) storms.  Too bad I didn't get pictures of all of us huddled under a dripping canopy before we decided the storm won and we gave in and packed up.  Nothing says "fun" like packing up a canopy, kids, and beach toys with hail pelting on your swimsuit bared skin!

These pictures are of another, less exciting day:

We love the beach!

Lukie with another boat.

Harrison and Ellie

Pepper looking tough and refusing to smile.

Austin in the sand.

Ryan and Dillon getting dirty.

We also had some fun back at the cabin.  As has become a tradition, Jami brought up fabric paints and all the kids made their annual Bear Lake Shirt.

Here are all the kids modeling their shirts.  You may not see the details on the shirts, but you can see that we had a cabin-full of kids this year!

We all brought activities for the kids to do up at the cabin, and this was my clever mother's idea.  She had my dad make Rubber Band Guns out of wood, then she organized the kids downstairs on the porch for some shooting games.

This year the Larson Family Game Sensation was brought to us by Jason and Whitney's family.  They had a game of "Werewolf" that we played every night, waaaay too late.  We also played a Pictionary card game that is much better for the artistically-challenged (me).  And don't believe any rumors you may hear of Jami and me cheating - it was totally justified!

My personal favorite event at Larson Bear Lake this year was our trip to Pickleville Playhouse.  In years past, this has been our Girls' Night Out, and we've left the men home to put kids to bed while all us ladies went to the play.  This year, we have kids old enough to babysit, so we invited all the grown-ups to come with us to the play.  It was Bandito Rides Again, another installment of the favorite Juanito Bandito franchise. 

Here is the cast of the Bandito Rides Again.  Yes, it is as cheesy as it looks, but the guy playing Juanito Bandito is so uncannily funny, we couldn't help but just belly laugh.

Who'd guess that some Idaho boy could be so good at capturing a vain, cheezball, Hispanic villian?  The best parts were when he'd say something unscripted and crack up the cast.  It was impossible not to laugh at some poor actor trying to stay in character when they clearly wanted to bust up.  It was like watching Harvey Korman trying to keep it together on the old Carol Burnett Show.  So funny!

After another great week at Bear Lake, we packed up on Sunday and headed back to Layton to stay with Brad's family for the rest of our Utah stay.  Some may say that two weeks a year at Bear Lake is too much, but not me. 

Have I mentioned that it is my Happy Place?