Bear Lake: Lessons Learned

On Saturday, my wonderful friend, Becky(Yes, we do a lot with them. It's great when you find someone you have A LOT in common with), invited us to go up to their family's property at Bear Lake. Of course I jumped at the chance at getting away from responsibilities at home to spend time with awesome friends. Needless to say the kids had a blast. We didn't get up there until late, but the kids still managed to have some fun exploring.

Sunday we had breakfast and then headed down to the lake. I'm kind of bummed. All the pictures I took really were terrible. Which isn't something new. I'm horrible at taking pictures, but I did manage to catch these two cuties together. This is Cohen's future wife, Brighton. Isn't she a doll?? I just love her!



After a bit Becky and I grabbed our kidlets and went floating in the lake in some tubes. It was fun. Cohen just sat on my tummy and relaxed. I think he was almost asleep. THANK HEAVENS I wasn't around for what was to happen next. When you have a posse of 3 curious boys there are many unmentionable things that are bound to happen. APPARENTLY, the boys found a dead rat floating in the water. Yes. A. Dead. Rat. So who was the lucky couple to have their son grab said dead rat and cuddle it closely to their chest and ask if we could take it home passionately declaring that "he won't cause any problems!"? MINE! When I got back to shore and Mitch and Mark told me this, I about puked. WTF?!? (that was for you Becky) Needless to say, we booked it away from the beach and until Peyton got into a shower, he was treated like the town pariah. Lesson Learned: Be Prepared At All Times. Especially for something tremendously gross.

I'm happy to report that Peyton is bubonic plague free and seems healthy as a horse and we had no other incidents afterwards. We had a lot of fun though!

Hiking 101:

Here is a 10 step plan for hiking with the Bennett's.

First thing you need is 7 kids and a plan to hike 6.6 miles at 2 in the afternoon on one of the hottest days of the year. THIS IS VITAL!

The second thing you need is an accident prone child who in the first 20 minutes falls flat on his face (thankfully NOT on a rock) and comes out looking like Robert Downy Jr. from Tropic Thunder. Honestly, he didn't even TRY to catch himself. I thought it was funny, he did not find the fact that I found it funny humorous.


The third thing you need is a posse of 3 boys who have NO fear and charge ahead at full speed along some steep cliffs all while you are hurrying up to catch up to them and not pee your pants because you just 'KNOW' someone is going to fall.


The fourth thing you need is a daughter who keeps asking: "are we there yet?", "can we stop and rest?", "it's too HOT!", "can I have a drink?" and "can we just go home?"..All the while trying to stay very patient and not yell at said child (it didn't work).


The fifth thing you need is a baby in a too small of hat to become a snotty mess because something has irritated the poor things allergies. Poor baby!


The sixth thing you need is an awesome friend who can laugh with you about some interesting topics that tend to come up on a long hike, all while trying to go down the hill at maximum speed because of said posse of boys and not biff it at the same time because you are carrying your 3-year-old son whose "legs are broken".


The seventh thing you need (you need a lot!) is a man with a GPS system who is such a champ because he did the Logan Sprint that morning! Way to go Mark!


The eighth thing you need is a family picture and to have everyone looking at something else.


The ninth thing you need is a picture with your husband all while trying to look fabulous wearing a dirty tank thanks to said 3-year-old, snot from said allergy infested child and your camera case. I'm such a dork.


And finally, the tenth thing you need after a 4 hour hike is...a bath.

This here:

Is Tres Toof.


Yes folks, we are stuck at 3 teeth total. I've been waiting and waiting for that 4th tooth to come out, not because she's a screaming pile of hormones and endless snot of course, but because she's looking like the cutest little back-country hillbilly that has ever existed. I should enter her into some sort of spitting competition.

Or maybe a Mohawk competition.



Or maybe a bathing suit (why do they call them bathing suits?? They need to seriously rethink that term) competition. And of course we have to have matching hair bands to go with our cutie new SWIMsuit!

Good times, noodle salad.

I love looking in on my kids while they sleep. It reminds me how much I love them no matter how hard the day has been or how much they tested my patience.



Little turkey is the lightest sleeper ever!


On Saturday we went to the Rod Run here in Logan. I LOVE the Rod Run. It's so much fun to see what people have done to classic cars. I love the smell of exhaust, feeling my insides rattle and the roar of the engines. The kids also loved it and had a blast waving to everyone.

While we waited, the kids played around on the grass and stuff. Cohen was pretending to fight monsters here.


These poor people. Cohen has decided that rather than being interested in other kids, he would rather talk to any adult (scary or not)who is willing to listen to his wild tales. Luckily, these people seemed to have a lot of patience and thought he was pretty funny.


Aja was less than impressed with my step-dad's beard. It freaked her out and I think she just did not like the feel of it!
Before kiss:

After kiss:


Here are a couple pictures of cars. Might not be interesting to some, but I'm a classic car junkie! I could look at them all day long.

I'm a sucker for a beautifully restored truck!

There is only one word for this car...AWESOME.

This is my dream. To have a late 70's model Bronco. It was amazing!