Our Annual Bear Lake Trip!

Over Labor Day we took our annual trip to Bear lake. We always reserve the pavilion so we can all stay together. We used to get separate campsites, but we always spent our time in the same campsite anyway, and we got sick of hauling all our individual tables across the campground. In the pavilion, we have covered tables that are together and have built in lights so we can play games at night. This year we had a lot of fun, but it was pretty stormy all weekend. It's Bear lake so the weather will be unpredictable and it will most likely rain at least once, but this year the storm rolled in on Sunday afternoon, cold and STRONG. It got so bad that Matt, Melissa and Brian left a day early because the wind forced them to take down their tent and a lot of their stuff got wet. Actually about half of our campers went home Sunday night rather than Monday afternoon because the wind was so bad, they knew they wouldn't sleep anyway. We tried a new kind of pot luck deal that we tried this time. Usually, we do all our meals on our own in individual families, and then do one big pot luck night where we have a ton of food. This time we had each family take a night and do dinner for everyone. We really liked this because, that way you only have to cook and clean up dinner one night and you get to eat every night! It was awesome! Here are some pics from our trip:

Uncle Brian wore himself out pushing Steven around on his little toy tractor.

Having a juice box with Grandma.

We went down to the lake on Sunday afternoon. We were just getting out of the water when the storm rolled in Big Time! It actually took our inflatable raft and we had to chase it up the beach!

Sharing the Juice box with Grandpa.

Looking for cell phone reception with Uncle Brian.

We played with glow sticks and glow balls on Saturday night. And Brian got out the spotlight to shine on people up at the campground bathrooms.

Brandon was worn out after the first day...

Steven went breakfast mooching...

We had bats in our belfry

Loss of a Hat...

Brian has had a certain hat for several years. It is an old, red baseball cap that he wears to work every day. Or at least he did. Even before his mission, Mom and I have been trying to get him to throw it away. It was dirty, falling apart and it was ready to be retired in our opinion. When he went on his mission, My mom threatened to throw it away while he was gone, but she never did. It hung on his bedpost for two years waiting faithfully until he returned and started to wear it to work again. We still tried to get him to replace it and throw it away with no luck. I don't know if he didn't want to break in a new one, didn't want to go shopping for a new one or what.








As you can see, It's really dirty the fabric is no longer on the button on the top, and the fabric is peeling off of the brim.
A couple months ago, I cooked dinner at Mom's house and invited some friends over. Brian invited over one of his friends from work (the boss's daughter and the secretary). As she was leaving she and I were joking about stealing Brian's hat and throwing it away. Well She took matters into her own hands and devised a plan to get her hands on Brian's old ratty hat. With the help of a unnamed co-worker, the hat was stolen and deposited into Stacie's possession. Brian knew that they had it, but thought he would eventually get it back. Well he did...

"Brian's Hat May it Rest In Peace"
"All Good Things Must Come To an End! --Stacie--"

...he just couldn't wear it anymore. That's right folks, She burned the hat, and placed the ashes in this little "Urn"! When I heard this story I laughed SO hard! I and the rest of my family thought it was sooo funny. I even think Brian thought it was funny. However when her parents heard about it, they were mortified. They told her how she couldn't do things like that and she just told them "Yes I can."
She did replace the old hat with a couple of new ones so Brian won't be going hat-less. I just cannot get over how creative and funny this girl is. Brian might have been a little madder if she had just burned it, but the fact that she took the time to save the ashes and put them in a memorial Urn makes it worth the loss.