Karen and Crew: Bear Lake

I guess you could call this the first official Martin Family Reunion. Although there have been at at least yearly get togethers during our 4 years in Vegas and everyone kindly came to Utah when we visited from Germany, this was the first destination reunion. Odd that even with a new grand baby, one grandchild was off in France on a mission. And this year we have two high school seniors so the trend will continue.... sigh.

The location was great, the weather, not so much. It wasn't horrible, just could have been better. It didn't matter though, the grandkids loved being together.

Grandma Chris found a big house so we all slept under the same roof and had communal meals. It was up on a hill overlooking the lake. It was a really pretty view with fun, though HILLY, running trails. Lots of adults and kids started each day with a run. Everyone took turns cooking and helping in the kitchen and the trend of eating too well on vacation continued.

The water was cold, just as I remembered from my one visit as a kid. Supposedly it was warmer this year than it has been for the last decade, but that's not saying much. The first afternoon evening was spent unpacking, exploring the house, visiting. Our time at the lake was a little sporadic and based off the on again/off again stormy weather. When we were down there, most of the kids braved some extra wild tube rides in the choppy water. The wind was making white caps all over the lake. On the second lake day, we also rented a couple of jet skis, but there was a little to how long anyone wanted to ride them because you got extra cold. The ride was rough, so Matt and Jen's back didn't appreciate them too much. Brett and I gave them some good work outs though. My most enthusiastic passengers were Katie and Rylee--they were yellers. We don't have any pictures out on the water because we would have lost the camera 6 times. I did take a bunch on our second lake trip a week later, so look for those.

Grandpa practicing his putting.

I think this is right before Isaac swam out to a buoy and back because Jen bribed him a dollar. It was a long, cold swim. He was always up for providing cheap entertainment.

Everyone had to wade out to the boat. It was a gradual descent into the great depths. Shows you how far he had to swim--the buoys is in much deeper water.

The tubers set off.

Jess got to play big sister a little bit. Oh, how she wishes she was one.

I am caught in a yawn.

Matt did some quick rewiring to allow the bug zappers to charge in the US. He also took a shot at getting some sand out of Makenna's old camera, but a tiny piece bent during reassemble.

Alie, Makenna, Katie, Rylee, Jessica and Jake took this area each night. The house had ALL these pads on site.

Gorgeous rainbows after the storms.

Grandkid picture.

Grandparents and grandkids

Not pictured: Famous raspberry shakes: is there an original place? we tried out a few different ones to test the quality variation. Also, on the way out we stopped at one of the old timer burger and shake joints. I don't remember the name but it has autographed dollar bills all over the ceiling. We gave them a 5AED note to add to their foreign money section. I had the most amazing mushroom burger there. It has probably ruined hamburgers for me, possibly for life. It is the new standard by which to judge all others.

This is an addition. I just got more pictures from Troy. I'll add them here.
First, some kite attempts.