Bear Lake Vacation 2012 - Day 1 & 2

It was the end of July and FINALLY time for vacation! WooHoo! This year we decided to spend our summer vacation in Utah visiting our family. It had been almost 2 years since we had seen them and we have missed them terribly! I have to say that trying to get camping reservations in Utah was a pain in the butt! I don't really need to go into details but suffice it to say that by the time we were able to get spots they were nearly all gone. In fact, the first night we wanted was completely booked at Bear Lake so we had to spend the first night at Hyrum Dam in Hyrum, Utah (duh) - which wouldn't have been so bad except it was an hour and 20 minutes PAST where we wanted to go. It all worked out though. But let me start at the beginning....

The night before we were going to leave we were all getting ready for bed at about 9:15 when suddenly the power went out. SERIOUSLY? The power NEVER goes out here. In fact, I cannot tell you the last time it did. So of course the kids were all wound up wondering why the power was out and freaked out because it was so dark (it made me realize that I really need more candles and flashlights in my house!). Then it got really hot in the house with no AC so we had to open our windows and of course the whole neighborhood was outside visiting in the semi-cooler air waiting for the power to come back on. This did not make it easy for us to fall asleep. Shawn and I kept commenting to each other that we should just leave right then since we were planning on going at 5 am and nobody was sleeping anyway - yet we didn't get up and leave for some reason.... lol.  The power finally came back on about 11:00 and we were able to get a little bit of sleep.

We got up bright and early the next morning (4:15 am) and everybody threw their pillows into the trailer, had a light breakfast and off we went. We arrived in Hyrum about 3:00 (it makes a long ride even longer when you are pulling a trailer...) and got the trailer unhooked and set up. We then headed into Logan to meet my dad at LaBeau's for some yummy pastrami burgers, fries and world famous shakes- YUM! After linner (what is linner you ask? Why, lunch and dinner of course!) we headed to Sam's Club to pick up a few supplies to take over to Bear Lake with us. We then headed back to the dam and we turned in pretty early because we were all so tired from the lack of sleep the night before and the long, long drive. Fortunately the trailer has AC so we turned it on to not only keep us cool but to also drown out the noises from the camp- thank goodness!

The next morning (Saturday) we got up early and headed for Bear Lake. Another dumb thing about Utah camping is that check-in isn't until 3:00. In Colorado the check in is usually 12:00 so we couldn't believe it when we happened to read the reservation that said 3:00. We were a bit anxious because on that day we were going to be spending the day playing on Bear Lake with our family- Grrrrr! We decided just to try the campground and hope that the people in our spot had left early. They let us in at the gate and told us we could go and see if our spot was open and if not we could park in the boat trailer overflow area. As we were rounding the corner and spotted our site # the people there were just hooking up their trailer to leave! Hallelujah!!! We drove over to the overflow area and just waited until we saw them leave and then headed over to our spot to get set up. When we were all ready we headed over to my Aunt Marina's condo at the lake to eat and play together. As we left the campground I told Shawn to go left instead of right and mistakenly (and frustratingly) took the long way around the lake to the condo. On the map I was looking at it looked like it was about the same distance- it was NOT! Sigh. The one time Shawn actually listened to me. LOL We finally made it there and decided to eat lunch while we waited for the others to come in off the boat. (My Aunt Marina and Uncle Jerry have a BEAUTIFUL boat that fits 15 people that they GENEROUSLY took us out to play on that day- SO.MUCH.FUN!). 

Tyler, my niece Ashley and her boyfriend Mike eating lunch at the condo.

BIL Aaron, Aunt Marina and Aunt Lynne.

Our beautiful Ashlie.

My niece Morgan, Ashlie and Roxy on the kayak.

All of us getting ready to go ride this beauty!

Me and my Aunties.

Tyler and Baylie

I L.O.V.E this water! Bear Lake is called the Caribbean of the Rockies because of the color. It's so clear, blue and beautiful!

Love this cutie!

Here is the first group getting ready to ride Willy. Morgan, Ashlie, Shawn, Tyler and Roxy.

 



Morgan was catching some air!

Man overboard!! Haha, they all got bucked off the whale. It wasn't such a great ride for all of them though- Ashlie got water in her ear and Tyler hurt his neck. (Two kids down....)

Baylie and my niece Joslyn- patiently waiting their turn....

Next riders- Morgan, Shawn, Roxy.

Zooming along having fun until a wild wave bucked Roxy up and she hit her face on Shawn's back. She cut her lip and couldn't feel her face- but she still got back on!

Then is was "the mom's" turn. Baylie kept saying it was the Grandma's turn but the only Grandma on their was Marina.... thanks Bay- NOT! lol  Me, Lynne, Melanie (sister) and Marina.

That was a seriously fun and crazy ride. We wished we could have had a camera with us on Willy to take a picture of everyone on the boat that was staring at us. It was hilarious watching them watch us! This pic from behind was the best we could do.... (I seriously cannot get over this water!)

And there she goes- I was bucked off. I don't think I liked riding on the front....

So thus ends day 1 at Bear Lake. It was a complete success and we had such a great time! The water temp rarely gets over 71 degrees and that day it was 72- perfect!!  Shawn later told me he was dreading this vacation because the last time we were at Bear Lake (the first part of July 2009) it was so darn cold! I kept assuring him that the end of July-first of August was THE time to go but he didn't believe me - well, he's a believer now and has changed his retirement plans from living in Woodlawn park Co to Bear Lake.....