Bear Lake

July 26th

Since we had our family reunion up at Bear Lake last year, we've realized how much we love Bear Lake.  My family went the previous weekend with my sister Tiffany and rented these paddle boards and they all loved them, so my dad rented them again this weekend.  We had to get up fairly early to get there at a decent time so that we could get a spot.  It's an hour and a half away, and it was Pioneer Day Weekend, so it was really crowded!  Luckily we all found a spot together.  We had a lot of cars and people there:  my dad's truck, our suburban, Charee's and Tad's cars, then my cousin Tyler and his family came with their boat, and then my other cousins Tysha and Shanda and their families.  It was a party!

Paige and Bella trying out the paddle boards

This is my cousin Tyler's boat and his tube that we all went riding on.  He was so nice to bring his boat out again and let us all use it.  

Maggie getting her balance on the paddle board

She got it!

Megan and I decided to try them out.

It's really tricky trying to stand up on them.

Megs

But we did it!

Giving each other an air high five

but then losing our balance and almost falling off!  :)

Lydia and Paige

Bella eating her lunch

some of the gang

Garrett, Bella and Noah

Emmett and Bella playing together 

They're so cute!  

This is Maggie, Emily and Marshall going for a ride.  

Tad, Emily, my cousin Tyler and his son Marshall in the back.  I love Emily's hair!

John, Maggie and Emily

 I love these 4 pictures of Tad, Charee, Andy and Emily (on back)  Whoever was taking pictures, captured some great moments!  I love this of Tad egging on Tyler to get him to go faster.  

 I think Tyler took them for a wild ride! I'm not sure how Emily hung on!

This one is great--it's also where they lost Andy.  Ha Ha--great picture!

This is Sydnee, Lydia, John and Micah (in the back).  This was Lydia's first time doing anything like this and she was pretty nervous.  

 She says she didn't like it, but she might have just a little!

Then, me Megs, Charee and Tad went for a ride.  My cousin Tyler is standing next to us.  Tad started out in the back, but he said it's really uncomfortable and hard to hold on, so he came up with us and sat next to Charee.  

We laughed the whole time!  It was so fun!

Got some air on this one!  Everytime we bounced, Tad would land on Megan's hand that was holding on for dear life--so they booted him to the back again.  

He fell off after awhile because he couldn't hang on anymore.  He was laughing so hard when we fell.  He went into the boat and Charee and I switched places so I could try the middle.  Andy was driving pretty crazy and after a little while, Charee flew off and my leg was dragging in the water and I thought I was going to go in too.  Luckily I didn't.  Poor Charee though, she looked like she went in hard.  We were done after that.  

Paige playing in the sand and water with Katie (Tyler's little girl)

Noah having a good time.

Maggie playing with Emmett

Paige loved the paddle boards

my dad taking a turn

Emmett--quite the ladies man, with Emily and Maggie

Tad and Mailei

Megan and Cora

Lydia, Emmett, Bella, Noah and Cora

Maggie, Emily, and Sydnee going for one last ride

Noah, Garrett and Bella

Lydia, Bella (the mermaid) and Noah.

It was such a fun day and it went by really fast.  We all drove back home--Bella asked if Cora could ride with us, which was so sweet!  We stopped and got pizza for everyone for dinner, then bathed and cleaned up and headed to bed.  

Hansen Family Reunion in Bear Lake

For our family reunion this year, we decided to stay in Utah and spend part of the time at my parent's house and part of the time up at Bear Lake.  My friend Kate, suggested this place that her family had stayed at for their reunion and it worked really well for us.  It was a huge 9140 square foot, 3 level house!  It had a huge kitchen, two huge family rooms, Indoor playhouse and slides, basketball hoop, in-ground trampoline, a theater room, spiral slides by stairs for the kids, three huge decks with great views of the lake.  We had 27 people there and it said it could sleep around 40--with fold out couches and stuff, but we were all able to have beds.  I didn't get any pictures of the outside of the house, but got a few of the inside.  As soon as we got to the house (the previous night), the kids were going crazy because of the slides from floor to floor and the trampoline and everything.  They were in heaven!
July 15th--Monday

 Here are a few pictures of the inside of the house.  This playroom was on the bottom floor.  It had this playhouse, plus the basketball court and the trampoline.  

 These are the slides.  The green coming down from the first floor and the one to the left going down to the bottom floor.  

 View from the kitchen looking into the dining area and living room

 The Kitchen

We had a few issues with the house.  Only one of the dishwashers worked, so we were constantly behind on dishes, because we'd go through so many.  A couple of the washers didn't work and there was NEVER enough hot water for all of us to bathe/shower.  So, it was kind of a race to see who would get up earliest to get a shower; or who could come home from the lake first to bathe their kids, etc.  It was kind of annoying.  There were a few other smaller problems, but those were the big ones.  

 Dining room and family room (on top floor)

 2nd level TV room

 View from the 2nd floor looking down on the "Play room"

 View from the house looking out at the lake

Theater room.  Pretty cool, but some of the equipment wasn't working, so my cousin went in to try and fix it so we could watch movies.  

We spent most of the first day at the lake.  

 Hanging out under the canopy taking a break from the sun

 This totally cracked me up!  They use tractors to bring boats and jet ski's in and out of the water.  

 Lydia, Paige and Grant

 Maggie 

 The house had 2 kayak's for us to use.  Maggie taking her turn.

 Tad and his daughter Mailei

 Megs and Tiffers 

Steve and kids playing in the sand.  We watched Moneyball that night in the theater room.

July 16th--Tuesday

In the morning, my dad took some of the people horseback riding up in the canyon somewhere.  Of course, Maggie went.  She was so excited!

 Dad, Maggie, Hayden, Grant and Brooks

 Dad

 Maggie

 Maggie and Brooks

 Tiff

So pretty!  They had a great time.  The rest of us just hung out at the house.  When they came back, we headed out for the lake.  

 We stopped at this little shop and ordered some lunch.  Garrett is feeding Emmett some ice cream.  They became good friends.  :)

 Somebody had already built this little pool before we got there.  Noah liked it.

 Mailei, Paige and Bella collecting sea shells.  Bella and Paige still have theirs.  

 Hanging out and watching the storm coming.  

 When it hit, the wind picked up really quick and was blowing things away left and right.  We packed up quickly and decided to head home before it started pouring.  

 Everyone was still wet when we packed up, so we took off of his suit so he wouldn't be cold.  He fell asleep on the way back.  

 Back at the house.  Solviej and Iris trying out the slide.  I never did try it.  I thought I'd get stuck.  :)

They had this fun little nook in the kitchen that the kids loved to play in.  You climbed up the rock wall to get up there.  Great little fort for the kids!

Colin climbing up into the nook.
That night after dinner, my mom had all of these Minute to Win it Games set up.  It was hilarious, especially with the adults!  We were all laughing so hard--it was great fun!

 Since there were so many of us, she broke us into groups to compete.  The little kids, the older kids, and the adults.  The first game had one person from each team unwrap a piece of candy and chew it 3 times.  Then they had to run to the wall, read what their paper said and do what the paper said on the way back.  (like sing like a bird, gallop, hop, walk backwards, etc.)

 Here it's the adults turn and we were doing a little smack talkin' between teams.  

Tad eating his candy

This one cracks me up of Megan--galloping I think?  Her smirk is hilarious!

 Then, one of the funniest games I think.  Trying to hit a balloon with a pool noodle down to the wall and back.  It was harder than you think.  This is Tiff and Tad racing against each other.  

The next game was making a smiley face out of M&M's using just a straw.  (Sucking the M&M up on the straw to move it.)

 Noah just wanted to eat the M&Ms

 Then she had this crazy game of shooting Q-tips through a straw and seeing who could shoot it the farthest.  You had to be careful to not inhale the Q-tip.  I did that a few times.  

 The kids had to put together cereal box puzzles

These 3 balanced 6 dice on a popsicle stick and walked across the room and had to squat down to dump the dice into a bowl.  Lydia did really well on that one.  

 While people were waiting their turns for the games, they jumped on the trampoline.  My dad even tried it.  

The guys wanted to play basketball.  
After getting the little kids in bed, we watched "The Avengers".

July 17--Wednesday
My brother-in-law Steve had to leave today and get back to work.  Bummer.  My sister Tiffany and her family also left because they had to go and help my niece Karlie get ready for her wedding that was happening in 2 days.  My mom had crafts for the kids to work on until we went to the lake.  

 Crafts and stickers

 the older girls were making necklaces out of washers that they painted with nail polish

Noah loved using stickers 

 Going down the slide.

Back at the beach

 Digging in the tunnels

Tad, Me, Megs and Charee 

 Dad and Tad decided they wanted to rent jet ski's.  So I drove up with them.  Turns out another storm was coming and they wouldn't let us rent them after filling out all the paperwork and watching the safety video and everything.  I guess someone saw lightning.  Oh well.  I guess we'll make sure to rent them on the first day next time.  

Bella and Maggie

We stopped to get shakes on the way back home.  The kids ate them out on the back deck.   

After dinner and getting kids to bed, we watched High Road to China, which is a great movie.  We used to watch it when we were kids.  

July 18--Thursday

Unfortunately, today was the day that we had to leave.  We even had to wake up early and get packed and cleaned up.  We headed back to grandma and grandpa's house.  The kids played while we did laundry.  

 The kids watching a show in grandma's room

We ate at Cafe Rio for dinner--YUM!  Not the best picture of me, but whatever.  The next day was Wedding Day, so I'll blog about that next.