Bear Lake: Here Come the Kirks!

With Ben home and Rachel's family in town, we had a Kirk family vacation to Bear Lake.  It was the highlight of the summer for us!  So many fun memories and fun was had here!!  The boys got Uncle Ben to play a good game of football with them.  Football is Dylan's favorite sport.

Kirk family pow-wow.  Grandma and Grandpa bought some shirts for all the family that says Kirk: Fully invested in my family.  We talked about what that means.

Meals went nice and smooth considering the big group we were feeding!  Aunt Nancy says she needs to borrow Austin for meals because Kyle ate more than he has in a really long time when he was sitting next to Austin.  These two little boys became good buddies over the last couple of weeks.

Movie night!  Cars 2 was the movie of choice tonight.  Popcorn, licorice, a movie, and lots of cousins.  What more does a kid need?

We spent a day and a half on the beach.  The full day we also had two jet skiis, a speed boat for tubing and water skiing, and a kayak (traded from the paddle boat we started out with).  We all had so much fun!!  Austin spotted a frog and with a little help from Uncle Ben, was able to catch it.

It was a bit windy, or a lot windy. This is the before picture.  Before the end of the day, we sadly lost Grandma and Grandpa's canopy to the wind.  We ended up taking our canopy down for a few hours till the winds slowed down.

The beginnings of "Kirk Island."  Note the progress as you look at the rest of the pictures.  The kids had so much fun creating a big... creation.

Lauren loved the beach.  She splashed, dug in the dirt, helped make and mostly wreck sandcastles, and roamed around the area.  She is a nature girl - so happy to do anything outdoors.

Dad took the boys out on the boat for some tubing.  The water was so choppy that everyone agreed Mom shouldn't be out in the boat since she was 5 months pregnant.  Bummer... next time!

Eventually Austin said he needed a nap, so we cozied him up on a couple of chairs.

Ethan, Jayden, and Spencer

Jayden taking his turn in the kayak.

Ethan, Aubrey, Sadie, Jayden, and Tyler

Dylan, Ethan, Tyler, Sadie, and Jayden

Dylan and Jayden

Sadie and Lauren became great friends over the last few weeks.  What cute girls!

Sadie and Lauren

Dylan in the kayak

Dylan, Jayden, Abbie, Tyler, and Aubrey (missing Adrianna)

You can see our house/cabin at the top of the hill in the center.

The kids had fun gathering shells they found in the sand.

Here we all are:
back row: David, Karen, Jon, Sadie, Ben, Grandma, Grandpa, Roseann, Lauren, Austin, Devon
middle row: Abbie, Adrianna, Nancy, Steve, Megan, Kyle, Dylan
Front row: Aubrey, Tyler, Spencer, Jayden, Kaden, Nate, Ethan, Emi
Photographer- Rachel

Can you go to Bear Lake and not somehow enjoy some raspberries?  Here we are eating a yummy raspberry shake!  The place wasn't quite opened yet, but when they heard four families were coming for some, they were so kind to help us out!

Memories not pictured:

The adults staying up late playing games - Ticket to ride, Pirates Cove, Incan Gold, Liars Dice...

Ethan joining Spencer to sleep in one of the family rooms, only the adults were too noisy for Spencer, so he headed up to his family's bedroom.  The next morning Ethan declared "I didn't hear anything!"

The mouse in the basement as Steve's family was trying to go to sleep.

Chipmunks out the window.

The fun gameroom in the basement - ski ball, air hockey, billiard table.

Bright, bright, early mornings.

The lightening cloud that gave a great show - seemingly every couple of seconds for probably an hour.

Uncle Ben playing risk with Jayden, Dylan, and Tyler- something Dylan and Jayden had been hoping, hoping, hoping for.

Uncle Ben sharing stories from his mission with the family.