Bear Lake 2018

Bear Lake with the Fortie's was a hit! We spent a few days together in this beautiful house in Fish Haven that Kris had found for us. She deserves a lot of credit in getting this whole thing coordinated.

It was further away from town and the lake than other years, but honestly, location is of little importance to me. It's all about the time together. 

The pictures really speak for themselves, but I will add a blurb of things I want to remember. Like ... Chris taking Bailee on as his Horseshoes "protege". 

They were quite the team and we fully expect matching jackets next year.. ha ha!

The private community our house was in had some nice amenities like this pool.

We spent most of the time at the lake.

Loved catching up with cousins we don't get to see often enough

Bay got more "lessons" from Chris on the Jet Ski

Tons of fun with the Paddleboards

Kars gives Hazen a lift

Lots of boat rides

and tubing ...

calm before the storm ... the water was rough that day!

Gaige even took us for a spin around the lake

We only had two full days and we spent them at  two different beaches. The second day we went to the north beach and it was nuts! When we came to Bear Lake as kids, it seems like this beach was usually pretty empty. There were people .. and cars everywhere!

The rest of the time was spent hangin' at the house eating yummy food, playing games and just catching up! So much good food ... so many leftovers!

Kole takes over the grill

Reading with Brinley

Olivia and Cooper making the most of the game room

We did a Snipe Hunt one night for the kids who hadn't done one. This girl was pretty disappointed when she emptied her pillowcase:(

Ashlee put together a Newlywed game for the couples and we spent hours one night learning all sorts of things about each other. My parents were the best ... laughed so hard at some of their responses. They did really well and know each other better than we thought they did;)

Apparently, not as well as these two. They were the winners!

Grandma always has a game or activity for the kids. 

Can't beat the view from the deck. Lots of serious {and not so serious} conversations out there.

Speaking of views .... pure beauty from one of our early morning walks

There were also several Trash Walks that made for some good talks



Several of us visited Minnetonka Cave one evening. Haven't been there since I was a kid. It was pretty cool and pretty freaky if you let yourself think about it too much.

These two bent over backwards to help me coordinate a family photo the last morning we were there. I wanted it to be outside, but also as accessible and comfortable as possible for my mom. It is hard to find a spot that will accommodate all of us. Mark and Kris really went out of their way to get it set up. 

We thought we had it worked out perfect and ..... this is the best we could get:( The camera needed to be up so much higher and that just wasn't possible. All 32 of us are there ... you just have to do a bit of hunting to find everyone.

I love Bear Lake. Love these people {and the ones missing}. I loved everything about this trip except for that it ended too soon. Until 2019!