Belated Bear Lake post

It's one of our favorite weeks of the year. Bear Lake is always fun, but especially fun with extended family. I'm kicking myself for not getting a big group photo, but it was challenging enough to try for a family picture—notice a very mad Joey in this one:

Yeah, we pretty much gave up on that.

The Oreo game was back, by popular demand:

The kids loved swimming just for fun.

And of course the kites came out.

I love it when I accidentally capture a "then and now" moment, and remembered this photo of Robbie, taken 11 years ago:

Other fun activities included playing "Jail" at the tennis courts,

miniature golf,

Ice cream from the store,

climbing,

and, thanks to the Stringhams, lots of boating.

A few fun activities went undocumented: playing cards, reading, riding bikes, LaBeau's, yummy dinners, movies, hula-hoops, playing on the grass, and just talking.

We love Bear Lake. We're so thankful to Ralph and Judy for a wonderful week, and for this great tradition with so many happy memories over the years.

Sweet

On August 23, 2005, Melissa and I took the kids on a tour of Sweet's Candy Factory. Aren't they cute?

Since then, it's become a summer tradition. Here they are on July 28, 2008. I'm pretty sure we went on that day so I could pick up some fresh chocolate orange sticks for Rob's birthday.

August 17, 2009:

August 11, 2010:

And finally, August 10, 2011. I never made a growth chart, but these photos work!

After our tour, I took Robbie down to the junior high to look around, since we'd be at Bear Lake for 7th grade orientation. He found all of his classes, and tried to open his locker, but had no luck. When neither I or the janitor could open it, they told us to come back the next day so the head janitor could check the combo. It hadn't been changed from the previous year, so he fixed it, and I was glad Robbie didn't have to deal with that on the first day of school. I got to take a few photos, since I knew it wouldn't be cool to show up with my camera and embarrass him in front of his friends. :)

He's excited for this new adventure!

Another Favorite

Melissa already blogged about our outing here, so this seems a little redundant, but of course I want to include it in my blog book for this year, so here goes.

This is the Place Heritage Park is a "living history" pioneer village. We added it to our summer bucket list after buying groupons, and we were able to squeeze it in after swimming and tennis ended and before leaving for Bear Lake and the start of the school year. I'm so glad we did, it was really fun!

This photo seems especially appropriate during rivalry week. (I'm really posting this on 9/16/11—the day before the Utah/BYU game.) Go Utes!

We saw some pioneer cabins, and the kids got to help with the chores. Of course they thought it was fun to scrub the laundry on washboards and beat the rugs, but ask them them to take their clothes to the laundry room and vacuum? Yeah, you guessed it.

Our cute friend Natalie and her cute sister were volunteering up there with their kids, so it was fun to see them. The kids were all lined up on the boardwalk listening to the fiddlers play when the bank was robbed. Fun.

They made crafts at Social Hall, and played pioneer games in one of the nicer houses.

The girls both wore their "pioneer" hats.

They all loved being shaved at the barber. Apparently it tickled.

Panning for gold was a big hit too. They were able to turn it in for some salt water taffy.

At the Indian village they each made an arrowhead necklace and explored the wigwam and mud hut.

We went back "downtown" to the Z.C.M.I. candy store and told the kids they could choose a candy or get an ice-cream at the parlor next door.

Ainsley was the only one of my kids who opted for candy. I think she might still have this sucker.

The school was a highlight. They wrote their names on the slates and learned about discipline during pioneer days. They all loved the dunce cap.

Hmm, might have to try this at home. ;)

Last, we went to the stables and rode the horses. We probably should have hit this earlier, they all wanted to keep riding, but I had to get to back-to-school night.

This will definitely be on our list for next year. In fact, if the kids have their way, we'll be back up there for Halloween and Christmas...

Hoping for another groupon!

Baptism, blog book, blues & browns, Busath

Alright, maybe I was trying too hard for the alliteration on that title.

We went to Parker's baptism (and Logan's blessing—way to consolidate, Cara & Rob!). Ellie has two Riley cousins born the same year she was, and it was fun for her to get to experience their baptisms before her own. The blog post about Ian's baptism is actually the second most-viewed post on my blog (right after Tex-Mex Egg Rolls). Probably people searching for prom pictures, since those are words in the title—I bet they're disappointed when they see it's really just a couple of kids, all dressed up. I wanted a similar photo of Ellie and Parker, and thought it turned out cute.

I looked through my photos, and have found that although there are 1,324 photos taken since this one, I really only have about a dozen things I want to blog about, so I'm practically caught-up! My plan is to not take one more photo until then, so I really need to be done before Joey's birthday in nine days. I'm feeling pretty motivated to blog after finally completing this:

Supervising From the Couch by Michelle Marsh | Make Your Own Book

All along, my purpose for this blog was a printed family "scrapbook" of not just the big events in our lives, but the day-to-day memories. I do like keeping in touch with the few people who read it online, but really envisioned a book that my kids could thumb through. I purchased a groupon for two Blurb books a few months ago, and found myself scrambling when I realized that the deadline was August 3rd. I finished Robbie's book first, on July 25th, and spent the next week madly working on the first year of my blog. Luckily I posted less frequently then, and I managed to finish and order on August 3rd! Rob told me that should be a lesson to wait and order the groupon AFTER my book is finished, but I'm pretty sure that without a deadline it just wouldn't happen. So it's time to order another one and get working on 2009.

One resource I found while working on Robbie's book that I wanted to share is Kuler. I've always loved colors, and it's been way too long since I played with oils or watercolors. This site allows you to browse or create great combinations. I used this photo of Robbie:

And it automatically generated this palette:

I tweaked it a bit to make the lighter colors readable:

Then I imported the colors into InDesign and used them for the text on the cover of Robbie's book.
I ended up not even using the photo, but love playing on and exploring this site. I recommend viewing the demo to see all the cool features if you're into that sort of thing.

One last thing. I got our Busath photos back from the frame shop early in July, and finally got them hung by the end of July. I love them.

These pictures capture a stage of life that I love—our family is complete, we have no babies (not that I didn't love that!) and no teenagers (I hope that will be great too...). All the kids can buckle themselves in, shower, get dressed and fix themselves something to eat. But they're not yet embarrassed to be seen with their parents, and like to hang out with the family. We love to play games, have family movie nights and travel together. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of bickering and chaos too, but this is the stage I think I'll miss the most when they're grown.