The day the grandchildren had been looking forward to all month had finally arrived!! It was Thomas Family Reunion time at BEAR LAKE!!!
The t-shirts were a big hit with the family--especially for us!
Sarah cleverly tied in Glen's favorite saying while on our mission "It's another great day in paradise!" into our family reunion t-shirts.
"It's another great day in Bearadise" and she worked the California state flag into the design as well.
SO CREATIVE!!!! Great play on the saying and on our trip destination--Bear Lake.
I snapped a photo of Abe's family before they headed out the door with their first stop of the day Kneader's. Considering it was Klarissa's birthday, it was a great way to start the celebration of her special day.
Most of us needed to go to one store or another to load up on our food assignments. Abe met us at Costco where we saw the Excell family eating pizza for their lunch before heading north to Bear Lake.
The Golden family sent a photo saying they were all loaded and on their way north.
Some families decided to meet at the Limber Pine Nature Trail not too far from Bear Lake to do a little hiking. We were slow getting there, so we started hiking the back end of the loop in hopes of meeting up with the family.
We caught a view of Bear Lake while hiking.
Sure enough, we started hearing voices. Then we saw blue shirts. We had found them!
They were happy to see us!!
We got back to the trail head just as another hiker arrived on the scene and consented to take a group photo. We were missing Abe and Ben's families. They would be meeting the group at the rental home.
It was exciting when we started seeing Bear Lake as we were driving.
It was even more exciting when we arrived at our rental home.
The house was big and beautiful and had a lot of tables, chairs, beds and play space.
Poor Glen was EXHAUSTED!!!! We had been going NONSTOP. When he finally stopped, sleep overtook him. It is surprising how well he can sleep with so much commotion going on around him.
Jeff and Sarah took a quiet moment out on the deck which overlooks Bear Lake.
But not for long! Soon others were joining them to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
It was Rebecca and Dallas's turn for dinner the first evening.
Rebecca got into full school teacher mode and was having an activity with the children getting their attention and keeping them busy while dessert was getting dished up.
There were birthday candles in the brownies.
Then a birthday candle in the Bundt cake our neighbor Julie Newsome Rasmussen had delivered to our home for us to eat on Sunday.
I felt the best use for the cake would be to set it aside and save it for the next day to have for Klarissa's birthday cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear Klarissa. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you!!!!
After dinner was backyard fun time.
Evening volleyball became a big "hit" with the bigger family members. And Jonah. Whenever they went out to play, he went out there with them. And he was right on the volleyball court with them. Through each and every game. He's a born athlete!
The shovel turned out to be a very critical part of the volleyball game. When the ball went into the weeds. That's when the shovel was put to good use.
What looks like a fire on the mountain was just a reflection as the sun was setting.
Time for bed little buddy.
When the little ones were in bed, the bigger ones got busy playing games.
The next morning we found Newland, Eli, Logan and Carson playing pool right outside our bedroom door.
The sun was up signaling the makings of another great day in Bearadise!
Sarah and Jacob were returning home from an early morning run.
Glen whipped up some French toast for everyone in the mornings.
Then it was off to Bear Lake for us. We were so happy we had bought a canopy for our Sunday event because it sure made it nice to have three canopies at the lake.
The North Beach is so nice for children. They can walk out forever in the water without it getting too deep. They played happily for hours and hours and hours.
After the fun time at the lake, raspberry shakes were a necessity.
Brooke stepped in to help Abe and Klarissa with their Taco Tuesday dinner.
The other children were happily playing together in the big play room.
After we ate our delicious Mexican meal, we continued on with the Mexican theme with the piñata.
Abe and Glen got it hung from the basketball standard and then let the children take a turn spinning around and then taking a swat at the piñata.
The outdoor slides were fun.
But the grandchildren definitely enjoyed the indoor slides a whole lot more.
Believe it or not (and I didn't believe it until I tried it myself) this group of evening game players were really playing a game with each other.
It required each person to come up with creative answers to questions and then vote on which answers they liked best--all done using an app on the cell phone.
What is not captured here is the laughter we shared as we saw some of the answers that people came up with.
Another beautiful morning at Bear Lake.
After breakfast we headed to Minnetonka Cave. Jacob's family opted out as they had recently gone in a cave and didn't want to do another cave. Some of us came prepared for the coldness in the cave. The rest were pretty chilly inside the cave.
Carson could already feel the cold air coming out of the cave before he ever stepped foot inside the cave.
We were all pretty happy to get back outside of the cave.
Then off to the lake we went for a second day of fun in the sun. Or fun under a layer of clouds. That's my idea of a great way to spend a day at the lake. It felt almost like we had the whole lake to ourselves.
Regardless of the sun situation, Jonah had his sunglasses and he wore them the whole time he was there.
The big floaties were a big hit, as were the paddle boards and Sea-Doo that we rented.
Jonah played so hard he wore himself right out and fell asleep in my arms--sunglasses on and everything.
One of our missionaries saw on Instagram that we were at Bear Lake and he contacted us to see if we could make a little bit of time to see him.
The group had headed over to a gas station that is supposed to have the BEST raspberry shakes in the area. We wanted to give it a try.
Despite our late afternoon snack, we were ready to eat the dinner Ben and Haley prepared for us.
Here's our attempt to get everybody organized for a family photo.
And thanks to Dallas--here's the finished result. LOVE these people!!
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