Sisters.
My sisters and I have tried to make it a tradition to do a girls trip to Bear Lake each year. My oldest sister owns a little house out there next door to a little house her in-laws have owned for a long time. She bought the house in the past year or so after her husband's grandmother (who had been living in the house) passed away. She was in her late 90's! It's a small 3 bedroom home in which she had raised 9 (I think) children. The house has so much character and I love hearing stories of things that happened there. It's a place that makes you feel humbled, grateful, and happy.
My youngest sister Kaylee is still on her mission in California and won't be back until December, so she was the only one that couldn't be there. I am excited for her to get to come with us next year, she is so fun. I loved being there with my Mom because she grew up in Preston Idaho, a small town just like Bloomington (the town in which we were staying) only about half an hour away from the cabin. There are all these old original appliances in the house and my mom who was raised on a dairy farm would tell us all the uses for them. It was fun to watch her light up as she told us things like "oh and this is how you make a block of butter!" I loved going with her up a long dirt path on the 4-wheelers, she looked so happy and free. She always has so many things and people that she is trying to take care of, but you can tell she let go of all of them while we were up there in the mountains.
We packed in as much as we could in a day and a half. 4-wheel trips up the mountain, a hike up to Bloomington lake to jump into the frigid water, renting a boat out at bear lake, the Bloomington rodeo and carnival, Juanito Bandito at Pickleville house, and all the fun things in between like roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire and getting burgers and raspberry shakes in Garden City. It was so fun. Being childless for a day is something in and of itself, and then getting to spend that day doing fun things with my sisters, you can't beat that.
We tried really hard to get a decent selife on the ATV.
Obviously we were not too successful.
Beauty.
Taking the back seat.
Bethany does everything with more style than the rest of us.
This about sums us up all the time.
My mom being cool and having the time of her life.
She grew up driving a boat around with her best friend and water skiing with her.
The lame sisters who wouldn't jump ;)
I'll figure out how to lighten this picture, but I just love our faces in it.
Two of my favorite memories from this trip are trying to make Bethany (who is terrified of livestock) touch a cow, and standing in the kitchen while my mom is telling us what each tool does and my sister Bethany pointing to something and confidently and completely incorrectly informing us what one the tools was used for, after which my mom replied "oh, no no, those are for shearing sheep."
Can't wait til next year!
My mom was Utah/Idaho because she was in town for a wedding and since she planned to return home after Bear Lake I decided to capitalize on it and head back with her. It was a little stressful to have to pack everything for my kids before I left because my husband was just going to come down and meet us so we could all head to Washington together, but it was well worth the wonderful weekend I had with my sisters and the awesome week in Washington that followed it. Look out for my next post on my stay in Washington!
