A Beary Nice Family Vacay

We took three small vacations this summer rather than one big one (one each month). Because it was Ammon's last summer at home, we picked trips that we knew he would enjoy. Our first vacation in June  we went to Top Golf in SLC. For our second vacation, in July, we went to Bear Lake. We hadn't been there in 7 years, but we love the beach there, and wanted to return. We stayed for 2 nights at a really nice condo rental in Garden City that I got on Air BnB. To save money, we planned ahead and brought all our food from home (except for one meal--it's always nice to eat out at least ONCE!!). The suburban was packed to the max with 6 people, our packed bags, the food, and all the inflatable water toys:    

We went from Tuesday, July 24 to Thursday, July 26. It needed to be on weekdays to work with Josh's weekend work schedule, and we also coordinated our vacation to be with Eve Whall and her mum Amanda from England--Eve's semester at BYU-I had just ended, and Amanda came out for the week to go to Eve's friend's wedding the following weekend so the weekdays worked better for them, too. We met up on Tuesday evening at the condo where the Whall's stayed with us. Our friend Amanda, daughter Regan, and husband Ryan came up from Ogden to spend the evening with us as well, which was really fun. We had dinner for everyone, but couldn't find a good picnic table at an outdoor place that was handicap accessible, so we ended up just eating at our condo rental before we went to a beach and hung out in the water for a while before the sun set. Afterwards, we got some of the famous raspberry shakes before the Berube's left to go back to Ogden. Eve played some board games that night with us at the condo before we retreated to bed. 

On Wednesday morning, we headed out about 9am after breakfast to go to Rendezvous Beach on the south end of the lake. We'd only ever been to the North Beach before on the Idaho side. When we first arrived, there weren't very many people there, so we had a great parking spot and claimed out a decent-sized area with two picnic tables on the beach. As the day progressed, more and more people showed up, and by late afternoon it was pretty packed. The weather was beautiful, and we had a wonderful, relaxing day playing on the beach, in the water, and on the water toys all day. We rented two sea-doos for an hour, which was AWESOME!!! I've always wanted to ride on a jet ski and never have my whole life. Josh and Eve each took control of one, and the rest of us each got to take two rides during the hour. It was incredibly fun! We bought another paddle board right before this trip, so we had two paddle boards, some floaties, and a boat to share during the day, too. We left around dinner time, and went to a nice pizza place in Garden City. That night, we watched a movie before bed. The whole day was heavenly--probably my favorite day of the whole summer. 

always the golfer, no matter the location!

Josh trying out our newest paddle board. 

Kanyon thrives when he's at a beach!

This picture of him makes me giggle every time!

Our two jet skis that we rented.

I couldn't get enough of the view!

The bedroom that Josh and I stayed in at the condo was upstairs on the 3rd floor. We had a sliding glass door that opened up to a balcony that overlooked the lake. I woke up early on Thursday morning to watch the sunrise over the lake. It was glorious! After breakfast, we packed up, cleaned up, and left town. We stopped at Minnetonka Cave on the drive back, but there was already such a long line, and we didn't want to wait an hour and a half for the next available tour time, so we continued on our way. However, we did stop at Soda Springs to eat a picnic lunch and watch the geyser burst (which I did not even know existed until this trip--as we were on our way TO Bear Lake, I just happened to see it in the distance above the tops of the buildings on Main Street, and googled it!). We timed it just right--as it blows every hour on the hour, we got there about 15 minutes before it blew so we had time to eat before walking around the geyser area. After that, we went our separate ways: the Whalls headed to Boise for the wedding, and we drove on to Salmon. It was definitely a memorable vacation!