Camping at Bear Lake

The last few months have been a struggle. A physical, mental, emotional struggle. When my husband was laid off due to his company that he worked for going under, I started accepting more work to make up the difference. I ran my self into the ground trying to keep up. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to say “poor me”. I am truly grateful I was in a position to have control over my work load and that there were opportunities to make money. I am just stating the facts. It was hard. I felt like an absentee mom all summer. Normally I have oodles of time to play, oversee chores, help with their projects, etc. In the past, having a blog never interfered or changed our day to day lives. But upping to the workload did. My husband was amazing. He helped around the house and played with the boys. My kids will have incredible memories of this summer with their dad. Even though I know they didn’t suffer any ill effects of me being so busy, I feel jipped out of a summer. I had many sleepless nights trying to meet deadlines and worrying over finances. Aside from the financial strain, my sister was going through her biggest trial in life, to date. The weight of those two things bore down on me to the point that I felt like I was going to explode.

I needed a break. I needed to slow down even if it was just temporary. The opportunity came when it was time for our annual camping trip with my husband’s family. And luckily for us, it was close to home which meant it was within our budget. We have had to miss the last two years.

We went to Bear Lake!

*My littlest forgot his pale and shovel so we stopped at a store on the way. All they had were plastic gardening trowels. He was thrilled and NEVER put it down

*My three oldest eating breakfast. Pancakes with homemade huckleberry syrup, hash browns, eggs, and ham :)

* The boys skipping rocks with their boy cousins. I showed them how and the most we got was 12 skips!

*The days were in the 80’s (PERFECT!) but the nights and early mornings were cold. Snuggling helped.

*They couldn’t decided if the sand was more fun or the water.

*I love this picture! It has been awhile since I saw him this relaxed. He needed this trip every bit as much as I did. Maybe even more.

*Early morning scripture reading on the shore.

* It’s the little things…. Like holding hands with your sweetheart while watching your children play. And your first soda in months!

*The tubes were a huge hit :)

There were 35 of us total. It was the first time in 3 years that every single member of his family was together. Look at that sunrise!!!

Looking for shells

I grew up going to Bear Lake almost every year for a long time. Garden City is famous for their raspberries. There are places everywhere selling raspberry shakes. And they all say they are “the best”. It made me want to yell “Congratulations! You did it!” like Buddy the Elf :P

The lake is so blue! Most of the time it looks turquoise but sometimes it looks more true blue. It is the clearest water I have EVER seen. You can be in the middle of the lake and see as clear as can be all the way to the bottom. It was incredible. We felt more like we were at the beach than we were at a lake.

We were only gone a few days but it helped so much. A break from reality, time with loved ones, and fun in the sun. And now that my husband has a job (We just got the first paycheck yesterday!) I am hoping things can slow down for me.

And then I came home to all the laundry………… :)

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