Our Bear Lake Adventure

This week we embarked on a little family adventure to Bear Lake  The plan was to camp out for two nights, enjoy the beach, the campfire and relax.  Like many of our family adventures, things didn't go exactly as planned 
We headed to Bear Lake on Monday afternoon and arrived at our campsite on Rendezvous Beach between 3 and 4:00.  Our campsite was right next to the beach and the kids were very anxious to get in the water.  They didn't seem to understand the concept of "setting up camp" before doing anything else.
 As soon as we got everything set up and unpacked, the swimsuits came out and we hit the water.  Well, the kids and I hit the water.  Nate is not a big fan of swimming, but he did wade in for a little bit and play with the kids.  Then Nate cooked our foil dinners on the campfire while the kids and I played in the water and the sand. 

Nate enjoying his dinner

Mommy and Jayne chillin' at the picnic table after dinner

After dinner, it was time to get cleaned up.  I swear I washed Jayne's hair three times and I was still finding sand in it when I combed it out!  Ah, the joys of camping at the beach.  You always find sand in the most uncomfortable of places.
When the kids and I were all cleaned up, we played some UNO and then it was time for s'mores.  The kids really enjoyed roasting their own marshmallows. We didn't even have any black ones or any that caught on fire.  I was impressed.  We watched the sunset as we roasted our s'mores.

After s'mores, we put the kids and the dog to bed (yes, Henry came with us) and just as Nate and I were relaxing by the fire and thinking how nice this little vacation was going to be, we had some unexpected and definitely unwelcome visitors. 

It had barely gotten dark and we were relaxing for a few minutes before cleaning up camp for the night when we heard something rustling around over by the trash bag.  We shined our lantern in that direction to discover that not one, not two, but three skunks had invaded our campsite and were enjoying rustling around in our garbage.  So how do you get three skunks to skedaddle without them spraying their lovely scent all over you, your tent, your dog, etc.?  Good question, and if anyone has a scientifically proven answer I'd love to hear it so we can be better prepared next time.  Our plan consisted of Nate chucking firewood in their direction until they decided that the area was a bit too hostile for their liking.  Sadly, they didn't go far.  Two of them headed into some bushes and trees right next to our tent and definitely made their presence known with that unmistakable aroma.  After they left, we gathered up anything and everything that might possibly entice them to come back and made sure it was either in the trash or in the van. 

We didn't get much sleep that night.  Being a little over five months pregnant, my bladder was constantly interrupting any rest that I did get and I was resisting having to get out of the tent because I knew our little friends were still nearby.  We were also regaled with the really loud noise made by some huge fish that decided to jump in the lake all night long.  Those things were really slapping the water.  We actually saw some of them jumping the next morning and were quite impressed.  They were gigantic and could really jump out of that water.  And last, but not least, our sweet Lilly was talking in her sleep off and on all night long. 

Tuesday morning we woke up to the kids saying "Can we play in the water?"  It was a little chilly for swimming still, so we made breakfast, loaded everyone up and went for a drive.  Our neighbor had told us about the National Oregon/California Trail Center in Montpelier, Idaho so we thought we'd check it out.  Who doesn't love a good museum?  It was a beautiful drive around the lake and the museum was great.  They had a railroad museum downstairs, quilt displays upstairs, and a really neat exhibit about Sasquatch  sightings around the world and specifically along the Oregon/California Trail. 

On the way back to camp, we stopped in Paris to see the Paris Tabernacle.  What a gorgeous building!  We enjoyed a private tour by a very knowledgeable guide.  It was amazing to see the ornate details that were put into everything from the ceiling to the door hinges. 

 

After the tabernacle, we drove back to camp.  There were a few thunderstorms brewing, but it was dry at our campsite.  We had lunch and then hit the water again.  The kids had a blast swimming, building sandcastles, and making ponds and lakes on the beach by digging holes and filling them with water.  Sadly, we didn't really get any good pictures of the kids playing in the water.  That's probably because I was in the water with them and Nate was relaxing with a Louis L'Amour book.  

Around late afternoon, we noticed some storm clouds coming in so we decided it was time to get out of the water.  We had just gotten the girls showered and I was combing out Jayne's hair when the wind kicked up big time. We're talking major gusts of sand in your face.  We hurried the kids into the  (which was already filling up with dirt and sand) and started trying to cover food and secure chairs.  It was all to no avail. Once we got things pretty secure, the tent gave up the ghost.  It didn't just blow over or fall down.  The wind literally ripped the tent from it's straps that were staked into the ground.  Yeah, that's how bad this wind was.  It wasn't nearly so windy when you were further in from the beach, but with our tent being dead, we couldn't just change campsites or anything like that. So without anywhere to sleep that night and the wind not dying down at all, we decided to head home a day early.  We got the kids and Henry into the van and then Nate and I proceeded to throw everything together and get it all into the van with the wind whipping sand in our faces.  Good times.

We grabbed some hamburgers and shakes for dinner on our way out of town since we hadn't had the chance to roast the hotdogs we'd brought for dinner and then we hit the road.  We arrived home in Magna around 10:00pm and were greeted by a very hot house.  Apparently weather here at home had been in the triple digits that day and was still lingering in the 90's.  So we got the swamp cooler running and all of the fans going and then passed out for the night.  

There you have it.  That was our family adventure to Bear Lake.  It wasn't anywhere near the relaxing time we had hoped for, but it was definitely a memory maker.