We had our family reunion at Bear Lake again! And this time, Jason came! He and I were pretty stressed about how well it would actually work out, but thanks to my amazing family, he managed to have some fun! We got a rack for the back of the van that would fit his scooter and his folded wheelchair, and we made some plans for him to try to do some fun things around the Salt Lake area while we were up there.
The first thing he got to do was go to a supercool shooting range in Springville. It was about halfway to Bear Lake, so it was the perfect place to stop and take a break. While he was at the range, the kids and I went a couple blocks to, ahem, the grounds of a chemical factory, and had tons of fun! It had a huge stream with fish in it! We fed them lots of pieces of our sandwiches, and we fed the birds too.
We also stopped in Salt Lake at one of Jason's favorite tool stores and he got to spend time looking around there too. Jessica stayed with him while the rest of us went to Carl's Jr. and ate cookies and played games and tried not to be too loud.
We finally got to Bear Lake that evening. We stayed at the same fabulous cabin/mansion where we stayed last time. Eric built a ramp so that Jason could get in and out on his scooter.
The next day we went to the lake! Jason was completely wiped from the day before, so he wasn't able to get out of bed that day. The rest of us had fun at the lake though, it wasn't too hot and we all did pretty well at not getting sunburned!
This is Manda and her cousin Annie
We had 2 waverunners and some tubes to play with, and a very kind random stranger let the kids play on this floating trampoline for a while.
That day was also Missy's birthday! She is EIGHT!!! We had already done cake and presents for her and Josh at home a couple days before we left, but we also stuck candles in the peanut butter cups we were having that night and sang to her.
The next day we did our videos! The girls decided to do one of their own this year, and Natalie brought lots of costumes and helped them all get ready.
Here's their video, which was mostly filmed and completely edited by Jana:
And here's our video, again edited by Jana. Also scripted and directed by Jana!
Here are all the grandkids!
Jason felt a little better the third day and got out of bed a little. He was able to stand up for a good 15 minutes and play frisbee with Rob.
And THAT day was Josh's birthday! He's 12! His cake was rice krispie treats.
That evening we played the "minute to win it" games that Natalie had planned.
We had two teams, and a player from each team volunteered for each game. Here are Emma and Tanner competing in "find the bubblegum in the whipped cream without your hands and chew it up and be the first to blow a bubble." I think Emma won.
And this is Annette and Cam playing "be the first to get all the ziti on the spaghetti"
Annette won!
Then Jackson and Wyatt played "get the most steps on a pedometer strapped to your head" Wyatt won.
We also played quite a few rounds of "be the first to get the oreo from your forehead to your mouth" but I can't remember who won any of them. Here's Kimi:
Josh won his round of "bounce the ping-pong ball across the floor and get it to stick to the peanut butter"
Eric and Jana playing "be the first to suck all the Jello out of a cup with a straw." Eric won.
Cherise and Rob playing "get the penny from the toe of the nylons" Rob won.
A couple more awesome oreo pics-- Here's Annette
And Jasper
I think the games were a success! It was super fun. Oh, and "Team Voldemort" won.
On Saturday night we drove back to Salt Lake and Jason got to do yet another fun thing-- go to a closed captioned movie in a movie theater! And not just any movie. Batman! Jason loves going to movies but we haven't been to one forever because he can never hear what anyone's saying. We can't wait till they bring that technology to some closer theaters. Also the movie was really good, it was my fave of all the Dark Knight movies.
That night Jen and Jasper treated us to a night in a lovely hotel right by their house with an exceptional continental breakfast. I think some of the older kids have stayed in hotels before, but none of them remember doing so, so it was very exciting for them. Then on Sunday we drove home!
The end!
3 comments:
I'm so glad that the vacation was successful for you guys! It was awesome having the WHOLE family there. And those games were awesome. But I think Cherise won the nylon one, not Rob.
Good to know Batman was good. I'll have to go see it now.
Oh, how fun! I'm so glad Jason was able to go, and that all of you had a good time. When I talked to my mom the other day, she suggested the possibility of doing a time-share in Bear Lake next summer when we come out. I'll have to pick your brain about how you guys found the mansion, and where we could get one (although we wouldn't need as much room, because there aren't as many of us).
Pics are awesome!!! :) I'm so glad it was a good trip for Jason. Bryce was stoked that he came.
And I adore that pic of Nat. She's so grown up.
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