Bear Lake 2014

We had another wonderful Rowley reunion at Bear Lake!  The far-away families even came!  So every family was there for at least part of it.  This year the reunion was FIVE whole days!  I absolutely loved having it that long. I never thought much about what day it was or how much time was left.  It was so relaxing!  And it was long enough that I was really able to forget about all the stressful stuff waiting for me at home.

We stayed at the same house we've stayed at twice before.  It's such a great place!  We saw this moose the first day (this pic was taken from the next-door neighbor's yard-- there's a golf course just to the left of this pic and the kids said they saw the moose chasing some golfers later in the day!

Another nice thing about staying so long was that we

 had the energy for two beach trips.  The first one was the funnest.  It's so fun to be there all together.  I love being with my family!

We found a great beach spot.  The water was shallow waaaaaay out there, it was so fun.

Missy made a sand couch.

Lots of the family worked together on this ginormous sand castle!

Later Missy made a mermaid tail for Lessi.  See how long it is?

Josh likes digging and playing in the sand, he wasn't really interested in going in the water.

Look how grown-up Natalie's looking.  Sheesh.  On our way home I was saying that at the next reunion in 2 years we'll have a lot of teenagers!  And Nat noted that she will be almost EIGHTEEN!  Yikes!

Jess spent all her time with the giant castle builders!

One night we had the usual backyard talent show, followed by a sweet dance party!

I loved playing games with all the adults after the kids were in bed in the evenings.  I learned a new card game called Nerts that I am TERRIBLE at, and we also spent a LOT of time playing psychiatrist!  That's a new family favorite for sure.

Our second beach trip was shorter, and our spot wasn't quite as great, but the kids were excited to have some more beach fun!

The water was super warm.  This was Manda's shell collecting method.

Missy built a castle this time.

We stayed through Sunday so we got to have the fun experience of going to church in Garden City!  It's so funny, it's a tiny town with what I assume is a small-to-regular size ward, but with all the tourists there it turns into a stake conference sized meeting every week in the summer!  I loved that the ward was so welcoming and willing to put up with all us extras.  I also loved the experience of being a tourist in a Utah town where most of the other tourists are mormon too!  It was a very zion-ish feeling.

After church we took quick pics of the grandkids-- this is all 25 of them!

I am so thankful for my wonderful family!