Bear Lake

Living in Utah, there are certain things you are expected to have seen or done in order to receive your official citizenship. The list includes things like visiting Temple Square, hiking in the mountains, seeing the red rocks of southern Utah, being ripped off at Lagoon, having a Big H at Hires and breaking in the nose plugs at the Great Salt Lake. I have lived here my whole life and I think I have seen a lot. Some of these sightseeing trips nearly cost me my life (Thank you Dad!) However there is one place that has eluded me. The legends are abundant in regards to Bear Lake raspberries. There are festivals specifically designed around them. People drive hours to get them, and to visit the lake. I think I have been there once when I was little, but clearly I remember nothing about it. I had some urban legends floating around in my head that have kept me from going (ie. It has bone chilling water that prevents sane people from swimming, and that it is terribly far drive and with kiddos - this is a big drawback). So when Jesse's old mission companion invited us up for the day with his family, I moaned, and sighed and rolled my eyes. I am an idiot.

This was one of the most relaxing and calmest days I have spent anywhere since having children. The weather was perfect, water was cold, but totally swimmable, and it was beautiful.

I think Samuel spent just as much time chasing the birds as he did swimming.

It was so much fun. I highly recommend going. And you must top of your visit with a raspberry shake. I have no pictures of that, because they were not around long enough to photograph.

Now I just have to talk my deathly afraid of fresh water lakes husband that we need a boat!!!

Play Ball

So I know I have been a blog phantom,. This is due in part the obscene amount of baseball games that we have been attending over the last few months. Jesse loves baseball. But in a good, healthy way - not a sit on the couch eating Cheetos and watching games day and night from March through October and avoiding all human contact kind of way. It is inevitable that our boys will also love the game to some degree. Jesse has coached our boys for four years now, and this year Christian and William were able to play on the same team. William was good enough to skip T-ball this year, and since Jesse was the coach, the league let us move him up.

I don't think they were excited to get their trophies.

Even though he was the youngest on the team, William could really hit! During one game he broke his wood bat in half and got a triple.

Nice form Christian. He never struck out, and was the lead batter.

During the regular season our team was the Cubs. The team improved so much during the year, due in large part to Jesse's amazing patience for kids with the attention span of a flea. Near the end of the season both the boys tried out for the All-Star team and made it. They decided to make three teams and so they asked Jesse to coach one of them. This is where it got a bit crazy. That first week we had practice every morning from 8-10 and then on the weekend they had a least one game a day, but mostly it was double headers. The final tournament ended on July 3rd. There were some great moments and some eye opening ones. Samuel and I had a great time watching all the games and cheering on our boys. Thanks to all our family the came to cheer with us as well.

Adieu until next season.