Bear Lake…before and after The Reunion

This year we had five days with about 35 of the 42 of us at the lake before everyone arrived for the official reunion.  Thanks to Kristi and the other great photographers in our family, we have some memorable moments recorded in photos.

First, there were lots of preparations necessary to get things in place for our grand gathering! One of the most important, of course was blowing up and transporting the GTX aka Big Mama, to the beach!

That crazy thing provided tons of entertainment!

One of the most exciting new things at our gathering this year was our two new babies! We loved getting our two “First-Timers acquainted:

….or not…

Down for the count! They loved each other!

Here’s the future Superman and a tennis star in the making

Proud Daddy with the emerging “delightful personality of the year.” 

And her amazing mom giving her her first taste of writing!

Aja was the “craft master” much to the delight of the little girls! Unfortunately I let them use a pair of scissors. More on that coming later.

Grandfather showed up for horse rides:

And of course there was the ever-popular “Kid Soup”

Cousins rebonded!

Aunts and Nieces matched without planning! 

Dandy Dams were built….hour after hour!

And there were tennis lessons galore

Different groups went on various nights to our favorite melodrama at the Pickleville Playhouse.

Juanito Bandito is definitely our favorite bandit. If laughing is good for you, we all felt better after seeing this guy in his annual production! He’s a genius!

These three boys gave each other their traditional “buzz”. This is half-way through the process:

Our favorite school teacher was there, ready to help!

And there are a lot of kids to help! Bless these moms for shoveling out the food, clearing up a thousand messes and sweeping at least a hundred miles of dirt!

One day we even had a fabulous rain storm! The spunky mom Saydi and Charity (sorry about the flip flop in your face Char) even got out there and got soaked dancing in the rain with the kids.  The boys just wanted to taste it.

The fun and funny moments were endless!  This is just a tiny glimpse of the wildness that went on for three weeks at Bear Lake. The three days and a half days of the actual reunion post is coming next.