16 August 2015

Brandan took Abe, Sofi and Gibson to an outdoor concert.  They sat next to our friends and neighbors who took this photo.

Brandan's family gets together every other year for a family reunion.  We planned a year ago to spend a few days at Bear Lake in Utah.  Even a month ago, we expected Linda would be able to come to the reunion.  It was much easier to say goodbye to family after her funeral knowing we would be together again very soon for precious family time.  Our family drove through Twin Falls to get to Bear Lake.  We ate lunch at Shoshone Falls, also known in Twin Falls advertising brochures as "the Niagara Falls of the West". We're going to start calling Niagara Falls "the Shoshone Falls of the East." 

Bear Lake is great fun to play in-- shallow and warm with sandy beaches.  

 The weather was fickle the 2 days we went to the lake.  Sometimes it was chilly, sometimes sunny and bright-- we just needed to wait half an hour and the weather would change.  This is a photo of Jonny and Becky trying to stay warm.

 This is Niko digging in the sand.

 Gibson and Emma built a hot tub in the sand.

We rented a house with 7 bedrooms in the hills above Bear Lake.  Sofi, Abe and Parker slept on chaises on the deck.  This is a photo of Sofi, Kaylee, Sasha, Helen and Logan hanging out on the deck.

One night we hiked up through the neighborhood.  Sutton, Salem and Helen liked to stay in front of everyone else.

Parker and Logan brought the game "Dominion" and taught our kids how to play.

Everyone shared meal preparation and we ate very well.  Brandan and Becky made crepes one morning for breakfast.  Here are Gibson, Dallin and Salem filling their crepes with delicious toppings.

 Brandan asked everyone to send him the name of their favorite song of the year.  He created a playlist of the songs and we played "The Song Game" Monday night.  It might need a better name.  Everyone got a glow stick.  Brandan played each song and we tried to guess who had selected the song.  After we had a chance to guess, the person who chose the song would break their glowstick to reveal their identity.  Sofi, Abe and Parker are sitting behind Brandan.  

 Sofi loved EVERY SINGLE SONG Brandan played, so it was hard to guess which song was hers.  Here she is breaking her glowstick for her real choice, "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.  Favorite song of the year was a flexible guideline.

The Song Game was super fun and a great way to bring everyone together.  It turned out to be part game show, part karaoke and part dance party.  Here's a photo of Gib dancing to his favorite song, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams.

 Here's Sofi and Helen.

 Popsicles taste better when you're wearing glowsticks!  This is Emma.

 Here are Sasha and Kaylee.

 Here are Zoey and Xander.  By the end of the night, Xander had constructed an entire superhero costume out of glowsticks.

On Tuesday we hiked the Limber Pine trail near Bear Lake.  This is a photo of all the girl cousins.  Back row: Helen and Salem.  Middle row: Sutton, Maddie and Sofi.  Front row: Sasha, Kaylee, Emma and Zoey.

 Here are Abe, Sofi and Parker.  Parker was trying to wear a man bun.

 This fallen tree was irresistible to climb on.  This is Salem, Sutton, Sasha, Kaylee, Helen and Gibson.

 The front of the fallen tree looked like a face.  Maybe this is the fossil of the mythical Bear Lake monster?

 All of Brandan's siblings and many of the cousins love to play soccer.  Here are Dan, Jaxson, Nate, Becky, Brandan and Maddie.  You can tell the siblings are getting older because when the game ended, instead of talking about the goals they scored, they compared injuries.

 Here are Brandan and Parker. 

If they pulled their knees up high, the brothers could ride the merry-go-round at the park.  Clockwise from Brandan (in the blue shorts) are Wade, Nate, Aaron, Drue and Jonny.