Destination: Bear Lake for the 4th.... and Longer

We were able to go to this beautiful place:for the 4th of July and beyond. My parents have a condo up there and graciously invite my siblings and I, and our families to come up every year. It is a nice, big resort, and there is a ton to do there. We always have fun and this year was no exception. It was a long trip (8 days) so you can imagine that I have a lot of pictures. We had SO much fun. My kids loved it. We did a ton- just about something different every day. It is so beautiful up there and not to hot- the only drawback of that is that the lake is freezing, but we braved it anyway.

The day after we got there was the fourth. Andy took Jonah to a car show and my mom took the girls mini golfing, so I got to relax. That evening we had a fire and made s'mores and watched the fireworks. It was beautiful. I love America and I'm so grateful to live here.

These are some pics of the car show. Car stuff runs in Andy's blood. His great uncle is Ed "Big Daddy" Roth who created Ratfink (if any of you are familiar with the car world) Andy found a few things he wouldn't mind having ;)

Sunday we went to church and then did bubbles and played some fun games with the kids- Mother May I and also Red Light Green Light. It was hilarious.

Get em Rach!

Red light!

We went to the beach

I love this pic. I think it looks like an ad or a postcard or something.

We played at the playground

We went to the Minnetonka Cave to look around. The wait was over an hour because it was so packed. So we bought a game at the ticketstand and had a fierce Checkers competition :)
Waiting to go in at the mouth of the cave. The kids were so excited to finally go in after waiting so long.

Inside.... it was very dark and my camera isn't great, so you can't really see all of the cool formations behind Andy and Daph.

In the heart of the cave, otherwise known as the Wedding Room We left Bear at the condo with Papa.... we weren't to keen on the idea of having to lug that 30 pound kid up and down 888 steps (the total in the cave)

We went swimming of course
Look at that air!Nice Entrance

My mom brought these giant bubble wands and the kids chased the bubbles around one night.

Boating in freezing Bear Lake!

This is as close as any of the kids came to actually getting in

Andy and I were tougher than that

I LOVE to ski. I think Andy took about 20 pictures of me, but I'll spare you :)

We also played minigolf. It was so funny to watch the kids play. Lay and Jo are actually pretty good. Daph and Bear were just funny to watch.

"Uh-Oh" Bear said when he broke his little putter

We had such a fun trip. We did a lot of other things that I don't have pictures of. I biked a lot. It was beautiful. Andy and I went to a play at the Pickleville Playhouse. It was so much fun and so hilarious- we also had dinner there. It was a blast. We went and got shakes about every other night at LeBeaus (oh so yummy) and we stayed up way to late every night laughing and talking. It was so nice to just relax and sleep in every morning and have nowhere that I had to be. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip- until next year! I love you family.