Ellis Family: Bear Lake

We love Nebraska! Mostly what made our time there so great was the amazing friends we were able to make there. We were fortunate enough to get together this past weekend with 4 other law school families from Nebraska. There were 11 adults and 12 kids in all. When we moved to Nebraska July 2010, and met everyone, there were 6 kids between the 5 families, and now there are 12! Jase and Dayna were gracious enough to let us use their families cabin in Bear Lake for our get together and we had such a fun weekend!

We left Orem Thursday night and drove to Montpelier to stay the night with Aunt Marian and Uncle Dick. It was so fun to be able to see and visit with Aunt Marian (Uncle Dick ended up being at scout camp), and for the kids to get to play with their cousins, Aiden and Carson. They had a great time jumping on the trampoline, playing video games, and chasing each other. About 11:30 or so on Friday morning, we left for Bear Lake. 3 of the families were already there when we arrived and we spent Friday afternoon looking around, getting settled and visiting. The cabin was absolutely beautiful with a gorgeous view and plenty of room for everyone. We had dinner, put the kids to bed and then played games until 1 am. So, so fun! I can't remember the last time I laughed that much! The next day, Michelle and I went for an early morning run. We had been running buddies in Lincoln, so it was really fun to be able to run with her again. We went to a park for a couple of hours, and then headed over to La Beau's for lunch and Raspberry milkshakes. Being the pigs that we are, we ordered 3 milkshakes for our family of 5. We got back to the tables only to discover that all of the other families had ordered 1 per family to share! We hadn't realized how large they were! I think we were only able to make it through about 1 1/2 of them. After lunch, I had Cassidy drop the kids and I off on the road that led up to the cabin so we could walk a little and look for rocks for an upcoming pinterest project I have been wanting to do. The road was about 1 mile, all uphill. Needless to say, it took quite a bit of time, but we had no where to be, so we just enjoyed it. Parker and Riley both enjoyed rock "hunting" and were very proud of their hard work. When we finally arrived back at the cabin, I took them both over to the hammock to relax. Inside the adults were watching "Invictus", so I caught some of that. Afterwards, we went to the Minnetonka caves. We went on a 90 min. tour inside the caves complete with 888 steps! Unfortunately, I brought the wrong kind of shoes for Riley and ended up having to carry her most of the time and about 20 minutes into the tour, I heard "Mom, I hafta go potty!" Other than that, it was great! We didn't see Parker for most of the time. He was right up front next to the tour guide for the entire tour sharing random family facts with her and keeping her company. After the caves, we went back to the cabin, ate dinner, put the kids to bed and then relaxed in the hot tub. Sunday morning, we enjoyed yummy crepe courtesy of the Gregory's and then got ready for church. We must have set some kind of record for getting that many kids ready for church in that amount of time. They must have all been ready with about 1 1/2 hours to spare! When we walked into church, there were so many people that I thought it must be their Stake Conference. Turns out, it's just summertime in Bear Lake! Cassidy and I had somewhat of a relaxing Sacrament meeting because none of our 3 kids wanted to sit with us! Sorry Burgin's, Johnson's and Gregory's for having to entertain our children along with your own! After church, Cassidy and I were on lunch duty, and then we packed up and cleaned up. We also had a ping pong tournament on Sunday, but didn't get to finish before everyone had to get on the road. It was truly a wonderful weekend and we look forward to many more get togethers!