Beach Babies Strike Again

July was flying by me, and I started to feel like summer was passing me by too quickly! I still had a ton of stuff on my summer "must-do" list. One of the things that was at the top of my list was a trip to Bear Lake, so a couple of weeks ago we packed up the kids and the wave runners and headed up.

My dad's family has had a place up at Bear Lake my whole life. We used to go up all the time when I was a kid, and I remember thinking that it took FOREVER to get to Bear Lake. I thought our kids might be more patient since we have a TV in our car to distract them. WRONG. We had to take a nice long stop in Logan to let them run around for a while.

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We finished the rest of the drive and arrived at Bear Lake around the usual bedtime. Of course we had to get settled in, play with Grandma and Grandpa and Amanda and Matt (my sister and bro-in-law). The kids were so excited that it was around 11 p.m. before they were all finally asleep. Most of the problem was that they (especially Dax) just get way too excited when they get to sleep in the same room as someone else. We tried to put Dax and Arden in a bed and Cora in the pack-n-play in the same room. Arden did a good job of trying to go to sleep, but Dax kept climbing down into the pack-n-play to "Play" with Cora. So we had to send him "Pack" ing to another room until he FINALLY fell asleep, then I relocated his limp drooling sleeping self to a sleeping bag on the floor by the pack-n-play. Silly boy.

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The "adults" went to bed around midnight, and Preston and I got the old sleeper sofa. Something about this sofa made it impossible for Preston to sleep any other way than on his back, and when Preston sleeps on his back....he snores. A lot. So I kick him and tell him to roll over. He obediently rolls over. Then about 2 minutes later her rolls back over on to his back and immediately starts snoring. Repeat. After a few dozen cycles of this, I give up and go to sleep by the kids in the other room. I moved Arden over and climbed into bed, which worked great for about an hour. Then Dax woke up and discovered he was on the floor. No good, he wanted to get in the bed. All the commotion woke up Cora. I relocated Dax to the bed, calmed down Cora, and decided to try the floor myself. After Dax settled down and went back to sleep, he soon started having a bad dream and began whining in his sleep. This woke up Cora again, and she couldn't settle down and kept waking up Dax. Around 5 a.m. I went back to the sleeper sofa with Cora so that at least Arden and Dax could get some sleep. Cora fell asleep between Preston and me. Hooray! Then Preston started snoring again :)

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I was worried that the kids would be too tired to have any fun at the beach, but they did great! They were like energizer bunnies ALL DAY LONG. Cora and Dax usually nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon, but neither of them even thought about it at the beach! They were having too much fun.

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The level of the lake water is high this year, and there was only a thin stretch of beach by Sweetwater. We got there early and got a good spot, but it got pretty crowded by the afternoon. But everyone was having a good time.

Arden really likes to ride the wave runners, and this year she really liked to go FAST!

Preston even took Daxton out for a ride and he seemed to have fun. I had Arden on the other wave runner, and he kept telling Preston, "Chase Mom! Chase Mom!" However, one ride seemed to be enough for him. Every time we asked him if he wanted to go out again, he said no. :) (I didn't know I was only going to get one chance, so I didn't get any pictures of Dax on the wave runners. I only took like 5 pictures the whole day (I am a slacker, sorry) Next time I will do better!) I had to talk Preston out of taking Cora out on the wave runners. Seriously, she is 15 months old!! Does it sound like a good idea to you? Dads.

Dax had a great time playing in the water and the sand and eating the plentiful snacks that were available. We brought his "blankie" to the beach in case he wanted to take a nap. It got juuust a little dirty.

I think I asked him "Where is your smile?" so he had to point to it for me. My poor little albino son got a little bit sunburned on his arms despite the sunscreen. I guess that is why the rest of him is covered. Preston got burned worse and is peeling as we speak.

Cora was running around like crazy all day. Playing with Grandma, splashing in the water, running back and forth, looking at birds and dogs, eating snacks and seashells. Here she is taking a break on Grandma's lap. She talks all day, and in this picture she is saying "HI!" (notice her little hand waving):So, cute! The weather was perfect, and us "grown-ups" had fun taking turns with the wave runners, relaxing (kind of) in the sun or the shade and playing with the kids. Arden liked to make Grandpa pull her around the shallow part of the lake on the wave runner, so she could pretend she was driving it all by herself:After playing all day we finally decided to pack it up around 5 p.m. It took us a while to haul all of our stuff to the cars. We finally strapped the kids in the car for the ride back to the boat ramp, and Dax and Cora were dead asleep before we made it up to the road.

Hopefully we can make at least one more trip before the summer ends!