Pre-Back-To-School Frenzy

Well, folks, we are getting down to it.  T-minus one week until school starts around here.  So are we spending our days sharpening our pencils or shopping for clothes?  Nope.  We are trying to squeeze the last little yummy juicy drops from summer.  We went to Bear Lake last weekend with my family (well, some of them).  The drive up on Friday night was long, and was made a little longer because Cora had to stop to go to the bathroom 4 times.  Oh well.  She is very small, she must have a very small bladder.  We eventually made it to La Beaus in time for dinner and I got my mandatory Bear Lake Raspberry shake checked off my summer must-do list.  Hooray!

 

The next morning we headed off to go waverunning.  The lake is all filled up and it is much harder to find some sandy beach to sit on than it was a couple of years ago.  We had to drive all the way to Idaho to the north shore, but we found ourselves a sandy beach.  And obviously, there is not much we like more than to frolic on a sandy beach in the sunshine.  Here is Cora, mid-frolic:

 

 



Cora was VERY excited to get out on a waverunner, and she is an official fan now.  The water was pretty smooth (well, until the usual afternoon wind kicked up), and she loved going fast!  Well, fast-ish.  She was giggling and squealing the whole time.  I even let her choose which way we went, and she loved feeling like she was driving.

Arden likes to show off her supermodely-ness.  Watch out boys!  (Seriously, watch out.  I know you are coming in the not-too-distant future and I am NOT looking forward to it.) 

Watching my Arden run around, I kept singing to myself..."Blonde hair blowin' in the summer wind / A blue-eyed girl playin' in the sand" (is anyone else loving that new Killers song?)

 

Dax spent most of his day running and splashing, but found some time for panning for seashells. 

 Dax (of course) wanted to go on the waverunner with Grandpa.  He is getting a little better, but still is not as big of a fan of going fast as the girls are. 

 Arden went out with Preston first and he let her "drive" too.  She loved it.  She is officially a speed demon. (check me out pushing them out to deeper water...this is not the part where they went fast).

After we had our fill of sun and sand and splashing, we headed back for some yummy chicken burritos courtesy of my sister Amanda.  Cora learned a lot on this trip.  I showed her how ice cube trays work (she had never seen one before), and she also learned about how to wash dishes without a dishwasher:

She loved it.  I think she mostly just liked hanging out with her grandpa.

Cora WOULD NOT go to sleep that night.  I think it was about 10:30 before she finally held still long enough to zonk out.  Unfortunately, she woke up at 7:00 a.m. and was G-R-O-U-C-H-Y.  She asked for a drink of water and Arden jumped up and got one for her.  She started to have a tantrum because she wanted ME to get the drink for her, NOT ARDEN (which has got to go down in history as one of the dumbest things to throw a tantrum about...EVER).  She totally lost her mind.  I had to take her out to the car and close the doors because I was afraid she was waking up the neighbors, it was THAT serious.  She eventually calmed down, and we headed to the pool. 

I got too busy swimming to actually take any pictures.  Arden is an awesome swimmer now and loved diving for Preston's waterproof watch, and playing keep away with Grandma and Amanda.  Dax just followed Grandpa around and pretended to be a shark.  Cora wanted her floaters OFF and swam back and forth between people for a long time.  The only way she can swim anywhere is with her face in the water and her whole body about half an inch below the surface.  She just kind of wiggles her way over to where she is trying to go.  When she got too tired of that, she held on to my shoulders and made me swim her around.  We would dive down under the water and then come up.  My mom told me that every time we went under the water her eyes were wide open and she was smiling hugely.  Little fish.

Soon we had to head back for lunch and then head home.  Cora of course, fell asleep in the car.  More adventures to come...