Cousins

 

The best part of the weekend was seeing cousins and their kids.  I know a lot of second cousins and so do my kids. Covid put a kink in Seth remembering a lot of cousins, but we got a good start again this year.

Seth and Benjamin (Joe's son)

Trevor, Kat, Clare, Maggie, Evelyn, Sam, Braiden, Lance, Levi, Jer, Alaina

The A-frame. These guys are sad that they have to tear it down for dry rot, but they sure put it to good use.

Vivien, Seth and Freya

They were so cute about playing cards together.

Trying to keep in the shade and chat on a stormy day.

Rae and Ada

My mom and dad

All the Renees.... Ellen Renee, Hannah Renee (the original Renee), Thea Renee, Freya Renee

This girl would not go get changed no matter how cold or dark it got.  She kept saying that she was going to go swimming again before changing.

Evelyn, Freya and Seth

Decker, Sam, Lance and Vivien

Thea and Maggie

Sam, Freya, Evelyn, Decker, Braiden, Ada

Rachel and Chad bring up the funnest toys.

Ada, Evelyn and Maggie

King of the Hill paddle board edition

My kids are so lucky.  I'm willing to sometimes swim with my kids, mostly kayak with them.... and Jer with wrestle and play.  They LOVE it and they LOVE him!

Ropes course

 

On day 3 up there, we went to the new ropes course for the first time.  It's only been built for a few years and covid has kept us from trying it for a few years.  It was very reasonably priced compared to other ones that we've tried to do in the past.  The one at Jackson Hole was $240/person.... this one was about $25/person doing the ropes and $8 for the other activities.... $1/ride for the tube run.

Ada got 4 bullseyes, Jer did fairly well, Sam did okay and I missed every single one of the axe throws.  I could hit the target but it was always with the handle.

The tube run was faster than I thought it would be.  It was fun, but I'm not used to doing stuff like that anymore!  I totally felt like I was going to crash.

Seth and Evelyn did a giant trampoline while Jer and the other two did the zipline.

The ropes course was definitely the highlight.  There were 4 levels.  You could pay for two of them or for all four.  Evelyn and Seth tried the lower two and the rest did levels 2 and 3.  Jer wants to try all 4 next time.

Sam, Jer and Ada

August Bear Lake week

 

When we can, we like to go up for the whole Bear Lake week.  It means we can have a couple days to ourselves and see lots of cousins too.  The first couple days up at the lake there were great days and rainy at night so it worked out perfectly. When we pulled up, Jer got started on the tent, I unpacked the food and the kids walked down to the lake and jumped in still wearing all their clothes.  They were able to fit in a few really long games as well as swim, draw and read.  

Jer and I did a mini-prep session with Seth for his baptism.  It's weird to have your youngest getting baptized.  Inevitable I guess, but weird to think that it's the last one.

I joined in to play 7 wonders.

Ada stole my phone and got some gorgeous pictures.  The lake really is very pretty when it's getting stormy.