Bear Lake Birthday {27}
Yep, I'm officially 27, but who cares, and who's counting? That's like almost 30, in 3 years....ahhh. J/k, but I will enjoy my late 20's a bit longer, yay me!
So for my birthday week, I planned a lake extravaganza and it was a BLAST!!!!! Of course, why would it be otherwise? We did many fun things while at Bear Lake, so here are the pics and some suggestions for the travelers out there.
Summers at Bear Lake can be unpredictable. Some years are blistering hot, some years, it's rainy and cold, but there seems to always be a few days in a row for good weather. I would aim for June-August, however, we caught some nice days on the lake in early September last year. My favorite are the mornings, when it's cool and sunny outside. Garden City has this amazing walking/running/biking path, a family pond, a park, cutesy little stores and restaurants, a theater and places to rent equipment. Bring your bikes, roller blades or water toys, or you can rent everything there. We found this place with a giant trampoline on the ground for the kids, and a go-cart race track as well. The town cools off in the evening, which makes for a nice sleep outdoors, if you are camping in one of the two campgrounds around the lake.
While there are several ways to get to Garden City, UT/Bear Lake and/or Laketown - do drive through Cache National Forest/Canyon - it's stunning to look at, if you are not the one driving, that is, and is right alongside Logan River - so, so pretty. Also, stop at the scenic look out just before hitting Garden City.
We wanted to experience the nicer beach on the lake, so we booked at Ideal Beach Resort (Jan. 19th), yes - for real, that early, because a day later and you are out of a hotel room and probably a condo as well. We arrived August 12th, and while booking in January, there was only 1 room left. The awesome thing about staying there is you are right on the beach, so very minimal walking with all your crap. Two, there are lots of accommodations to choose from, from a single hotel room, to a large condo; we got a hotel room with 2 queen beds which fit our family of 4 just right. Three, large grassy area and walking paths, BBQ pits - so plenty of lawn activities you could do. Four, a grocery store right on site for anything you may have forgotten. Also, two pools, bathrooms and showers - all of which you can use even after checking out of the hotel/condo. And my favorite, on-site rentals, but you might want to book those early as well.
On the first day, we wanted to take our kids to an ice cave. While there is also a stunning Minnetonka cave in the area (which we did not attend because of the 100+ steps there and back), we decided on Paris Ice Cave because it was something the kids could handle. Visitors say the ice forms are better in the spring after the snow melts, so there you go. We went in August and only saw small little pieces that were left and the cave was pretty muddy - but, all the more fun!
You drive on this one lane dirt road for a few miles and the scenery is stunning!
Here we go! So you do have to crawl through a small space, and Reesy didn't have very much fun doing it, plus, it's pitch black dark - so you will need a flash light, and good shoes because there are lots of loose and sharp rocks which are ICY cold, but this is just a few minor details. After a couple of feet, the cave opens up to a vaulted space where you can stand up and enjoy the icy cold. Speaking of which, bring a jacket!
Once inside, we found remnants of the ice.
So, we all got super muddy and Reese hit his head, but it was so fun, and totally doable with little kids (maybe not a baby though....)
On the way back from the cave, we stopped for lunch at a cute local place, called Minnetonka cafe, which is also a small little market on the side of the road. Your "faster" food options in the area are all gonna be limited to chicken strips/fries, hamburgers and shakes, nothing wrong with that. However, there are a couple of nicer restaurants if you are looking for something healthier.
Our next adventure happened to be the National Wildlife Refuge, where we had planned to see some cool animals like moose and foxes (?) - wrong time of year; but we did see some birds and stayed hidden in our truck from the many, many, many bees occupying the area. It was a gorgeous drive, which starts on the northern side of the lake, in Paris, Idaho. If you are into bird watching and animal spotting, you better come later in the evening when there is more activity. So we didn't see anything THAT cool because we came in the afternoon, but the scenery was amazing.
After being in the car and climbing through a cave, one kid was wiped out and the other wanted to go to the beach.
You will never get bored of the beauty of Bear Lake. It's so turquoise blue, even though you can't tell from this particular pic...
The next morning, while Reese and I slept in, I sent Kohen off with his Dad to do some kayaking. I judge they had fun at this early morning hour, before all the boats and the noise.
Thursday was our lake day, all day on the beach. While Bear lake can be cold in the mornings, the water heats up by late afternoon and makes for a nice, refreshing swim. Or just don't be a *pansy* and swim all day! We rented some water toys, tried some new things, and gave our kids some new experiences that they will remember, or something like that.
Nonetheless, our boys LOVE the beach. They gravitate to the hot sand and would barbecue in the hot sun if I'd let them. I don't know if it's a boy thing or just a kid thing - but they insist on rolling around and shoving sand in their butt cracks. My personal favorite is when we tell them to go wash off in the lake because we are leaving, and they come out of the water and immediately touch the sand with their hands or lay in it all over again, like (?)....So the "leaving the beach" is a lengthy process in our family, if you can imagine.
Here's our fun in the sun:
I'm buttcrackin'.....
After lunch we took the kids on the SeaDoo, which Reesy hated and begged not to go on again - ha ha ha ha, and the other kid loved going fast! Reese is TERRIFIED of anything that makes noise, so the SeaDoo wasn't a hit with him, and he was terrified of the SUP too, probably, because we've thrown him in the water too many times before. Oh, well!
,
I wanted to see what all the paddle-boarding hype was all about and rented an SUP to see if I'd like it before buying one. Turns out, it's a LOT of fun, and obviously if you get the nicer kind, it's a lot easier to balance on. It really, wasn't hard at all, just takes a little getting used to. So, who knows - maybe we'll have our own in the later future. The thing is, summer is only 2.5 months where we live, so it doesn't quite make sense as an investment right now.....here are some not so hot pictures of us all, trying to balance and paddle at the same time. And, just for the record, never once did I fall off!
Kohen has been a brave little soldier this year, he was up for trying stuff and did pretty well!
After getting fried in the sun, we headed off for some dinner and THE best treat at Bear Lake, raspberry shakes! They are seriously delicious and made with real raspberries. Mmmmm.
On the side note, just for my personal documentation: Kohen FINALLY ate chicken strips! Like, STRIPS! Not nuggets, STRIPS! Yeah, a breakthrough! I've written before about his Extreme Food Selectivity, so in the way of updates, this is a HUGE one, because it's something with protein, that is considered a main meal. I am more surprised at HOW we got him to do that, then the actual fact that he likes chicken....So......all of a sudden, I had this idea that we should cheer for him, like out loud: "go Kohen, go Kohen....you got this", and guess what? He liked that. We kept doing it and he ate his chicken strips. Weird. He did try to manipulate, and did use his defense of asking a million questions over and over and over like (do I have to take a big bite, how about a small one, how about this size, do I have to bite it like this.....), but we moved through that. Again, we cheered and it made him eat. Weird.
Sometimes his issue drives me SOOOO crazy, and it's truly amazing how you CAN'T make a person do something they don't want to do, unless they willingly surrender for one reason or another, which Kohen will NEVER do in a million years when it comes to food. Ha, never say never - but seriously, his mind is SO stuck in this food rut that we CAN'T do anything, unless he makes a choice to eat. So, as a parent, you quickly learn to keep your mouth shut and pick your battles. Anything you say or do will be used against you in the court of "you're wasting your energy". Sometimes this wave of wanting to know "why?" hits, but unfortunately there isn't a satisfying answer.
We've talked about his deal before, and he informed me that as far as he can tell, he's afraid to try new food, but his 5 year old self, can't really explain what he thinks the food will do to him if he puts it in his mouth. We've talked about him spitting it out if he doesn't like it, and chewing and swallowing if it's something he does like. We've talked about him not being afraid, because food can't hurt you at the tip of your tongue, like maybe the equivalent of a monster grabbing you by the waist.
Unfortunately, he's learned this behavior that if he tries a mouse bite of something new (even when we can see that he didn't taste it), he spits it out with a negative comment of "eww". Although, it isn't so, and we know he didn't taste it - he thinks he tried it and that's his auto-response. Also, a hard habit to break.
So, why put in all this effort when he could just eat the food he already likes, since he is gaining weight and growing like a weed, even on a limited diet....? I think it's just the parent in you that needs to do what you think is best for your child. I think the inability to eat from a selective menu causes troubles in social situations, and also, isn't overall a healthy thing for your body. An unhealthy body is limited in activities it can do, in the quality of life it can live, and even in the length of its stay here on the Earth. Habits in adult life are hard to break, and I feel it's our job to teach our children that Heavenly Father meant for us to live a beautiful life, and to take advantage of every opportunity we can, but you can't do that when you limit yourself by your own choices, which is really, all it is, for Kohen.
I'm not trying to complain, just mostly posting our experiences for those who may have this problem, because it's not a very black and white issue, and not much is available online. We are still looking around for a psychologist specializing in non-textural food issues around the SLC area, but mostly I've found anorexia specialists for adults. So it's a little closer and I am sure if I could narrow a couple down, they may give some good ideas or may even do some work with Kohen. We shall see.
Anyway, sorry for the break in our fun lake week, but we ARE happy that Kohen will eat chicken strips, oh and.....cereal WITH milk in his bowl! Now, let's get back to Bear Lake fun!
Friday was another lake day! We checked out of the hotel, but were still able to use the facilities, which is oh so kind of Ideal Beach Resort. We BBQ'd some hot dogs and veggie burgers on the lawn and had a swell time on the beach.
I got my man to play checkers with me, and he won. So that sucked, but I appreciate his willingness...
Isn't he a heart-breaker?
Kohen is apparently into kayaking now, and paddle boarding. He had so much fun and was actually kinda good at it. Maybe we have a future paddle boarding champion on our hands.
After cooking in the sun some more, it was time to check out Garden City's best and only theater, Pickleville Playhouse! We thought the boys would be entertained by the musical, and we were right! They had a good time, and the BBQ they had was my most favorite meal of the week!
We saw a play called "The Drowsy Chaperone". It was THE perfect entertainment, and I think if your small child has any sort of an attention span, you are fine to bring them to enjoy. The guy who narrates the play is hilarious, the actors are priceless, there are a few dirty jokes, lots of incredible voices and dancing and basically, good family fun!
Later that night, when it was aaaaall pitch black dark around the lake......we camped! Sorta. A campground is never my first choice, not a huge lover of camping, go figure. I made this dumb mistake of thinking we were only going to stay for 2 nights, but when I got more time off work, it was too late to extend our stay at the hotel, and there weren't any other rooms for miles around. I settled for this lovely spot on the campground, east side of the lake.
Of course, we didn't have time to set up the tent before the play, so we did it after. We used our giant truck as a light source, and also as a movie theater for Reese, and a bed for Kohen because he fell asleep on the drive around the lake. Picture this: all of our crap in garbage bags due to unpredictable weather and the fact that we don't have a tonneu cover; in the back of the truck, it's about 10 pm, most everyone else's lights are out, bugs are having a frenzy inside the truck and I'm in a dress, climbing up and down and sorting through our things to find what we need, Tony setting up the tent for the boys (because come on, we weren't gonna sleep in the stinky thing), and we can't actually hear each other because of the wind. It was grand ole time.
Once we positioned the boys in the tent with their sleeping bags and they were both out, we still had to dig through more crap to find clothes and toiletries for ourselves. Then, we realized that the wind was so strong that it was almost blowing our boys away. It was almost a scene from UP! Just kidding, but it was disturbing enough, that our solution was to back the truck up to the tent, to shield the boys from the wind. Yes, I was standing behind the truck so Tony didn't run over the kids....
Taken in the morning.....
I had this great idea of sleeping in the back of the truck. The stars were out to greet us, it was peaceful and quiet, a perfect night for star-gazing with your loved one. Now, you can probably guess, that's not exactly the way it went. First, we had to throw everything from the back inside the truck, then, arrange ourselves on an angled truck bed, with not nearly enough blankets, and then, try to fall asleep because we had somewhere to be in the morning, knowing the clean up was going to be oh so fun. Ok, so the stars were pretty. However, we were exhausted from the lake and the sun and the yummy food they served before the play, so we checked the weather on our phones, one last time, and still being unsure of what the weather was actually going to do, we fell asleep.
Next thing we know, drop, drop, drop.......drop, drop...right on our faces and then BOOM, thunder, lightning!!!!!! Long story short; by the time we got up out of the bed of the truck, ourselves and our blankets were soaking wet and because the truck was full of stuff, we had no choice but to cuddle up with our lovely boys, who didn't even twitch an eye. Well, it's a 4 person tent, so there IS no extra room, the sides of the tent were wet and so were we. It wasn't particularly cold outside, but if you've ever tried to sleep in a tent while it's raining, and you're soaking wet, it's not the most ideal of conditions.
By the time 6 o'clock rolled around, I couldn't stand the smell of the tent anymore, not that we were stinky, it's just that "being in a tent all night" smell, ya know....So the skies cleared up, the view was actually pretty, the boys slept all night and were still dreaming, and we got a visit from a bunny.
It was nice of the boys to let us clean up in peace, and so we did. We woke them up just in time to see the bunny and to put our tent away, which was mostly soaking wet, still, and they hadn't even noticed. Ha, lucky sleeping genes!
The next morning, queen Alli had plans, as my husband knows, it's inevitable. It worked out well though, because we had no food left and I wasn't about to spend my morning sitting on wet blankets, watching people sleep at the campsite. We rented my first motorized scooter. Ooooooh, time of my life. Kidding, but it was fun.
Would you believe that those things are actually harder to drive than they look? So maybe I'm retarded, yes, I am. But seriously, the gas handle like turns the opposite direction and you have to learn how to let go of that before you squeeze on the break, because doing both at the same time is SCARY, but why would you do that anyway except if you're retarded, like me. It's like you know when you have a brain fart and you can't control what you're doing.....luckily, I didn't crash, and......my top speed was 25 miles an hour!
The thing doesn't balance until you give it some gas, so starting on it for the very, very first time is totally like learning to ride a bike. I was like "how am I going to get off this gravel and onto the road? I can't even sit on this thing!" I drove around on the smaller side streets of Garden City and Tony followed me around in the truck with flashers on. We were like this little caravan of idiots, it was SO funny! I was just trying to stay out of everyone's way and Tony was bored to tears, I'm sure, except for laughing at me.
I gave it a go, it was great. I cut my rent time short though because I was truly getting bored myself, and I never mastered the scooter well enough to turn while going over 15 mph, so it wasn't worth my effort to drive around on the highway. Instead, we went out to hot breakfast at the Bear Trapper Steakhouse. It was like a glorified Denny's, but we were so hungry and the food was Heavenly! See?
After breakfast we had our last hoorah at the lake, which concluded my birthday trip! We came home smelly, sunburned and covered in sand, but very glad to sleep in our tempurpedic, thank goodness!
Thank you for all the fun, Garden City, and a generous thank you from the bottom of my heart to my one and only, who puts up with all my fun adventures, that he willingly participates in and then likes (smirk, smirk).
So for my birthday week, I planned a lake extravaganza and it was a BLAST!!!!! Of course, why would it be otherwise? We did many fun things while at Bear Lake, so here are the pics and some suggestions for the travelers out there.
Summers at Bear Lake can be unpredictable. Some years are blistering hot, some years, it's rainy and cold, but there seems to always be a few days in a row for good weather. I would aim for June-August, however, we caught some nice days on the lake in early September last year. My favorite are the mornings, when it's cool and sunny outside. Garden City has this amazing walking/running/biking path, a family pond, a park, cutesy little stores and restaurants, a theater and places to rent equipment. Bring your bikes, roller blades or water toys, or you can rent everything there. We found this place with a giant trampoline on the ground for the kids, and a go-cart race track as well. The town cools off in the evening, which makes for a nice sleep outdoors, if you are camping in one of the two campgrounds around the lake.
While there are several ways to get to Garden City, UT/Bear Lake and/or Laketown - do drive through Cache National Forest/Canyon - it's stunning to look at, if you are not the one driving, that is, and is right alongside Logan River - so, so pretty. Also, stop at the scenic look out just before hitting Garden City.
We wanted to experience the nicer beach on the lake, so we booked at Ideal Beach Resort (Jan. 19th), yes - for real, that early, because a day later and you are out of a hotel room and probably a condo as well. We arrived August 12th, and while booking in January, there was only 1 room left. The awesome thing about staying there is you are right on the beach, so very minimal walking with all your crap. Two, there are lots of accommodations to choose from, from a single hotel room, to a large condo; we got a hotel room with 2 queen beds which fit our family of 4 just right. Three, large grassy area and walking paths, BBQ pits - so plenty of lawn activities you could do. Four, a grocery store right on site for anything you may have forgotten. Also, two pools, bathrooms and showers - all of which you can use even after checking out of the hotel/condo. And my favorite, on-site rentals, but you might want to book those early as well.
On the first day, we wanted to take our kids to an ice cave. While there is also a stunning Minnetonka cave in the area (which we did not attend because of the 100+ steps there and back), we decided on Paris Ice Cave because it was something the kids could handle. Visitors say the ice forms are better in the spring after the snow melts, so there you go. We went in August and only saw small little pieces that were left and the cave was pretty muddy - but, all the more fun!
On the way back from the cave, we stopped for lunch at a cute local place, called Minnetonka cafe, which is also a small little market on the side of the road. Your "faster" food options in the area are all gonna be limited to chicken strips/fries, hamburgers and shakes, nothing wrong with that. However, there are a couple of nicer restaurants if you are looking for something healthier.
Our next adventure happened to be the National Wildlife Refuge, where we had planned to see some cool animals like moose and foxes (?) - wrong time of year; but we did see some birds and stayed hidden in our truck from the many, many, many bees occupying the area. It was a gorgeous drive, which starts on the northern side of the lake, in Paris, Idaho. If you are into bird watching and animal spotting, you better come later in the evening when there is more activity. So we didn't see anything THAT cool because we came in the afternoon, but the scenery was amazing.
After being in the car and climbing through a cave, one kid was wiped out and the other wanted to go to the beach.
The next morning, while Reese and I slept in, I sent Kohen off with his Dad to do some kayaking. I judge they had fun at this early morning hour, before all the boats and the noise.
Thursday was our lake day, all day on the beach. While Bear lake can be cold in the mornings, the water heats up by late afternoon and makes for a nice, refreshing swim. Or just don't be a *pansy* and swim all day! We rented some water toys, tried some new things, and gave our kids some new experiences that they will remember, or something like that.
Nonetheless, our boys LOVE the beach. They gravitate to the hot sand and would barbecue in the hot sun if I'd let them. I don't know if it's a boy thing or just a kid thing - but they insist on rolling around and shoving sand in their butt cracks. My personal favorite is when we tell them to go wash off in the lake because we are leaving, and they come out of the water and immediately touch the sand with their hands or lay in it all over again, like (?)....So the "leaving the beach" is a lengthy process in our family, if you can imagine.
Here's our fun in the sun:
After lunch we took the kids on the SeaDoo, which Reesy hated and begged not to go on again - ha ha ha ha, and the other kid loved going fast! Reese is TERRIFIED of anything that makes noise, so the SeaDoo wasn't a hit with him, and he was terrified of the SUP too, probably, because we've thrown him in the water too many times before. Oh, well!
,
I wanted to see what all the paddle-boarding hype was all about and rented an SUP to see if I'd like it before buying one. Turns out, it's a LOT of fun, and obviously if you get the nicer kind, it's a lot easier to balance on. It really, wasn't hard at all, just takes a little getting used to. So, who knows - maybe we'll have our own in the later future. The thing is, summer is only 2.5 months where we live, so it doesn't quite make sense as an investment right now.....here are some not so hot pictures of us all, trying to balance and paddle at the same time. And, just for the record, never once did I fall off!
After getting fried in the sun, we headed off for some dinner and THE best treat at Bear Lake, raspberry shakes! They are seriously delicious and made with real raspberries. Mmmmm.
Sometimes his issue drives me SOOOO crazy, and it's truly amazing how you CAN'T make a person do something they don't want to do, unless they willingly surrender for one reason or another, which Kohen will NEVER do in a million years when it comes to food. Ha, never say never - but seriously, his mind is SO stuck in this food rut that we CAN'T do anything, unless he makes a choice to eat. So, as a parent, you quickly learn to keep your mouth shut and pick your battles. Anything you say or do will be used against you in the court of "you're wasting your energy". Sometimes this wave of wanting to know "why?" hits, but unfortunately there isn't a satisfying answer.
We've talked about his deal before, and he informed me that as far as he can tell, he's afraid to try new food, but his 5 year old self, can't really explain what he thinks the food will do to him if he puts it in his mouth. We've talked about him spitting it out if he doesn't like it, and chewing and swallowing if it's something he does like. We've talked about him not being afraid, because food can't hurt you at the tip of your tongue, like maybe the equivalent of a monster grabbing you by the waist.
Unfortunately, he's learned this behavior that if he tries a mouse bite of something new (even when we can see that he didn't taste it), he spits it out with a negative comment of "eww". Although, it isn't so, and we know he didn't taste it - he thinks he tried it and that's his auto-response. Also, a hard habit to break.
So, why put in all this effort when he could just eat the food he already likes, since he is gaining weight and growing like a weed, even on a limited diet....? I think it's just the parent in you that needs to do what you think is best for your child. I think the inability to eat from a selective menu causes troubles in social situations, and also, isn't overall a healthy thing for your body. An unhealthy body is limited in activities it can do, in the quality of life it can live, and even in the length of its stay here on the Earth. Habits in adult life are hard to break, and I feel it's our job to teach our children that Heavenly Father meant for us to live a beautiful life, and to take advantage of every opportunity we can, but you can't do that when you limit yourself by your own choices, which is really, all it is, for Kohen.
I'm not trying to complain, just mostly posting our experiences for those who may have this problem, because it's not a very black and white issue, and not much is available online. We are still looking around for a psychologist specializing in non-textural food issues around the SLC area, but mostly I've found anorexia specialists for adults. So it's a little closer and I am sure if I could narrow a couple down, they may give some good ideas or may even do some work with Kohen. We shall see.
Anyway, sorry for the break in our fun lake week, but we ARE happy that Kohen will eat chicken strips, oh and.....cereal WITH milk in his bowl! Now, let's get back to Bear Lake fun!
Friday was another lake day! We checked out of the hotel, but were still able to use the facilities, which is oh so kind of Ideal Beach Resort. We BBQ'd some hot dogs and veggie burgers on the lawn and had a swell time on the beach.
After cooking in the sun some more, it was time to check out Garden City's best and only theater, Pickleville Playhouse! We thought the boys would be entertained by the musical, and we were right! They had a good time, and the BBQ they had was my most favorite meal of the week!
Later that night, when it was aaaaall pitch black dark around the lake......we camped! Sorta. A campground is never my first choice, not a huge lover of camping, go figure. I made this dumb mistake of thinking we were only going to stay for 2 nights, but when I got more time off work, it was too late to extend our stay at the hotel, and there weren't any other rooms for miles around. I settled for this lovely spot on the campground, east side of the lake.
Of course, we didn't have time to set up the tent before the play, so we did it after. We used our giant truck as a light source, and also as a movie theater for Reese, and a bed for Kohen because he fell asleep on the drive around the lake. Picture this: all of our crap in garbage bags due to unpredictable weather and the fact that we don't have a tonneu cover; in the back of the truck, it's about 10 pm, most everyone else's lights are out, bugs are having a frenzy inside the truck and I'm in a dress, climbing up and down and sorting through our things to find what we need, Tony setting up the tent for the boys (because come on, we weren't gonna sleep in the stinky thing), and we can't actually hear each other because of the wind. It was grand ole time.
Once we positioned the boys in the tent with their sleeping bags and they were both out, we still had to dig through more crap to find clothes and toiletries for ourselves. Then, we realized that the wind was so strong that it was almost blowing our boys away. It was almost a scene from UP! Just kidding, but it was disturbing enough, that our solution was to back the truck up to the tent, to shield the boys from the wind. Yes, I was standing behind the truck so Tony didn't run over the kids....
I had this great idea of sleeping in the back of the truck. The stars were out to greet us, it was peaceful and quiet, a perfect night for star-gazing with your loved one. Now, you can probably guess, that's not exactly the way it went. First, we had to throw everything from the back inside the truck, then, arrange ourselves on an angled truck bed, with not nearly enough blankets, and then, try to fall asleep because we had somewhere to be in the morning, knowing the clean up was going to be oh so fun. Ok, so the stars were pretty. However, we were exhausted from the lake and the sun and the yummy food they served before the play, so we checked the weather on our phones, one last time, and still being unsure of what the weather was actually going to do, we fell asleep.
Next thing we know, drop, drop, drop.......drop, drop...right on our faces and then BOOM, thunder, lightning!!!!!! Long story short; by the time we got up out of the bed of the truck, ourselves and our blankets were soaking wet and because the truck was full of stuff, we had no choice but to cuddle up with our lovely boys, who didn't even twitch an eye. Well, it's a 4 person tent, so there IS no extra room, the sides of the tent were wet and so were we. It wasn't particularly cold outside, but if you've ever tried to sleep in a tent while it's raining, and you're soaking wet, it's not the most ideal of conditions.
By the time 6 o'clock rolled around, I couldn't stand the smell of the tent anymore, not that we were stinky, it's just that "being in a tent all night" smell, ya know....So the skies cleared up, the view was actually pretty, the boys slept all night and were still dreaming, and we got a visit from a bunny.
The next morning, queen Alli had plans, as my husband knows, it's inevitable. It worked out well though, because we had no food left and I wasn't about to spend my morning sitting on wet blankets, watching people sleep at the campsite. We rented my first motorized scooter. Ooooooh, time of my life. Kidding, but it was fun.
The thing doesn't balance until you give it some gas, so starting on it for the very, very first time is totally like learning to ride a bike. I was like "how am I going to get off this gravel and onto the road? I can't even sit on this thing!" I drove around on the smaller side streets of Garden City and Tony followed me around in the truck with flashers on. We were like this little caravan of idiots, it was SO funny! I was just trying to stay out of everyone's way and Tony was bored to tears, I'm sure, except for laughing at me.
I gave it a go, it was great. I cut my rent time short though because I was truly getting bored myself, and I never mastered the scooter well enough to turn while going over 15 mph, so it wasn't worth my effort to drive around on the highway. Instead, we went out to hot breakfast at the Bear Trapper Steakhouse. It was like a glorified Denny's, but we were so hungry and the food was Heavenly! See?
After breakfast we had our last hoorah at the lake, which concluded my birthday trip! We came home smelly, sunburned and covered in sand, but very glad to sleep in our tempurpedic, thank goodness!
Thank you for all the fun, Garden City, and a generous thank you from the bottom of my heart to my one and only, who puts up with all my fun adventures, that he willingly participates in and then likes (smirk, smirk).