We went to Bear Lake last Thursday (7/19) with my family and it was so much fun, we didn't want to come home! My mom and dad rented a big house in Garden City which is right off of the lake and we all stayed there together for 2 nights. We were all there with the exception of my brother Rob and his family. We sure did miss them, but it was fun to be there with everybody else that were able to go.
Steve had never been to Bear Lake before and he was amazed at how big the lake was!
We had to stop at the top of the mountain as soon as we got into the Bear Lake valley and get a picture because my dad just can't stand to miss the chance to stop at every single historical marker. ha!
Mum and Dad
The view from the house we stayed it. It was beautiful!
Steve and I drove up with my mom and dad on Thursday morning and we got there a little bit before everybody else, so we headed out to find some ancestors' graves. Both of my mom's parents have ancestors who settled near Bear Lake and she has been doing lots of family history work lately and learning all about them so we wanted to find their old homes, and their graves. My 4th great grandfather John Stock, helped settle the little town of Fish Haven which is just north of Garden City. We found his grave as well as lots of other ancestors' graves in the Fish Haven Cemetery.
My 4th great grandfather's headstone.
We also found my 4th great grandmother's grave in the little town of Paris Idaho which is just a little farther north up the road from Fish Haven. They had 11 children together! Crazy huh?!
One of their children was Mary Ann Stock who married William Stokes who are my great, great, great, grandparents. She was buried next to her mother in the Paris Cemetery as well.
When we were done seeing the graves, we headed over to the Paris Tabernacle to go on a free tour, because my dad just can't stand to pass up a free tour either! haha I'm glad we did though, because the tabernacle was beautiful!
It amazes me that the pioneers could do such remarkable work without power tools! I mean, it really is amazing that they put so much hard work and dedication into these old buildings.
We also found John Stock's old house in Fish Haven when we were driving through town on our way back to Garden City.
We headed back to the house to meet up with my siblings and their families. That night we had dinner and played wiffle ball with all of the kids and we even got all of the big kids (my older brothers) to play too:) Friday morning we got up early and headed to the Minnetonka Cave to go on a tour.
My brother-in-law Eric, Steve, and my brother Ruston waiting for the tour to start.
There were squirrels all over the place and they would come right up to the kids' and eat right out of their hands!
My nieces and nephews feeding the squirrels.
It was only 40 degrees inside the cave. Good thing there were 888 stairs we had to climb throughout the cave so we didn't freeze to death!
Lots of cool rock formations inside of the cave.
The tour guide called this the "Stairway to Heaven". My dad and brothers may or may not have about had heart attacks while climbing all of these stairs! haha
After our tour of the cave, we headed to the lake for the rest of the afternoon.
We rented a paddle boat and some wave runners and we all had a blast! We got everybody on the wave runners, even Heidi and Ruston! This was a BIG DEAL because my brother and sister are scared to death of the water! Seriously, they won't even get in the lake with life jackets on! Had their wave runner tipped over, they probably both would have cried like little babies! haha
Mum and me on the paddle boat:)
Eric, Steve, and Ty
Rusty and cute little Haven. I sure did love playing with her all weekend:)
Cute little Alli
My nieces and nephews playing in the sand:)
I wish we all could have stayed for a few more days and hung out together. I seriously just love my family SO MUCH. We always have so much fun when we are all together. Thanks for the fun everybody. Let's do it again next summer!
It's Havyn! haha!
ReplyDelete