Bear Lake - Day on the Water and Family History

We are back at Garden City at the end of another beautiful day at Bear Lake. My favorite part was taking Owen and Daniel out on the jet ski.

Super cute little kids.

They were giggling and were sitting on the jet ski behind me, holding on to me and each other. I tried to obey what they said but it was a little hard with the wind in our faces and blowing in my ears. Daniel is a little thrill seeker so I wasn't surprised that he loved it, but I must say I was impressed with how brave Owen was being. I kept hearing him shout "I want to go fast!" and I'd try to go a little fast, then he's shout again "I want to go fast!!" "I am going fast!" "I want to go fast!!" Sheesh Owen! How fast do you think is safe for toddlers to go?!? I'm doing the best I can! Buuut I found out when we were coming back to shore that he was actually saying "I want to go BACK..." Doh! Sorry Owen! He wanted to go back and I kept speeding ahead! Poor kid, I hope I didn't scar him. Safely back at the beach -

Having fun with the family reunion sand castle builders on the beach next to us. We kinda invited ourselves to join in on their castle building and frog catching. The grandpa there had a big beach bag of supplies and built a new sand castle every day. Mel and I decided it is a tradition we should have for our future family reunions.

Taking Peter and Owen out on the paddle boat -

Back in the shade for nap time.

I was able to smoothly transfer him onto a towel, yay, I have some freedom of mobility

Sweet sand baby.

And we just sat around watching kids play all day.

I dare say it was as nice as a day at the beach in Costa Rica. Earlier in the day, after Wes and I got back to the beach from a jet ski ride, Wesley took two of his younger cousins out on the ski. He knew that there had to be an adult on the jet ski, and him being 15 years old... that doesn't qualify. I'm to blame since I think I said ok, but I also am going to say that I didn't entirely understand the rules of the rental. Wesley knew though, and felt bad for betraying his aunt and uncle's good faith. He grounded himself.

He was very repentant. It's hard to be angry when someone is so sorry. He felt a little sick in his stomach and guilty and stayed in the shade for a while until he worked through him emotions.

Peter and I kept him company during Peter's first nap of the day.

One fun thing from today - my little brother Neil took me up on my invitation to join us! He and his family came up a little after lunch and spent the afternoon. Neil took Daniel and his daughter out.

Daniel went out on the jet ski every chance he could.

The ride is over, but Daniel's not getting off.

Yay, Nancy and Jordyn said he could tag along with them. He is a convenient size to be a third wheel. Owen stayed safe in the paddles boats or on the beach.

Wesley out on the water after he finally forgave himself for his disobedience.

Natalie and cousin Lucy had fun trying to stay afloat on a pool mat thingy.

I took several rounds of kids out on the jet ski. After I returned, Peter was ready for his mom again and had been missing me.

He got so messy from the dirty sand sticking to the sunblock on his face.

I walked around in the shallow water holding Peter while the boys played a game where they would give Peter a ball, Peter would throw it if he liked the person asking him to toss it back (usually Wes) and then they'd wrestle each other trying to get the ball to give it to Peter again.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. This was a fun game for the teens. Neil's kids played along here, and it was fun that they came cause they live in Layton where Mark lives, and the boys all know each other, so it was good.

Owen finally down for a nap around 5pm in a camp chair.

And Daniel fell asleep while he was having a drink and snacking on MnM's

Play til you drop.

I put them in the tent, but I didn't want them to sleep long, or else that was going to mean a long night for me back at the room.

Peter rolling in the sand.

I took a brief swim out around the buoy, which was fun and refreshing, and which left me more winded than I expected. Neil and I chatted, and then I left for the hotel around the same time as they headed back to Layton.

Mark's friend Kyle (our violin teacher's husband) came up for the day with his boat. I don't have any pictures of that, but the kids all took turns out there, so that was fun. When they came back with Natalie, I headed back to our room at Garden City. I wanted to head back to the hotel early, so that I could get them all up early so that we could go to Paris Idaho before packing up tomorrow, so that we could try to find the graves of Thomas and Ann Hibbert's. We were up here at Bear Lake in 2014 for Thanksgiving and I looked for there graves then, but couldn't find them. I double checked last night on Find a grave, and it says that Yes they are at the Paris Cemetery, so I wanted to check that with Neil today or I'd do it by myself tomorrow. Neil said they couldn't do it today, but we'll plan it for next year at the Hibbert Reunion at Bear Lake (which Neil and I decided we are going to sponsor and make happen) soo... I was planning on just going back to the room, but the kids were content and so I just kept driving tonight. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it before it was too dark, but we just barely got there with some sun light - and I went to the same list of persons buried as before, but this time I found their names. I'm not sure what my problem was last time!

It was pretty easy to find - they were in section 43, graves site 6...

And ta-da! There they are!

The Hibberts were the only graves there in the 43 section, They looked a little lonely. Elizabeth Hibbert was there with her husband, she was one of Thomas' older sisters.

Well I was glad to find it this time!

I had the kids get out for a quick blurry photo. We were losing light fast -

One more try...

Well thanks for coming along with me, cute kids. That's 6 generation difference represented right there - THOMAS/ANN - AMBROSE/MARY - JULIAN/ALICE - KIM/LINDA - TIFFANIE/COREY - NATALIE OWEN and DANIEL. I'm glad we made it there tonight, cause it made for a 45+ minute detour from our hotel, and I bet I wouldn't have been feeling like I could take that much time tomorrow morning, so good job me for doing it tonight. We didn't bring much, but will do a quick pack up from here tomorrow morning, check out, and then head to Rendezvous Beach to pack up things there. Goodnight.