The Third of July

We (as in Bill and I) drove up to Grandpa's Mountain on Saturday to visit my family, my family who happened to be camping up there for the holiday weekend.

Upon our arrival, I was attacked by Fred with a giant hug, a hug that I always look forward to receiving. :) And we went to the trailer and found my Madre, along with Val Gal, and Jord. Pops was nowhere to be seen at the moment, the moment that would soon resolve itself when Pops walked through the door ten minutes later.

But prior to Pops walking through the door, Bill was exposed to the Sorenson love and quirk of making inanimate objects speak, inanimate objects such as Stan the pig and Chewy the koala bear -- Fred's favorite stuffed animals. (It's a good thing Fifi the poodle and Pierre the turkey weren't around, because I would have been forced to whip out the French accents, accents which I will spare Bill of until a later date.) We also enjoyed a healthy dosage of Reese's peanut butter cups and festive red, white, and blue gummy bears, gummy bears in which we bit their heads off and replaced with the head of a different color of gummy bear.

When Pops did walk through the door, he promptly walked back out to show us his new solar panel, the solar panel which caused much talk and mathematical reasoning the visit to the Mountain prior to this one. It was nifty. Go Pops! :)

Whenever I travel to the Mountain, it seems that I always travel in slightly overcast weather, weather that rains on everyone's parade. So the debate was on, on as in whether to travel down to Bear Lake as planned or to postpone the trip. As the parentals contemplated this subject, we the children, the children of Amy and Dale, along with Bill, played Ninja Destruction. I lost. Every time.

It was made known unto us that we would be traveling down to Bear Lake, Bear Lake, a place of fond memories, despite the weather, the weather that would usually rain on everyone's parade, the parade I caused everyone to actually miss in Montepelier that morning, that morning that I was cleaning the church and the morning that Bill was moving a piano. :) Did you catch that? Good.

So we drove down to Bear Lake. We stopped at LeBeau's and ate fine food, fine food that is accompanied with fry sauce...and a raspberry shake! And we laughed it up and caused Jessica, Jessica who is writing this post, to become majorly embarrassed due to remarks made by her mother, her mother who made a reference to grandkids in conjunction with the conversation concerning Florida and the Harry Potter theme park. Yes...I flushed bright red, red that you could blame on the sun, but was certainly not mistaken by Bill (nor my mother) as heat induced flushing.

Fred

Jord

Pops

We made it to the beach at last! Pops was able to drive through a large puddle, a large puddle that could easily be an impediment to any vehicle much smaller than the Subby, and we parked on the beach. It was cold. True. But we ran through the water, the water that was very shallow along the shore, anyway. I rolled up my capris and still managed to soak myself.

Val Gal

Bill and I played tic-tac-toe in the sand...many multiple times, multiple times that included me trying to remember the strategy behind that game with Jord and Bill coaxing and guffawing at me. ;)

Then Fred came in from the water and wanted to sit on one of the chairs, chairs that we brought down from the Mountain to lounge upon the beach with. I willingly gave up my spot and laid a beach towell across the sand, the sand that was wet due to the lack of much sun that day. As I sat upon that towell upon the sand, my pants soaked up the water that the towell soaked up from the sand. Then I decided that it would be good to rinse off my flip-flops. I walked over to the lake and all I hear is laughter, laughter from my family along the beach. I feel my bottom, my bottom that is now noticeably and thoroughly wet. How cute? Oy vey.

Soakin' bottom? Rock on.

Bill and I played rock soccer, and Pops tried to catch some sun rays, and madre stayed bundled up in her blanket, her blanket that Pops pulled from his suburban and uses in various circumstances, such as mom being cold. Mom was finishing the last chapter of her book and succeeded. Bill and Val started to play "Rebuild the Moat" and bring the water inland, inland...yes.

Catching the rays!

Madre all bundled up.

Reconstructing the moat that once existed.

Bill and Fred

On the way home from the beach, we saw Heather's and Martin's vehicle, the vehicle that indicates that the part of my family who are from Washington, of all places, are here in Bear Lake! We pull off to the side of the road and go on a hunt in search of the Chamberlain's. We found them! And there was much rejoicing and laughter. What are the chances of finding them there? Very slim and rather ironic. :) It was good to see them!

Bill and I had to be back up into Logan that night though, so we did not travel back with my family to the Mountain, the Mountain that resides in the completely opposite direction in which we needed to travel back home. On our way out, Bill and I stopped at the fancy pull-out, the fancy pull-out that is really more like a rest and tourist stop because you can look out and see the whole lake. It was a lovely view to behold.

Bear Lake

And thus we made it back home, the home in which I sit and write this account.

Dear Family -- I love you dearly. I'm glad that we are so close and can have a good time together. :) It makes my memories happy, memories that I record by writing onto this blog so that I don't forget and can be happy over for years to come.