Labor Day Weekend 2018 (I almost typed 2009. I hardly know what decade we are in!)

We went up to Bear Lake over Labor Day weekend. There was a bit of wildness in the coming and going.

Mike was out of town and unable to join us up there until well after midnight on the evening of our arrival. And with kids back in school, there were no older ones around to help with the cleaning and packing and readying to go. So I was on my own (with three little needy ones -- crying and demanding and clinging to my heels) for much of the preparations, grocery shopping, etc.

Abe had to be back bright and early on the morning on of our return trip (as he had a bike race he needed to get to). Mike, knowing I’d been a bit exhausted with all I’d done while he’d been out of town, etc., kindly suggested I head home with Abe and enjoy a little time alone relaxing while he and the rest of the kids stayed to clean up the cabin and pack up everything before following us – after all, we had two cars there. It was a generous and kind plan. Only . . . shortly after I arrived back home with Abe . . . Mike called to tell me I’d taken the van keys with me – leaving them stranded at Bear Lake. Sooo . . . a few hours of quiet were cast sadly aside and I spent the day, instead, driving back to Bear Lake and back home again.

But! There was plenty of enjoyment in between. The weather, like last year, stayed surprisingly warm for a Bear Lake weekend in September.

Though not so warm as to allow us to wait in the mile-long line for the food and shakes we’d intended to get after going to the beach! (It was after bedtime, dark, small kids were whining and crying, and all kids were shivering like crazy . . . and we’d never seen such long lines . . . so . . . we went to the tiny, overpriced grocery store next door and grabbed some frozen pizzas and a tub of ice cream to bring back to the cabin instead. Not quite as wonderful as Bear Lake shakes, but a necessary call on that occasion.)

We also took our kids to Hansen Hollow. A year or so ago, in doing some family research, Mike came across the mention of a place called Hansen Hollow where his great grandpa (Abraham Hansen) would spend summers with his brothers caring for pigs and letting cattle graze. No one in the family seemed to know anything about it, so he did some searching and discovered that not only is Hansen Hollow still officially the name of the area, but it isn’t too far from Bear Lake! Earlier this summer he and I went and found the spot where his ancestors most likely stayed; and, on this trip, we took the kids with us. It is near an area of campgrounds (though you have to wade across a freezing river to get to the actual hollow). So we tramped about with the kids, rode the 4-wheeler a bit, and made a fire. (And Mike – sounding like Bigfoot crashing through the trees – rolled this giant log out of the forest for us to make up for our lack of chairs.)

Everyone gathered around the snake Penny discovered:

Abe encouraging his siblings to make a normal picture around the campfire impossible for me to catch:

There. That’s a little better.

Overall it was a good weekend, and made me grateful again that we have this place for creating so many happy memories as a family.