Final Chapter on Bear Lake

We've been home from Bear Lake a few days now. I have to say it's very nice to be sleeping in our own beds after sleeping all together in one room for almost a month - all the kids on the floor.

And it seems so easy to cook for and clean up after 7 people when you're become accustomed to living in a household of 42 people!

Here's a small portion of our typical dinner dishes at the Lake.

But I'm missing these people - messes, noise and all. And feeling real nostalgia for the good times we had together.

We're starting to get back into a routine and I"m starting to get caught up on the many things that piled up while we were gone. One of the things that got a little annoying (well, a lot annoying actually) during the last week of our time at Bear Lake was that my internet hotspot died and that put an abrupt end to my ability to put in an hour or so every day on Power of Moms and keep up on things - plus throw a blog post out there now and again. At first, I was glad to be forced to really enjoy our last week at the lake w/o trying to get work done. But after a couple days, it got pretty stressful to know how much was piling up and not to be able to do some quick and timely things on my computer. Oh well. I'll catch up some day.

Here's a post I started but couldn't finish at Bear Lake thanks to the hot spot issue - plus scroll down for a bunch of great photos:

Our days are winding down at Bear Lake. The crowds are thinning out as people trickle away for various other obligations. All the excitement and fun of the reunion has been replaced by a little more time for casual conversation and reading and relaxing and going with the flow of the weather and the natural pace of the day. 

We're getting creative with the food left here as we try to minimize grocery store runs and maximize the using up of the food we have here. Jonah's been whipping up fresh bread and homemade granola almost every day. Saydi made homemade pizza. Kristi found enough ingredients for a repeat performance of her amazing fish tacos. Homemade cookies are in good supply (everyone has their favorite recipe to share).

Here I am making Thai red curry (and looking pretty concerned about it...)

I'm enjoying daily runs and swims with my sisters to counteract the calories and to get ready for the Grand Teton Relay that Jared and I are doing again this year. It's great to feel stronger and better at running this year than I did last year when I was just getting back into running after a 10 year hiatus. I can conquer the hills around here now without feeling like I'm at the end of my rope.

We've had various friends show up for a day or two. Two of my best friends from Wellesley College (we graduated together 20 years ago now - crazy stuff) came with their children and we talked and laughed and learned from each other until late into the night - reminded me of the good old days in the dorms (and why didn't I think to take a photo?). Jared's brother and family came for a couple days and our kids loved having cousins from both sides of their family to play with at the same time (and they brought their jet skis plus lots of amazing ice cream from the Cold Stone store that they run which made them very popular guests indeed). Saydi had friends here and Noah had friends here - always so great to meet each other's friends and relatives when we get the chance. Always a bit of a puzzle to figure out the details of where everyone should sleep and what to feed everyone - but it always works out great.

Here are the twins with some great Loosli cousins - Parker and Logan.

And thanks to Parker and Logan's parents, we all had big times on waverunners. Fun stuff. Here I am with Camden (Jonah and Aja's), Eliza, and Claire (Shawni and Dave's).

Ashton's best friend from St George, Dallen, was staying at a cabin just down the road for his family reunion.  It was so great to see these two together again! We sure wish Dallen and his great family still lived near us.

The twins and their cousins have been making dams every day. They've probably learned tons of principles of engineering as they've used sand and rocks to create ever-stronger dams.

Isaac lost his first molar which was pretty exciting (and had a birthday which I'll do a blog post about when I get a chance).

The kids caught several lizards.

And learned all about lizards from Uncle Tal (a serious lizard-catching expert back when we were kids)

We went on countless boat rides. Isaac got really good at wakeboarding and became quite adept at pulling up on one ski - and getting in and out of the wake. Ashton became a great wakeboarder and kneeboarder. Eliza got up on two skis for a few seconds and loved wild and crazy tube rides behind the boat. The twins were good with playing in the sand and riding the tube and vehemently refused to try skiing. My parents' 25-year-old boat is still going strong!

Here's Isaac on the wakeboard.

We had lots of fun in the canoe. Here's Liza and Hazel.

And every day a small group of us would swim out way past those reeds in the photo above to a buoy - nothing like swimming through that beautiful clear cool water under a blue, blue sky while enjoying great conversations (we weren't exactly swimming fast...).

We played some great volleyball (and the kids are really enjoying watching Olympic volleyball now that they've had a chance to try playing it themselves).

We cleaned up the beach toys and lifejackets every day which sort of gets old but isn't bad with lots of little helpers.


We had good times at the "Bamboo House" as we call my parent's big lake house with bamboo floors. We did crafts and reading time and lots of cooking time and cleaning time (cooking and cleaning proved to be as relationship-building and as anything else...). Saydi read a chapter of a book each night with most of the kids and here's Aja doing craft time with a bunch of the kids.



We all grew pretty attached to each other. There's nothing like seeing bonds grow between your kids and your siblings kids.


Ashton and Peter (Saydi and Jeff's) became close friends.

Ashton and Bennett (Noah and Kristi's)

And of course, Ashton had a fabulous time with Max and Elle (Shawni and Dave's) in the 3 days they had together (between scout camp, EFY and volleyball camp, the big kids sadly had precious time together this year but they made the most of it!). These three make up "Group 1"

Isaac spent lots of time with babies and toddlers (he's SO cute with them). But I only got this one photo somehow:

And Isaac had the greatest time with Grace (Shawni and Dave's) and Ana (Jonah and Aja's) - Grace was born in June, Isaac in July and Ana in August and these three are known as "Group 2". It's been so fun to watch them grow up together and see how much they enjoy each other and how much they learn from each other.

Eliza had SO much fun with Hazel and Claire - the closest thing she'll ever have to sisters. These three cute girls are called "Group 3."

Some friends in China sent my parents a whole bunch of great dress-up clothes and all the little girls had SO much fun!
 

 Annina (Tal and Anita's) was a big favorite. Such an adorable baby!

 

 The twins and the 3 boy cousins close to them in age (known as "Group 4) are like this little pack that do everything together - Monopoly and dam-building seemed to be the main hits this year but bird-watching was also a favorite.


McKay (Noah and Kristi's) made this special mask to wear birdwatching - he used 1/2 a broken set of swim goggles, a rubber ring from a jar, some rubber bands and a feather from one of the feather boas Grammie got from the nice people in China. That kid cracks me up constantly.

I'm missing these crazy, fun, wonderful people. Long live Bear Lake.

Beauty at Bear Lake

I don't know whether I think this place is so beautiful because it is so tied in with great memories and relaitionships for me or whether it seems extra gorgeous because I'm simply outside so much more here than I am in my regular life or whether any random person who came here would find this to be a extra pretty place.

I only have my phone for a camera up here but here but even without fancy photo equipment, I think these photos capture a decent piece of the beauty we're experiencing here.

Eliza has taken a photo of the sunset every night here. She's captured some great stuff:

I love how my whole family is really into nature's beauty. We always point out the beauty we see to each other and that makes us all extra-aware and extra-appreciative. Maybe that's another reason Bear Lake is so beautiful to me.

Here's a little group watching the sunset - and interviewing Isaac on his life right now. I'm so grateful for how all my siblings and their spouses show such interest in my kids and give them so much positive reinforcement while we're together.

Reunion Q and A

QUESTION: 
I feel a little bit like I am intruding so feel free not to answer this. But I was wondering about the logistics for your family reunions. Some in your family are single, some married with many kids. Some of the families are there for the weekend and others for weeks. Some live close by and some travel far away to get to the reunion. I know you trade off planning and take turns cooking dinner each night, and the kids take turns cleaning. But how do you deal with the financial stuff? Does the family who cooks buy everything for that meal? Is there a budget and everyone contributes x amount? Is it per person or per family? Do the closer families bring the food and supplies since travel costs are less? How do you make it all fair?


ANSWER:
We're really blessed to have a 6-bedroom home that our parents own at Bear Lake where we can all stay for the month of July. The house is rented out during June and August and into September and the rent collected from those months covers most costs associated with maintenance on the house and also covers some of the expenses of our reunion (food expenses being the main cost). So we don't have to put money towards rent of a place for a reunion each year and quite a bit of the reunion food is covered for us. 


Our reunion lasts 4 days (a weekend and a couple days before or after that weekend). Many people come before the reunion starts and many stay after it ends - it's basically "open house" for most of July when my parents don't accept any rentals of the house (this year from July 7th - 28th). Three of my brothers work for a company headquartered in Utah that has a company conference every July so we try to schedule the reunion when the three of them will already be here. Scheduling the reunion days is always a puzzle. Everyone has stuff going on in the summer. Josh has teacher meetings to gear up for the new school year. The older grandkids have various scout camps and girls' camps and sports camps. Most of us have reunions or gatherings for the other side of our family to work around. But so far, we've been able to get everyone together for at least a few days every summer (other than one summer when Shawni and Dave and family were living in China). It's super important to my parents (and to all of us) that we ALL be here for at least 4 days. And then a whole lot of us come early and stay late. We really want all our kids to know each other well and we love the chance to all be under the same roof for a while every year. Since we live all over the country (Boston, NYC, DC, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix area, Hawaii - my family is the only family in Utah...), being together at Bear Lake is really important to us. Some people stay for the whole "open house" time and some just make it for the 4 days of the reunion. Everyone just does what they can do. This year almost everyone came early and we still have 21 of the 23 grandkids here with most of their parents. Every year is different.


To get us all here, my parents help out with airfare as need be. Most of us get some help. As we hold a board meeting for our family charity as part of our reunion, some travel costs can be covered by the foundation. And as my parents keep Christmas and birthday gifts simple and relatively cheap, they have financial resources to help get us all to the reunion. 

Why Bear Lake? You can read about the history of our family at this place HERE. Even if we didn't have a long history with this place, I think we'd have ended up holding reunions at a place somewhat like this. You can't beat a lake or the ocean when it comes to a great reunion location. Kids of all ages can enjoy different activities at the same location - boating, swimming, playing in the sand, chatting, etc - everyone doing whatever they most enjoy simultaneously.


Sorry, back to the questions asked:


During the reunion, every family is in charge of one meal (lunch and dinner - breakfast everyone just does on their own since kids wake up at different times, etc.). We all submit lists of ingredients that can be purchased at Costco that we need need for the meal we'll be doing. Then the couple who is in charge of the reunion for the year puts everyone's ingredients together into one big fat Costco shopping list. Each family is responsible for buying, bringing and paying for anything for their assigned meal that can't be purchased at Costco. My mom and others who are in the area do a big Costco run and pack everything into a car or two and bring everything up to the lake in advance of everyone else arriving. 


We have a fridge downstairs in the cabin where all the food for reunion meals goes so it's separate from the food people brought themselves (which people mark with their names with sharpie pens) that they will be eating for breakfast and for meals before or after the official four days of the reunion. 


Since we all drink pretty much only water at each meal and we cook from scratch, the supplies needed to feed all 42 of us for the four days of the reunion don't take up as much space or cost as much as they would if there were pre-packaged drinks and prepared foods involved. 


My parents pay for the Costco food for the reunion out of rent proceeds from the cabin. We each pay for non-Costco stuff that we'll need for our meals plus for food for breakfast and snacks for our families during the official reunion and for breakfast, lunch and snacks on non-reunion days. On the days before and after the reunion, the families who are here each take responsibility for dinners so we can all eat together but each family takes care of their own breakfast and lunch ingredients and preparation. Sometimes we pool efforts. Often we get creative with what's left towards the end of the reunion. We usually have tons of rice, beans, pasta and the like around that we pool together and there are often people going back and forth to SLC or Ogden or other places so they can pick up food and help us re-stock when we get low on various things. We've all gotten pretty good at figuring out how to feed a crowd quite cheaply and easily and how to maximize non-perishable ingredients since the nearest grocery store is 40 minutes away and the nearest Costco is 2 hours away.


We try to keep things as fair as possible and we try to be considerate of each other's needs and special circumstances. Some years some people buy more food. Some years other people buy more food. Some years some people really need help with their babies and toddlers and other people (like me) have pretty self-sufficient kids so they can help out when another mom is tired or overloaded. There are usually discussions about how to keep clutter under control and what rules need to be stated or reinstated for the kids. There are many annoying but necessary discussions about how to get people to and from the airport (2.5 hours away) or how to get or do without various ingredients that we find that we need. There are always a few spats and disagreements (there are a LOT of leaders in our family and not a whole lot of followers...). But all in all, it works out pretty darn well.  


There are so many great ways to do family reunions. Many families rent a place and split the cost of the rental and pool money for food. Some families have parents who pay for the whole reunion every year and feel they'd rather spend money on reunions than keep that money towards an inheritance for their kids one day. Many families do a big camp-out to keep it inexpensive. Many families just do reunions every other year or ever few years. There are so many different good ways to do things. But hopefully some of the details shared here will spur helpful thoughts as you think about, envision and plan family reunions!

Grammie Camp

One of the most wonderful things that happens every year at Bear Lake is Grammie Camp. (And another favorite thing is Grandfather's Secrets - but I'll write about that in a different post.)

Before and after our official family reunion days at Bear Lake, one age group at a time, my mom takes all the grandkids who are over 5 years old away for about 24 hours. She tells them stories about their ancestors. She has them work hard on a project (usually pulling weeds). She makes great food with them. She takes them on a little outing - sometimes to a play, sometimes out to dinner. She has them memorize a scripture. They sleep over at my parents' cabin up on the hill and have a special breakfast together. And they all sing the Grammie Camp song.

Here's group 1 and 2 (the 10-14 year-olds) doing some serious weeding as they headed out for Grammie Camp yesterday.

Then they headed over to Logan and talked about their Great Aunt May Swenson, my grandma's sister who was a famous poet. Every year they focus on a different ancestor and this year it was May. Plus they got to visit my sweet Grandma in Logan and visit Grandpa Dean's grave.

Here they are at a monument overlooking Bear Lake that has a poem by May on it.



And here's my grandpa's grave nearby. I can't wait to meet him some day. He died when my dad was just 15 and we love hearing stories about him.

Here they are with their oldest living relative, the wonderful Grandma Great.

Then they went to a fun melodrama play - El Bantito - they've gone every year for three years now - it's at the Pickleville Playhouse on the other side of the lake. They quote likes from it and sing songs from it all year long - provides plenty of fun inside jokes.



And Grammie made them all photo albums containing all the photos their parents sent to her when the were little kids (back in the day when we actually developed photos and sent them in the mail - before blogs came along). SUCH a nice gift.

It's killing me - and Ashton - that Ashton is at scout camp this week and had to miss Grammie Camp for the first time. With these kids getting older and having all these different summer camps, my mom had to schedule Grammie Camp for the time when at least 5 of the 6 members of the group could be there...

At their Grammie Camp last week, Eliza and her group (group 3 - the 7-9 year olds) had a fabulous time baking bread (it was delicious) and learning all about her great grandmother, Elizabeth (one of the four Elizabeths in our ancestry that Eliza is named for). She was a stalwart pioneer woman who lost most of her children including unborn twins as she crossed the plains as a pioneer. They also did some weeding, memorized Helaman 5:12 and did some beautiful art projects since Grammie loves art so much and so do they. They used their money they earned weeding to buy matching headbands and were over the moon about their special time with Grammie.

Here they are at the Bloomington Cemetery. Hazel and Claire (who's middle name is Hazel) especially love visiting my mom's mom's grave and learning more and more about her since they're both named after her.

The twins and their cousins Camden, McKay and Charlie also got a Grammie Camp session. Their session involved some writing, some shorter ancestor stories, some great food and lots of hilarious interchanges that tickled my mom. These boys have ENERGY and SPUNK and wore my mom out just a tad bit more than the other groups but she had so much fun with them and they with her.

I'm so grateful my mom takes the time to do such wonderful stuff with our kids and shows each of them so much love and concern. She respects and knows them all so well. And as a result, the kids think Grammie is about the best thing ever and have so much respect for her. All we have to do is say, "Grammie really wishes the downstairs was cleaner" and the kids hop right to it -5 minutes later, the crazy-messy basement is all tidied up.



Long live Grammie Camp!

Reunion at Bear Lake

All 42 of us Eyres are here at Bear Lake.

The kids are in heaven playing with their cousins on the beach, building forts in the basement, playing pool, working on their numbers for the family talent show and working together. The adults are laughing and talking and cooking and playing games until late at night. We're eating lots of amazing food (Japanese curry, fish tacos, Cafe Rio-style salads, Thai food, Jonah's famous burgers...a different family is in charge of each meal - good thing I've been going running and doing long swims every day or I'd be seriously bulking up...). We're all a little short on sleep (so hard to go to bed when there's so much fun to be had - and so hard to sleep with thin walls and babies crying in the night and little kids getting up and having noisy fun at the crack of dawn). And there are huge piles of dishes and big fat messes to clean up all the time (but we've got a good system going now - each age group of grandkids is in charge of a different after-dinner clean-up job and there's a list of other housecleaning jobs they can choose in order to earn extra points - there's a big prize for each group that gets at least 100 points by the end of the reunion. I think the kids are having as much or more fun together as they work together as they have playing together...).

It's so fun to see all the interactions - big kids delighting in their baby cousins and feeding them and caring for them every chance they get, grown-ups discussing ideas and asking and giving advice, groups of mixed adults and kids laughing their heads off as they fly along on the tube behind the boat, everyone cheering for every good shot in the family tennis tournament and the ad-hoc beach volley ball games, parents jumping in to take care of each other's kids as needs arise.

There's nothing like being with these people in this place.

Here are some snapshots. I'll get some nicer shots from my siblings who have the fancy cameras and the photography talents when I get a chance. But for now, here's a bit of what we're experiencing via un-retouched phone pictures.

Tal and Anita are in charge of the reunion this year (every year, it's a different couple). Here they are announcing the details of the tennis tournament and the overall reunion agenda.

And here's everyone listening to Tal and Anita 

(the first day of the reunion was Eli's birthday - thus the banner)

My sisters and I took all the little girls for a walk one lovely morning.

And we found some lovely flowers and butterflies

After lots of fun tube rides in the lake, the hot tub sure feels good

The kids are doing pretty well keeping up on their reading time while they're here - and some groups of cousins are reading the same book together so they can have a book club discussion.

Liza and Hazel and Claire have been inseparable - they've made up the cutest dances and have worked SO hard on their points, doing every possible household job.

The twins and the three little boys close to their age have built countless waterways and structures using sand and water. It never gets old.

Isaac's become a fast favorite with all the babies. Here he is with Poem and Annina.

Here we are enjoying the famous Jonah Burgers - he mixes the ground beef with lots of magical spices, makes the patties, cooks them just right, then serves them topped with sliced beets and mangoes. 

Good stuff!

Storms roll in most afternoons - beautiful stuff.

When it started pouring, everyone decided to dance in the rain. I love spontaneous fun that comes when you find the beauty in something you weren't anticipating - like rain on your reunion. After the fun dance party, it cleared up and got sunny again. Perfect.



This evening, we went bird watching at the bird refuge down the road. We had a contest to see which group could get the most photos of different species of birds. It was beautiful.