Bear Lake - Wilkes Family Reunion}part one

The first week of August we had a Wilkes Family Reunion at Bear Lake organized by Uncle David.

I had flown in early to help Cali and Jim and Tessa drove over.  I picked up Clark and Jessica at the airport in SLC and along with Cali we drove up to Bear Lake.  Logan had driven up the night before.

We stayed in a beautiful, large family lodge that slept 50 called Papa Bear Lodge!  It had a beautiful kitchen and several large gathering areas and was not far from the Lake.  We also used another house that belonged Teresa's sister where the Wynn Wilkes stayed.  We had almost 80 people at the reunion.

Of course our first stop in Bear Lake had to be for a famous raspberry shake!

We spent most of our time playing in the water.  We had three boats - David had rented one, Travis brought his and we borrowed Teresa's brother in laws boat.  They used a tractor to put it in the water!

It had been 23 years since we had been to Bear lake - I had forgotten what a beautiful place it is!'

 We had all kinds of fun toys to play with in the water - kayaks, paddle boards,floaties and jet skis!

 I even tried out the paddle board - so fun!

 Tessa showed off her newly acquired wake boarding skills.

The kids had lots of fun out on the boats waterskiing, wake boarding, and tubing.

Just riding around on the boat was quite fun too!

The best part was just hanging out as a family and being together.

We took turns with meals and enjoyed lunch down at the lake. Grandma and Grandpa came down one day to watch the fun.

More fun times together:

Miss Wilkes

The day after the Quillin's farewell party I got on a plane and headed to Utah.  I went in a few days early before our family reunion at Bear Lake so I could help Cali get her new classroom set up.  Cali will be the drama teacher at Willowcreek Middle School in Lehi Utah.

Here is Miss Wilkes!  The kids are going to love her.

Her class room is narrow and long.  We printed off some great inspirational quotes poster size to hang on her walls.

She also used the pennant banner from her bedroom and some musical theater posters we had at home to decorate.  The classroom looks great.

Willowcreek has a wonderful auditorium and theater facility.  It's almost as nice as Westviews!  Incredible for a middle school.

 She even has a shop complete with power tools!  Yikes!!!

So fun to see your kids all grown up and doing what they were meant to do!  We are so proud of you Miss Wilkes!!

Party #2 of the Day - Quillins Farewell Party

Our second party of the day was a Farewell Party for our neighbors the Quillins.  They are moving to China for two years with Intel.  We are so excited for them but so sad for us.  We will miss them but can't wait to follow along on their exciting adventure.  They will be renting their house while they are gone so we will have new neighbors for two years.

We decided to keep the food pretty easy for this party.  We did a Hot Dog Bar and a potluck side dish/salad. 

So many yummy things were brought.

We broke out the Lemonade Stand from the Wedding Carnival too.

We decorated with a few Chinese lanterns.

 We had a yard full of friends!  So fun.

We also had music and dancing - that dance floor sure comes in handy!

But the highlight of the evening had to be the Shaved Ice Truck that came!

 The kids and the adults thought it was so fun and we kept him busy for two hours!  I think this guy had four of them!

Who doesn't love shaved ice!!

I'm going to miss this guy!  We've known him since the day he was born.

We ended the evening by setting off some Chinese Lanterns.  Some of them worked better than others:)

Sending off our best wishes for the Quillins on their exciting adventur - love you guys!!!