The R's family reunion at Bear Lake

This years Family reunion was quit interesting, to say the least.  We had reservations at Payson Lakes.  My sister got a call from them the day before we were to go and said that they were closed for a few days because of bear problems.  Now what to do?  The weekend of the 24th of July isn't an easy week to find camp grounds....and so Teri (my oldest sister) called her In-Laws that live in in Idaho and have beach front property at Bear Lake to see if we could camp on their property.  They lovingly said Yes!!!  So we changed some plans at home, did some more packing and headed to Idaho.


We had a great time on the private beach and playing in the water.

There are lots and lots of little sea shells every where.  The children enjoyed collecting them.  Even Hope helped.  Ethan decided that if we collected a lot that we could bring them home and put them in our sand box.  Then we can play beach at home.

Ethan and his bowl full of sea shells

 we  played outdoor games and cooking outdoors.

Our family decided to go to Minnetonka cave.  Mike told us that it wasn't that cold.  And that we didn't even have to hike in to get to it.  So off we went.
Good thing we had a blanket in the car and that Paige and Zach had on their light jackets to share.  The cave temp is 40 degrees F.  Guess it may not be cold to some, but to kids it is.

                                                     Here we are before we go in the cave.

While waiting for our tour through the cave we read many facts about it. 

Fact 1.  The cave is 40 degrees all year round.

Fact 2.  There are 888 steps through out the cave.

Fact 3.  The longest stair case has 71 steep steps.                       

Fact 4. Bats live in the cave.           

Fact 5. The round trip through the cave is about 1 1/2 miles and takes about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish.

 

We took turns carrying Hope.  She loved the cave and would point and squeal.  Then she got tired and fell asleep.  It is hard to carry dead weight.  And even harder going down the steps that are uneven and wet...when you can't see your feet.  But we all made it and thought that it was amazing.

Us at the end of the tour. Out side the cave . Tired but happy.

This is an original pioneer log cabin on the Lovelands property .  It has a few updated things on it as it was lived in until about 40 years ago.  There is also an old 

Black smith building that is now used as a shed.

What a great 3 days of camping and partying.