Last week was our family reunion (Chance's mom's side), and goodness what an adventure! We left friday night after I got off work (so really late, like 11:30) and set out for the 12 hr drive to Utah. The whole ride was a blur I can't remember anything. It was my turn to drive near the end because there was only 3 of us, me, Chance, and his dad, but Chance took the bullet for me (great guy, I know ;). We arrived at Aunt Carrie's in Bountiful where we cleaned up and met with Laurie and the boys, then headed out for Bear Lake on the Utah-Idaho border.
There was a campsite reserved, but the only ones camping were the kids, Chance and I, and Donna Mae and co. Everyone else had campers, and Laurie, Mark and Ivan's fam rented a cabin a few miles away. I hadn't been camping in soooo long! Not since I worked at Camp Winthers, and that was awesome! So I was stoked to be camping again and to stay outside in the beautiful weather. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze (it was like that most the time there); evening rolled and around, and with it rain and wind. All we had was this little two-person tent and luckily we had trees to soften the gusts from the lake, but the rain was too much for the little tent to handle. It leaked. There was even a lovely steady drip above Chance's head. So we set out against the storm and gathered some tarps and rope, and devised a makeshift cover for the tent. It worked well, except it was really stuffy inside. The next morning we took everything down and let our things dry out, and pondered what we were going to do that night. Chance was cool with whatever, and I didn't want to give up on camping (I was very determined), so we were able to borrow another tent (this time a four-person sleeper), and set it up. The boys (Cody, Brock and Seth) had set up camp on the beach and I thought that was an awesome idea, so that's where we went. Bad idea. That night there were no trees to protect us from the 30-40 mph wind unblocked from 20 miles of lake, and the 10 times worse downpour. The wind was so hard it flattened our tent, and we had to lay on our backs and use our legs to hold it up, to prevent water from pooling on the outside and steadily leak in. Cody and the other's had to do the same thing. Overall. Bad shape. We called Mark and he said that 15 min away the rain and wind had slowed, so wait a while and it'll stop. We waited. 45 min. With our legs up in the air, holding the tent up. Finally, I looked at Chance (who was being an awesome trooper this whole time), and said I give up. We abandoned ship. We called Laurie to let her know we were on our way to the cabin. I packed our stuff into bags while Chance ran them to the car. I grabbed the last handful, jumped out of the tent and off we went. Twenty feet away, behind the trees, the wind was waaaay softer. If we had just stayed back where we were before, everything would've been ok! Off to the cabin and warmth, and safety we went.
The next few nights were perfect on the beach! Sigh.
We had tons of fun, and Gaylene had something awesome planned for each day. We had a sandcastle competition, went to Minnetonka caves (forgot Mark...) , had a talent show (and had a special guest: the ugliest man in the world!), and played Minute-To-Win-It (Aspen knows how to shake what her mamma gave her ;). It was total fun the whole way.
Then it came time for us to go down south for the rest of the week. Laurie let Chance and I take her car ahead so we could go through the Manti temple, while her and the boys stayed with Donna Mae and her kids.
I had never been through the Manti temple before, and Chance had once before his mission and was excited to go again. It was soooo amazingly beautiful. It has that timeless, beautiful-ness of the pioneers. They really knew how to do things. We learned that the two spiral staircases are the two biggest free-standing spiral staircases in the world. They tried to replicate them when they rebuilt the Navuoo temple, but couldn't make it out of wood, like Manti, and had to use metal. It is a lost art. We were also able to see the sealing rooms, including the one Chance's parents were sealed in, and got to do some ourselves. The workers were sooo helpful and full of interesting and amazing facts. All you have to do is ask. The Manti temple had such a special feeling there, everywhere we looked we were reminded of the sacrifice of the early saints, who some didn't even have a house of their own, and built such a beautiful Temple for the Lord. It makes one think if we would be willing to do for the Lord.
After that we continued south towards Gma/Gpa Payne's where we stayed the rest of the week. Chance took me on the ATV and did some really crazy stunts on it (crazy to me, not to him) and showed off his awesome ATV skills for a while (I will admit, though scared, it was way fun). Later we went to the Hartle's and Gpa Hartle let me ride his ol' horse Duke. The last time I was on a horse, I was... 10... and it was on a trail. I'd neeevvvveeerrrr been on one "free-style" before! I was excited, and nervous, but from what I remembered of Black Beauty is horses can sense your feelings. So I calmed. Chance thought either this would cure of my desire to own a horse some day or make it worse... well... it made it worse ;) Gpa Hartle gave me a few pointers and had me get on. I LOVED it! I had sooo much fun! More than I've ever had in my whole life! It was so awesome! It felt so natural. After I got used to Duke, Gpa gave me a few pointers and told me how to get him into a trot (I cant remember what he called it...), and I did... kinda... It helped that Duke was a good old horse, and that he's really gentle and really well trained.
Friday morning came it was time to go home. The Hartles gave Chance and I a good supply of meat (thank you!), and sent us on our way. We had family prayer, and started that even longer journey home. (And finished listening to the last book of Harry Potter, oh my gosh it was EPIC!)
It was so awesome to spend the week with my new family and get to know them better. A few hours at the wedding a few months ago was hardly enough! I'm glad I met everyone and their families. The Hartles are indeed a truly unique and AMAZING bunch ; ) I loved spending all that time with Chance. We haven't had much because of our work schedules, and a vacation was greatly appreciated.
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