This post appeared on my blog about 2 years ago...Thanks to Laura we have a place where we can put all of these memories. Maybe I will post more from past years since our family wasn't able to be at Lake Tahoe 2010. We will make sure we are there next year. We love and miss everyone.
We were able to go on a great vacation. It certainly wasn't one of the best because Neil didn't get to come with us...but other than that we had a marvelous time. We first met my family at the City of Rocks in
Almo Idaho. If you have never heard of
Almo, it is okay
because even though I had been to the City of Rocks before, I hadn't ever heard of it either. It is a very small town and there wasn't any cell phone reception so I was glad to see a little red sports car turn around in the middle of the road and start following me into town. It was my dad and Sarah coming to rescue us from getting lost in the middle of no where. Then we had fun climbing Bath Rock. It is called that because there are baths on the top of the
rock where I guess you could take a bath right when the snow is melting. But other than that I don't remember there ever being enough water in there to take an actual bath. Brendan started climbing the big rock...but then wanted to come back down.
I went up to get him, but then my sister Jamie carried him down so that I wouldn't fall and get hurt. My center of gravity is a little bit off these days with my belly sticking out so far. Then everyone tried to talk me into climbing to the top...again the center of gravity thing...plus, I don't remember it ever being as steep as it really is. When we got back into cell phone range I called Neil and told him that we will have to stop at the City of Rocks and climb together as a family when I am not pregnant and the kids are just a little bit bigger. Brendan, Eliza and Kaleb stayed down at the bottom with Grandma
Bedke and I and climbed on their own big rocks. I need to get the pictures from my mom! They really had a lot of fun on the rocks. Right when we got out of the car Eliza started playing in the gravel in the parking lot. She is my ROCK LOVER! Did I mention that it was very HOT that day?
After the City of Rocks we traveled into Oakley, Idaho to celebrate Oakley Days by watching the parade...we were a few minutes late and I guess they started the parade a few minutes early...so we missed the whole thing. The kids were so tired they even slept through the fire trucks running their siren as the parade was ending. Oh well. The whole reason why we were at Oakley was for the very extended Bedke Reunion. The Bedke Family has been there for 130 years and it was them that settled in Basin (right next to Oakley) when Frank Carl Bedke came to America from Prussia that many years ago.
Is this riding in style or what? I think she is pretty comfortable! All I know is that I wouldn't be able to do this right now...So we celebrated the extended
Bedke Reunion on Sunday afternoon at the original homestead site and had yummy food there. Kaleb and Eliza took naps with uncle Adam and then were ready to play together after that. Here are the cousins that were there from the Dave
Bedke line: Kaleb, Brendan, and Eliza. As you can see, Eliza is quite the
cheeser these days!
Then we went to the open house for the
Twin Falls Temple on Monday morning. I was so proud of the kids when they acted reverently inside the temple. They were really good and it was extra special to have my dad's old friend from high school,
roommate from college, and now Area Seventy Brent Nielson take us on our very own private tour.
We finally got down to Park City on Monday afternoon and were able to have fun with all of my cousins and all of their cute kids. It was fun to see everyone again and to visit with them. Eliza fell in love with the bag dolley thing. It was really fun to spend more time with my family, too. Chelsea, Christopher, and Andrew were such big helpers with Brendan and Eliza. I know that Brendan and Eliza had a lot of fun with them! This is a picture of Brendan and Chelsea riding up the ski lift (Brendan calls it the big swing) to be able to go down the Alpine slide together. I am just glad that the body board that they put on our chair didn't have to be used by us!
When we got up to the top we had to get our sleds. I wasn't sure that me, my belly, and Brendan could fit on one of those things, but we did! We had fun going down the slide together. Here we are waiting our turn. Brendan said that he didn't want to go down the big slide, but I told him that was the only way down the mountain. He finally consented...and when asked if he was having fun on the way down, he said he was!
I'm not in the next picture. It was taken at the top of the zip line...that I went down, too. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bedke who watched my kids, I was able to be outside playing all day! It was a lot of fun.
The Bradleys from Indiana were in Utah at the same time as we were and came to visit us. It was fun to get the kids together again. Brendan and Ryan were a bit cold at first but then when we were eating dinner they just started giggling for no reason that we could see.
I think that Brendan and Eliza liked the water the best. They didn't much care for the big pool, but the hot tubs were a great hit! Brendan swam almost every day with Chelsea or Christopher or Andrew staying longer with him than what I could. Thank you guys!
We are glad to be home and be able to see Neil in real life. :) We were able to get home on Sunday just in time to see him before he left for Seattle...only 2 weeks left!
