Well better late than never. We went to Big Bear at the beginning of August and I am now just writing about it. There just has been a whirlwind of events happening and just not one moment to sit and talk about our amazing adventures! Anyway our vacation started out with the same kind of mishaps that happen to everyone. I of course being the mommy and the super organizer was in charge of the packing, food menu, the grocery shopping, agenda and pretty much everything. We had planned to leave between 9-10am that way Logan could nap on the way up and not get to irritated or car sick. We were on time which was awesome and just needed to finish getting things and babies in the car. During this process of getting ready to leave we decided to leave the keys to my car at the house just in case they needed to move my car or borrow it for any reason. We decided not to take my car this year just because old faithful is very old and needs to live long enough till Dave finishes school. It proved to be a problem later in our trip, which I will explain later. Anyhow, Dave's car does not have a toll transponder and therefore we had to take the long way to get to the 91 FWY. As we finally make headway to our destination David says something to me that makes me realize that I left my keys at home, which we had planned, but HELLO my keys have the key to the cabin in Big Bear. So we get off at the next exit and head back home. During this time I call my mom and ask her to add Dave's car to the toll road. We get home of course we have already been in the car and hour the baby wakes up and we are back to square one. Eventually we make it to Big Bear and got settled.The Cabin looked great Dave's parents had done some major renovations that really made the place pop! The carpet was replaced, the kitchen cabinets and walls got a new coat of paint, tile in the entry way and there was a new water heater. Yea, no more cold showers!
Later that day we just cleaned up and headed over to Kmart and got our fishing license for the next couple of days and went for a drive looking for the church building. We were driving quite a while and with no luck could not find the church building and gave up to look for it the next day.
Friday we went fishing. I was seriously worried about the weather because when we arrived Thursday it was warm but with a cold breeze. Friday we woke up and it was cold we all wore pants and sweatshirts and still were really cold. I had not planned on it being cold and mostly packed shorts and t-shirts. We went fishing at Boulder Bay like we did last year and had a great time. The baby took a nap in the car seat while I read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Luke and David were fishing for about an hour and once again like so many times before did not catch anything. Luke was so cold that he told us he was ready to leave and so we packed up the kids and fishing gear and headed back to the cabin. There we rested a bit and relaxed. After lunch David and Luke decided to head back to go fishing again. Luke fell asleep in the car on the way there so, David laid him on a chair while he fished. Logan and I stayed at home enjoying the peace and quite. The boys came back later with no fish once again. I seem to be seeing a trend
here about fish, Big Bear claims they have some of the best fishing in the world but in all the years that David as been fishing and not just on the shore he has gone out in a boat too, they have never caught anything! I believe there are not very many fish. We had a quite dinner and headed to bed early only to be awakened at 1am to some people having a party down a couple of houses. Lets just say none of us got a great nights sleep.Saturday we awoke to crying babies and a cold house. I thought that vacation is supposed to be relaxing? Anyway we went fishing again at the Northshore. I dropped off Luke and David and went to send an email off and get gas in the car and that's when I realized that they were having a huge antique classic car show that I wanted to check out. We didn't stay that long at Northshore, Luke was overtired and grumpy and just wanted to explore so we packed up and left for home to take naps. On the way home we asked for directions to the church building and found it! We also stopped by the library to use their computers and do the necessary computer stuff that we just can't seem to get away from. We went home ate lunch and rested a bit and then decided to head over to the the Village and check out the car show. It turned out to be so fun to see all the decked out cars and who would have thought we would get to see the whole cast of
PIXAR CARS.
PIXAR CARS.
It was really neat and it got really warm toward the after noon which I was glad. After the car show we got some icecream at the local fudge and candy shop and enjoyed eating it and sitting on the curb like we get to do this all the time. What great memories I hope our kids will have of the simple things in life! We got home later and had a hot dog cookout in the front deck and roasted hotdogs and later roasted marshmallows to make SMORES. Super messy and dirty but way fun and I want to do it again! We were afraid that we would have another noisy night so in our family prayer we asked Heavenly Father to bless the people down the street that they would be quite and go to bed early. Sure enough our prayers were answered and they went to bed and we had a greats night sleep.Sunday we went to church. Interesting but enjoyable, I really don't know what we were expecting but it was really small and most of the small children and families there were visitors vacationing. Fortunatley they had a nursery and Luke was able to go.
Cheri Taylor and Rachel Brokaws' parents were there guest speaking to the ward which was awesome. Its is amazing how small the world is and how so many times paths cross for a reason. We all enjoyed church espcially me when I decided for the third hour to take a gander at thier primay and see how things are run. Lets just say I love my kids and my calling. I am so thankful for their
reverence and thier beautiful voices!
We enjoyed the rest of the Sunday taking a walk
around the lake and picking up trash and having a devotional.
It was a great day!
Monday, we got up early packed a lunch and decided to have a nice enjoyable hike. We made our way down and bought our adventure pass to be able to park on the grounds. You know how earlier I said that we wished we would have brought old faithful? Well we decided to walk this hike and see the oldest londgpole pine. It was 5 miles up a trialhead by car just to get to it. They said it would be on a dirt road but Dave and I thought it couldn't have been that trecherous so we proceeded up the dirt road in the Saturn. Well we soon discovered that Saturns are not made for mountenous service roads. Even Luke was getting a little worried he had his leg braced agianst the back of Daves chair and was not saying a word just concentrating very hard and contemplating the journey ahead. A few times David and I contemplated turning around but decided that we should forge on ahead and prayer to Heavenly Father that he would bless us and the car that we would make it safely. Of course we did and had a great hike to see the lodgepole pine, eat our lunch and head back down the mountain.
We had an appointment to take a Pirate ship and cruise around the lake at 2pm and Luke was beyond excited! We weren't expecting much but ended up having probably a better time then Luke did hearing all about the history of Big Bear, real estate, government owned land and lawsuits and of the celebrities. I am sold that if it is ever in our budget I would love to get a boat and sea doos, they just are so much fun!
After the cruise ship we had one last stop at the Alpine slides that I was dieing to take Luke on. It was such blast and can't wait to take him again next year. Hopefully we can squeeze in also the water slide and see how he likes it!Tuesday of course we packed up the car and the closed up the cabin and headed home. But not without taking one more picture of the boys in front of:
1170 Villa Grove
Big Bear, CA
What a great rip can't wait to do it again next year and the year after that and the year after that, well you know what I mean it was some great memories!
