I updated the Missionary Wall pictures before school started. The three oldest have the same pictures since they have already served missions, but I took updated pictures of the four youngest. I love how they turned out!
And look how much these kids have changed in the past two years!! Janelle not as much, but the other three definitely have! 
After the beach (and an attempt at naps) we packed up our things and said goodbye and thank you to the Jensen family and headed twenty minutes to the other side of the lake (in Lake Town) to Brandon's family cabin.
Brandon's mom, Barbara, gave us a tour of the cabin -- it is amazing! They have a big front yard of grass and a back yard grassy area and then the beach! I should have taken some pictures of it! I am not sure how many the cabin sleeps, but it is a lot! The house has many bedrooms -- all with king sized beds. There is also a room with two sets of bunk beds and another twin bed. Upstairs in the loft there were several more bunk beds.
Barbara fixed a delicious meal for everyone of Hawaiian Haystacks and fruit and ice cream for dessert. Brandon and his brother-in-law, Adam, then took the kids boating. They had a blast being pulled behind on the boat on giant tubes! Rick and I went to watch them and take pictures and videos (although working the camera on a fast moving boat made me really sea-sick and so I had to give the camera back to Rick). The kids loved it and we got some great shots!
We weren't able to be out on the boat very long since it was low on oil and wasn't working quite right. Thankfully they were able to get it fixed up for the rest of their stay that week. Peyton and Taylor were really excited to be able to play with the girls and they all slept in the room with the bunkbeds. 
That night the kids played and the adults visited. I would have liked to stay up and visit longer but I was literally falling asleep after getting little sleep the night before. Thankfully we slept great tonight!
Sunday Barbara treated us to a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs and fruit. We had a nice sacrament meeting with the Jensons and I really felt the spirit! Adam's dad (Adam is Brandon's brother-in-law) made this cool creation to hold sacrament cups. I told Josh that he should make something like this for our family since we have the sacrament at home every other week (on the weeks it is our turn to stay home for church).
Then we listened to a conference talk and then took some pictures and headed out. Peyton and Taylor were so sad to have the girls leave and Peyton was crying. They are such sweet, cute girls!
We headed to SLC where my mom had prepared the fixings for lunch. Shane and Alicia and their family joined us and also Jeni. The kids were excited to see their cousins! We would have liked to stay and visit longer but we had a long drive ahead of us and a big week coming up. 
When we arrived home Jase and Ellen were over at our house with a bunch of their friends. Jared had moved his and Janelle's cars in the garage when we left on Thursday and so we had no where to park! Our driveway was filled with cars! Then Jared's former missionary companion, Cole Bolton, came over with his wife to visit Jared. So we had a houseful! We unpacked and then went to bed!
The Jensens said that in order to get a spot on the beach at Bear Lake someone had to go right when it opened at 7:00 a.m.! So Craig and some others went early in order to secure a beach area for the family. They set up a big tent area over some tables and another smaller tent and we all brought camping chairs. Our family met up with them around 9:00. (Unfortunately Josh and Jared were not feeling well and so they stayed back the cabin). Apparently they had fun there also, playing ping pong and other games.
It was still quite cold when we arrived at the beach and I was glad that I had brought a jacket and a blanket! It did warm up an hour or so later though. We had all brought food so that we could eat lunch at the beach. Janika and Brandon were staying at his family cabin in Lake Town and they came and joined us on the North Shore Beach so that we could visit and watch the children play.
Jenna had a blast playing on the beach with her cousins! (Actually all of the cousins are adults now with kids of their own and so they are actually Jenna's first cousins once removed. But it is easier to just say cousins!) They built sand castles and tunnels with water going through them. As you can see from the pictures of London and Jenna below they also built mermaid tails!
Craig brought two big paddle boards (the kind you stand or kneel on) and two kayaks. So that was fun for the kids. I went out on the kayak and also the paddle board. The kayak was easier and more fun. I have done paddle boards while standing up before, but it was at the Ivin's Reservoir with no waves. It was more difficult to keep my balance at Bear Lake due to the gentle waves coming in from nearby boats! It was also more tiring than I remembered. Maybe I am just getting old! Grandma Jensen went out on the kayak also-- with Chase nearby on the other boat to watch out for her. Way to go, Grandma!
This morning Rick and I went for a walk in the cool morning air. We came back to the cabin to a delicious breakfast which included bacon, eggs, pancakes, and fruit! Then everyone headed to Bridgerland Adventure Park in Garden City! The kids had a blast! Thank you to Grandma Jensen for helping cover the expenses and for Julie for doing the research and helping with the reservations! Unfortunately Jared was still feeling really out of it due to his cold and so he stayed back at the cabin and slept, which is too bad because he would have loved the activities!
Josh, Jaiden, Janelle, and Brigham did the Aerial Challenge course (ropes course). They all also did the giant slide with tubes. For the slide they were allowed to go down 15 times! Jenna went on the giant swing with Julie and then later she went again with Troy. You can see her reaction when the swing suddenly drops in the picture in the top right corner below! Jenna also had fun going on the tubes along side London and Jhi and the other kids!
Jenna told me that she wanted to do the huge zip line but I was hesitant because last night she asked me to come watch her go down the big slide in Grandma's back yard and she sat at the top for at least five minutes -- too scared to go down. So you can see my hesitation when she wanted to go down a 2400 foot zip line off of a giant tower! No one was doing the zip line and I wanted her to see someone else go first but no one was on it. She continued to persist and so I finally told her to go ahead -- and she stepped right off the tower with no hesitation at all! Crazy girl! Then after she went there was steady stream of others going on it too!
Josh, Jaiden, Janelle, Brigham, and many of the other family members did the zip line also. I didn't know that Josh was doing it and didn't hear him yelling at me from the top of the tower and so I felt bad that I missed his big moment and didn't get any pictures or videos of him. I got a video of the three girls though and I did get Josh doing some fancy tricks on the bungee trampoline, including a double back flip!! Jaiden and Janelle got to go on the giant swing also and Josh and Brigham played some mini-golf. I would have liked to go on the zip line also since I like that sort of thing, but I didn't want to buy an extra pass for one activity. All in all it was a fun day and the kids couldn't stop talking about it!
Josh, Jaiden, Janelle, Brigham, and I were the last ones there. We were there for over three hours! Everyone else had left to go back to the cabin for lunch. Some of the relatives came back and picked up Josh and Brigham and took them to go check out the booths and shops at Raspberry Days while the rest of us went and got some lunch, then Rick and I took a nap! 
Tonight we had a dinner -- macaroni and cheese and brisket. Janika and Brandon headed to the cabin from Logan tonight and arrived during dinner. After dinner Grandma had Jared give sort of a missionary homecoming report/talk. He did a great job (in spite of the fact that he still wasn't feeling well). After his talk he showed several pictures from his mission and then Rick showed everyone the homecoming video he had made with pictures and videos from Jared's mission. We then played a fun game called "Snake Oil." It was a funny game sort of like Apples to Apples -- but more entertaining since everyone had to come up with funny stories to defend their choice of cards. Then we all headed to bed!
Grandma Jensen had rented out a
big cabin at Bear Lake from Thursday night to Sunday morning for the whole family to come
stay. Some came for whole time and others only came for part of the time. It
was a great idea and a lot of fun. Perhaps Mom and Dad Westra might want to think
about doing something like this for all for the Westra family!
Josh had come down with a cold a couple of days before we left. When Rick went to the train station in Ogden to pick up Jared (after staying with Ryan Dodson at BYU) it was apparent that Jared had gotten Josh's cold (they share a room at home). We were worried about going to the cabin and being around the whole family without having them tested for Covid first. So Rick called Curtis and arranged for them both to get the rapid Covid-19 test.
Meanwhile Allison texted me and said that they were also having Clarissa
(Jenna's best friend) tested in St. George at the same time the boys were being
tested up here (hers was the regular test so we wouldn't find out the results
for three days). Thankfully all three tested negative. Whew!! So although we were
still worried about possibly spreading their cold, we could relax knowing that
it wasn't Covid. It did put a damper on the trip for Jared though since he
didn't feel well the first two days and pretty much skipped all of the
activities and stayed in his room and rested. So that was disappointing!
Thursday
we left in the afternoon after Rick had returned from the clinic with the boys.
I stopped in Logan to see Janika at her office. Now I can picture where she is
at when she is at work. 
We all arrived in Bear Lake around 4:00. That night they had a delicious meal of Pulled Pork sandwiches and salads. They also had this huge snack table literally covered with snacks -- all sorts of candy, chips, and other junk food! The only thing that tempted me was those caramel corn puffs! Yum! That night everyone pretty much just relaxed. Rick led the family with some charade type games outside. The cabin had a ping pong and Foosball table and other games.
This morning Rick and I both had
interpreting jobs and then we headed up North in two separate cars (since we
can't all fit into one car).
My car dropped Jared off to BYU where he was meeting up with a former
missionary companion (Ryan Dodson). A couple of other former companions met up
with them and they all had a great time playing Spike Ball and hanging out.
Jared stayed overnight at the BYU dorms with his comp and then caught the train
to Ogden to meet up with the rest of us.
We see Curtis and Steph all of the time, but the other three former roommates we haven't seen in probably twenty years! So it was fun to see everyone and catch up! Two of the wives didn't come though, so that was too bad as we would have wanted to see them too! We met at Murray Park and ate dinner and visited. The only bad thing was that our kids were bored and kept begging to leave and we wanted to keep visiting! We then headed up to Ogden to spend the night before heading to Bear Lake!
(Rick Jensen, Curtis Healey, Gordon Jones, Eric Hoth)
.jpg)
