Easter at Bear Lake

The night before we left for Bear Lake, we told my family the big news through a video chat. They knew something was up with the random and spontaneous desire to have this call, but oh well.

We showed them the sign on the right and the reaction was great. Unfortunately, Boomer thought we were having twins--he just saw the two grandbabies part. :S Silly guy! 

We had planned to tell his parents the following day when we were up at Bear Lake with everyone on Nate's side of the family. We had a suspicious hunch that Jake and Kim might share similar news, but that was to be determined when the moment arrived. 

March 29-March 31

We drove along highway 40, right out of Vernal, toward Bear Lake. As we headed through the no-where landscape, travelling through Manila and other various small towns, we came to a point in the trip where we had to slow down for a large herd of sheep moving to a different field. We were literally surrounded on all sides by sheep. Nate thought I was weird for taking pictures, but I thought it was interesting. Hello buddy, I grew up in Salt Lake where there are little to no sheep, let alone a large migrating herd of sheep!
We made it to the condo, waited for everybody else from the family to show up before all of the ladies decided to go out to eat for Barbara's birthday, leaving the men with the kiddos. Ashley has been in New Jersey working as a nanny for a sweet 16 year old girl, Rebecca, with autistic tendencies.
Before heading out, Jake made a big push to pass out the gifts now. Hmm.. Jake, what are you up to? Rob, Scott and Barbara all opened their gifts and then Jake and Kim's gift got everyone excited. They're pregnant! !! Nate and I gave Barbara a card soon after announcing the same news. Pretty sure Barbara was a bit overwhelmed, but it was all good.
We went out to eat and I got a delicious shrimp alfredo pasta.

All the preggies talked about how we found out, possible name choices, etc. Barbara and Emily told stories from their own preggie experiences. It was a really great outing with the women of the family. After most of the food had been eaten and the dessert had been ordered, we went around the table telling Barbara what we loved about her and her wonderful qualities. 

I really love my mother-in-law. Especially at this point in my life with everything going on with my own mom. She understands the teacher part of my life and is there for me in the way I need. I can talk to her in a similar way of how I used to be able to talk to my own mom. It has been so helpful over the last few years to have that relationship and trust where I can out my frustrations, vent and discuss as I need to about the many things going on in my life. 

Later that evening, in case we didn't have enough good news, Ashley got her mission call!

She's going to Canada!

The next day, I wasn't feeling too hot, but we had our traditional easter egg hunt hidden by Nate's parents. Everybody got to look for their color of eggs and then it was on for the search of the golden egg which has $10 inside. Barbara will usually give one clue and then everyone can search for it. I found it last year. 

After the egg hunt, it was time to bring out the newest toy...marshmellow shooters. Everyone got involved and had a little too much fun shooting them at each other and having distance challenges. 

I went inside since I wasn't feeling very well, but it was fun to watch from the balcony.

I took a much needed nap, everyone else went to the pool and then we ate dinner.

We hung around afterward talking and playing games, including Cards Against Humanity after Barbara and Larry went to bed. It's like playing apples to apples, but deals with scenarios plus horrible things instead of the pleasant one word objects or pro-nouns. I felt a little bad because as we played, I could tell Ashley was a bit uncomfortable. Some of the cards dealt with things that married or older adults would understand or be able to joke about. For everyone else, it was ridiculously funny. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Nate decided to play black ops with the boys and I went to bed.

Sunday morning, Larry, Barbara, Ashley and Rebecca went to the earlier sacrament meeting to work on dinner when they got back and everyone else went to the later time. After sacrament meeting, we went home for dinner. Larry's lamb was really good! We hung around for a bit more and then Nate and I had to head back to Vernal.