August 11th: Bear Lake

August 11th is my Mother-in-law Reva's birthday. Since we were there, Steve and I wanted to make sure we did something fun on her birthday so it didn't get lost in all the excitement going on other days. August is busy for us where our anniversary is on the 10th, Reva's birthday is on the 11th, and then Ellie's birthday (and our trip home this year) is on the 12th. So, Steve had the idea to go to Bear Lake. It was a beautiful day and the weather wasn't too hot, so we loaded up in the beamer and headed to the beach. A swim diaper, swim suit, and a lot of sunscreen later, Ellie was ready to live it up at the lake.

At first, everyone just sat enjoying the warm sand and nice breeze off the water.

This girl can play in dirt and rocks forever and be quite content. That is until you have to cram your fingers into her mouth to pull the rocks out. But still.... she loves it.
Eventually she made her way down to the water - with some help if I remember correctly. (Like, we went and plopped her down at the water's edge...) Still though, there were rocks and dirt to play with and she was enjoying herself.

Once I took her out in the water.... not so much enjoyment, at least not at first. Hey, it was much warmer than the ocean from the week before!Eventually she took to holding my pant leg with one hand while making big splashes with the other hand, going from side to side. She loves the water, she just had to get used to the lake.
After quite a while playing in the water, we went back to showing her the great rocks and mud that could be found just inside the water line.
We grabbed a few family pictures of course.
And then had a very tired girl from all the sun and excitement.
But, it was a fun day at the beach!
Afterwards we went and grabbed milk shakes at the Bear Cave before heading back to Preston. As an entertaining side note, the next day we read about the high levels of E coli on the beach. Luckily, Ellie never seemed to get sick, but she did only try to eat the one rock that day. What can I say, guess she wasn't very hungry... Or maybe the rocks just weren't very tasty that day.

Anyway, we hope that it was a fun birthday for Grandma. I know Ellie had a great time. Here is a fantastic picture of the two birthday girls together.
Can you see the beaming? Duh. They love each other.