polar bear lake

a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to stay in a fabulous cabin in bear lake with all the taylor crew. and when i say "crew," i mean CREW. there are over 40 of us all together and it is rare that we get the chance to get away like this. we are ALL so glad that we did. it was like the movie "dan in real life" only nobody stole anyone else's date and there was no murdering of love. it was soooo fun. here is a rundown of our time spent there:

thursday

we all met up at the cabin late on thursday night. we pretty much just had enough time to chat, get in jammies and hit the sack- ready to start the fun early the next morning.

friday

i LOVE going somewhere late at night when you can't see enough of your surroundings to really know where you are. i think it makes for the best surprise in the morning. since we got to the cabin so late the night before, i was thrilled to wake up and find myself here

we could see the entire lake from end to end. with all the fall leaves- it was awesome. after gawking at the sights from our windows, we ate breakfast and gathered outside for a little hike.

some of us were a little surprised to see that we had all dressed in the same color scheme....

apparently we were also surprised to see such a bright sun beating into our eyes.

the hike was fun. violet had a blast with her cousins- who she refers to as "cushions." she and ava were pals all weekend long. sweet ava just took her under her wing!

there was plenty to do and much to find on our hike.

you can always count on vi to haul around the biggest stick she can find...

ivy just enjoyed the view. it will be nice to go on our next hike and not have to lug around a tank like we had to here.

as the hike progressed, the men got into a throwing contest to see who could hit a small, metal flag that was attached to a fire hydrant. as they continually threw and missed the mark, more and more people joined in until....

lindsey t finally hit it!

after hiking back to the cabin, we dined on yummy sandwiches and let the kids run wild. there was a swingset, a sand box, a billion toys and lots of "cushions" to play with. the men retreated to the shed where they powered up the polaris ranger and took it out for a spin. soon, the ranger was dripping with kids who wanted to ride- i think we had that engine running for the rest of the day and the kids took turns going on rides.

most of the time, the polaris rides were great- beautiful scenery, screams of joy and fabulous weather. one ride, however, was not so fabulous...

that mud isn't coming out of ANYTHING.

we had a bunch of activities planned, but we realized that the kids just wanted to play together- and on the polaris... so that afternoon, we all took it easy and enjoyed our time to chat, nap and snack. wouldn't have it any other way.

that night, we dined on yummy taco soup- abby was great to open 25 cans of beans in order to get the dinner going. again, we are a CREW. the food was fab and we all ate until we were stuffed full.

we had decided that we were going to have a skit night followed by an open talent show. we lined all forty-two of us up from youngest to oldest (yes, even the kids and babies) and divided into teams. each team had to reenact the story of goldilocks and the three bears according to the theme they picked out of a hat. my group got ACTION and we were sure to add all sorts of ninjas and explosions to the story. abby, sadie and i even used callie, hartman and violet as machine guns at one point. cade was in the COMEDY group where there were plenty of crotch kicks and jokes. it really was fun to see everyone participate and the kids LOVED the skits. after that, the talent show started and we were entertained with singing, dancing, skits and all sorts of fun. i love watching all the nieces perform- they are so creative and so cute. i especially love that even the teenagers get into stuff like this. there is never a moment where somebody is "too cool" to participate- and it makes for a fun time for everyone.

we all enjoyed a gourmet hot chocolate bar before heading to bed.

saturday

as we ate breakfast, it was decided that now was as good a time as any to take a polar bear plunge into the lake. cade had been insisting for a while that this was a must for the trip. the next thing we know, all the vans are loaded and we are heading to the water- ALL of us. for those of you who have been to bear lake, you know that the water is freezing even in the heat of august. october temperatures are frigid. nevertheless, we left the little kiddos on the beach and the rest of us waded into the water and took the plunge. according to cade, you must dunk yourself three times in order to be a true polar bear. so, we all followed. even leslie, cade's mom, dunked under in her nice pants and cute shirt. it was a sight to see us all- unfortunately, we were the only people crazy enough to be there... so nobody saw.

later lindsey g was laughing that all of the older siblings just followed their youngest brother into the icy waters. who would have imagined this happening all those years ago?

that afternoon, the men watched the byu game, the kids ran wild and played and the older nieces gave all the mommas pedicures. it was a relaxing afternoon so i just soaked it all in and enjoyed every second of it. sadie made yummy enchiladas for us all. yes, enchiladas for all 42 of us. as the afternoon went on, we started gearing up for our masquerade ball. everyone made a mask out of a paper plate to wear. abby decorated the place all festive. we were ready to tear it up.

violet's kitty mask didn't fit... so i let her wear mine. i am glad i did because she looked great and you could tell she felt cool with all that wild yarn on her face.

here are granny and grandpa with all the grandkids...

and of course, the taylor fam.

after posing for some pictures, we had quite the dance. we all got into it. there were special dances for the kids, for the dads, for the tweens, for the mommas... and we danced and danced and danced. it was fabulous.

fabulous!

we all sacked out on the floors and couches that night as we fell asleep to movies. the end to a great day.

sunday

at some point in the middle of the night, the fire alarm went off in the house. i was right in the middle of a very scary dream- so this was NOT welcomed by me. my heart was racing when i woke up and i was so confused. the alarm shut off and the house was quiet again. cade and i wondered if anyone else heard it or if it was just in our room. since we didn't hear anyone get up, we decided it was a false alarm and we crashed back into bed. not a minute later, we heard pounding on the front door of the cabin (which was right outside our room). at this point, i really was scared. cade and brent went to investigate. when they finally opened the door, ray, cade's dad, was standing out in the cold. he had heard the alarm and went outside but was locked out. this was all so funny at 3 in the morning so we stood together in the hall and giggled for a while before making our way back to bed.

in the morning, it was time to pack up. admittedly, i was worried about the state of the cabin at this point. we had lived in and loved on that cabin all weekend. as we all got to it, however, it cleaned up quite nicely! we were out of there in no time- even though none of us wanted to leave. it had been SUCH a fun weekend and we didn't want it to end.

the only consolation to all of this was driving through the canyon to logan in the daylight so we could see all the beautiful leaves. i was glued to my window with ooos and ahhhs. we had missed most of the other fall colors, so the entire canyon was full of golden yellow leaves. it was gorgeous. a consolation... but i STILL wish i was back in bear lake living it up with the fam.