possibly the most beautiful spot on earth

I have been suckmaster 5000 at blogging this summer. but it has just been nuts. we bought a condo, we moved out, we moved in, we moved too many boxes, we’ve both been really really busy with work, we went to utah for a couple weeks (well, julie for a week, and me for two), we’ve had some wicked awesome visitors, we sweat a lot in our car with no ac, we finally got the guts to buy a new car (well not “new”, but definitely new to us when we’ve been in the 88 legend), we’ve just been busy. but a good kind of busy…life is really good right now. we are extremely lucky and blessed.

in the midst of all of it, we got to spend some time here at one of my favorite spots on earth.

 

bear lake, idaho. it was amazing to just have some open space, and see the stars, and spend time with some of the people we love most in the world. All 37 of us.

 

 

Noah’s boy Jacobson had his baby blessing which we all got to take part in. Pretty awesome to be there with all these amazing guys.

We went to Bloomington Lake and rope swung into the water that was so cold there were ice cubes in it. Missing…photo of rope swing, but it was awesome.

Got in some great skiing. I wish I could ski more out here. It is one of my favorite things in the world. Nonetheless, I got my fix.

We played a lot of tennis. I beat my Dad. Wahoo!! Improving my all time record to about 6-1849. Not a bad percentage. Not sure why Julie is smiling here, Noah and Kristi captured the trophy from us (we beat them last year in the championship) in the family doubles tournament. It was rigged. That is the only way I can see why they beat us. I think the balls weren’t regulation size or something.

We jumped.

We campfired and s’mored it up. This one included an awesome bday surprise from Julie.

These guys had an awesome bday party for me when we got back from our work conference. Julie was already back in DC, but it was so fun to be with all these guys.

Julie joined all the girls had the MFME outing in Park City for a few days. Including some seriously nice food and the alpine slide.

Perhaps the highlight was my bday present from Julie. An absolutely off the hook SLR camera. I have been coveting one for SO long and Julie totally surprised me with it by putting it in a bucket and giving it me at the big family BBQ – somehow she tricked me into thinking that it was some special dessert to cook over the campfire – instead it was the camera I have been googling about daily for the last 4 months. I am really excited. I’ve got a lot to learn/remember about SLRs but hopefully you’ll be seeing some of my work on here soon. The top two photos were compliments of the new camera. More to come soon.

Bear Lake provided some great recharging. It is great to be back in DC, but it was SO fun to be there with the entire family. I have an amazing family – on both sides. We get to see Julie’s parents this week and we are so excited about that as well. Stay tuned.

PS. I mentioned a new car. Well here it is… I just need to find a Flux Capacitor – they are really expensive on ebay though.