Alexander Lake

Yes, it was everything I hoped for and oh so much more. :)

Turns out that we got off work early Friday afternoon and headed up to the lake. So, we had time to swim and hang out on Friday night. We looked at stars and I saw a shooting star for the first time in my whole entire life. We built the raft, the zipline was already up, we ate banana boats, what more do you want?

The little boys were HILARIOUS and Tyler (Sarah's youngest) was the mascot for this year. We looked at pictures after and he and Ryann were the subject of most of the pictures. It was good times. Tyler kept throwing "wocks" (rocks) in the lake because they were like "bombs!" He was hilarious. He's just wander around gather rocks and throwing them in the lake.

Right when we got there I was ready to jump in the lake, so I did, and then we waited while the big strong boys built the raft. Sarah and Katy were nice enough to get in the lake with me so I didn't feel so lonely. They're nice. We swam and swam, and played in the water. Big Josh (he got a new nickname because both my nephew and husband were there, so we had to start making the distinction between the two of them) played with his guns and then even he got in the water! The in-laws in my family are notorious for boycotting all cold wet activities at the lake, but Josh wanted to play and I was SOO glad he did! It's certainly my favorite part of the lake, so I was relieved that he had fun doing it too. Randy is the other brave in-law and spends as much time in the lake as anybody else. He's brave too.That night we made banana boats (which were a big hit, thanks Reilleys!) and sang songs around the batter-powered-lantern. We couldn't have any fires at all, which was funny because some people across the lake did, and the little boys kept yelling at them "you're breaking the law!" wanted to make sure they knew that they were being really naughty and when their mom's found out they'd be in big trouble. :) We sang some really funny songs and I learned some things about my family. There's this horrible song that we all grew up singing and I realized just how horrible it is.

"I'm a villan a dirty rotten villan and I leave a trail of blood where e're I go (I go)

My chief delight is to pick a fight And I beat little kids on the head 'til they're dead.

I have gotten a rep for being rotten I put poison in my mother's shredded wheat (her wheat)

I put a stain on the family name And I eat-raw-meat!"

The best part is that I was like 10 or 12 years old before I knew that it wasn't the same song as
"I'm a mormon, yes I am!" Horrible. But we also know a lot of nice songs too, so that's good.

I guess a couple of years ago when we went Clint (Sarah's husband) started the legend of the cyclops. The cyclops lives on the other side of the lake and he eats naughty little kids, so you're not allowed to go over there without a grown up. Well this year, Clint stopped by Best Buy and found a victim of the cyclops which quickly made it's way up to the lake. They hid it, with a note, where the cyclops lives for the little boys to find on one of their walks around the lake. Needless to say, it worked.

The next day on the lake, there were pirate ships, and attacks, and bomb squads, and all manner of wickedness. At one point Randy literally jumped from the homemade raft to the other raft, grabbed Josh and brought him down into the lake. Meanwhile 5 year old Dallin is "manning the ship" all by himself. He was so brave, he knew he'd be fine and just sailed alone for quite some time. Until Captain Spence came and jumped back in the raft, nearly tipping it. Oh man we had fun. I'm sure our neighbors appreciated our shouts of "attack!" "direct hit!" "we're goin' down!" "we're commandeering another one!" "avast ye maytees!" it was a regular pirate war.

Saturday Josh helped me go down the zipline, it scared me. You had to walk off a home-made plank, which was way worse than the actual ride down the zipline. I was fine on the ride part, but balancing on the log and walking off it made me REAL nervous. I'm a big baby. This is Spence building it - he's braver than I am.

All in all it was a great trip, and I'm glad that Josh came with me so he could understand why it's the happiest place on earth for me. He's really good about appreciating the things that I love. He had a great time, and I'm fairly certain that we'll go back. :) Mission successful.