Bear Lake

Okay, so some quick background on our friends who own the condo:

Ben and Conni Lewis have been married since...um...a few years before us.  (I think 11??  But that might be too long--not sure.)  They have three children: Aisley who turns 7 at the beginning of February (I taught her CTR 5 class when we first moved in to the ward, so she and I are good friends), Breckin who is Kaden's age and they are in the same Sunbeam class, and Rylin (not sure on the spelling!) who is around 19 months old...maybe a couple of months older, but close enough to Ari's age that they are buddies.

The Lewis's started fostering kids back in September and have had one adorable little boy staying with them up until a couple of weeks ago when he went back with his mom.  BUT three or four days before Christmas, they got a call that there was another little boy (Hayden, who is 2 1/2) that needed a home like rightnow so they had four kids for Christmas!  :)  All in all, we were outnumbered: 7 kids - 4 adults.  

(And, yes, having a "Hayden" and a "Kaden" was super confusing-for both the adults and kids.  "Hayden NO!"  Kaden, "What did I do?"  Yeah...good times.)

Anyway, Sunday evening (on Christmas) we finally got all the kids to bed and then the adults stayed up playing games.  Kaden and Lexi got to share a blow-up mattress, which they loved.  It was hilarious to hear them giggling until all hours of the night.  That is exactly why they don't share a room.  Ari was in a pack-n-play in our room as well, but we drugged her so she went to sleep without too much crying.  ;)

So cozy!  We definitely need to invest in an air mattress or two.  They are so handy!

 After playing games for a few hours, we were all exhausted...some of us more than others...

Ben, Conni's hubby, so tired!

Conni!  She and I were willing to pull an all nighter, but the boys wussed out on us.

This was our room for the night.  It was huge!

This was the view of the living room from our upstairs bedroom.

A view of Bear Lake from the patio.

 The Lewis's motto during their week vacation every year is "Eat well, play hard."  And do they ever!  Conni told us when we arrived that they have three huge meals a day, plus snacks, and she wasn't kidding.  Breakfast was SO good and would easily put IHOP to shame.  After eating until we thought we would burst, it was time to break out the Wii for some dancing!

That's Aisley in the front in her cute p.j.'s.

 We played that for a while and the kids played in one of the back rooms, then we bundled up and headed to the playground nearby.

Beautiful!

 As I was taking pictures, these deer ran RIGHT in front of me:

There were 12 all together-and a couple of babies.  Kaden said, "Mom!  I see Santa's reindeer!!"

Shane carrying Ari to the playground.  Nice.

Swinging!

Shane didn't realize there were bumps on this slide and this was his face as he hit the first one.  "AH!!"  hahaha

Cutie!

Conni had the brilliant idea to have the kids go sledding down the slide instead of driving through the canyon trying to find a decent hill.  The kids loved it!

WEE!

 It was such a gorgeous day!  I got hot enough that I took my coat and scarf off, so Kaden copied me.

You'll see in a minute why he's wearing a swimming top...

Conni got in on the sledding action

She went the furthest...   ;)

Conni and Aisley

Kaden, Lexi, and Aisley on the merry-go-round thing.

 When the kids were done playing, we headed over to the hot tub!

Breckin walking behind Lexi and Hayden on the sled that Conni was pulling.

Ahhhhh.....so warm.

Can you see Kaden and Breckin sitting on the stairs?  They are best buds.

Kaden and Breckin are both surrounded by girls at home (now Breckin has Hayden on his side, but it hasn't been for long), so they became brothers quickly and loved having another boy around.

Shane and Ari

The hot tub felt EXTRA hot, but that might have been because it was so warm outside.  We all stayed and played for a while, then headed back for some lunch!

Poor little Ari ate two bites of lunch, and then passed out.  I purposely didn't put her down for a morning nap so that she wouldn't fight taking one like she had the night before.  It worked!

She was so out!

 The rest of the day we played games, ate and ate and ATE, and played some more.  My kids were in HEAVEN and didn't want to leave.  Aisley kept asking why we couldn't stay longer.  It was adorable.

Kaden watching Breckin play Angry Birds on Conni's phone.

Lexi loved all the "baby" toys.  :)

After a really delicious dinner (which, P.S., Kelly, I am going to make for you sometime--you guys will love it!), we packed up and headed home.  All three kids were fast asleep within five minutes.  :)  That's my kind of vacation!  We were also given an invitation to join them again next year and stay longer if possible.  I'm thinking this is definitely a Christmas tradition I could get used to!  :D