I haven't been to Bear Lake for a long time. Too many past hurtful memories. So I lost all interest in ever going back. Actually, truth be known, I never loved Bear Lake anyway. I only made it a part of my life because it was such a deep part of Neal and the Maxfield children's lives. But when that was all taken away from me and the money I had poured into the cabin, I was done.
Over the years I've worked and have not wanted to use precious vacation days spending time at Bear Lake. If I were going to use my earned vacation I wanted to pick places that I wanted to be. But, this year found me retired and Neal wanted to go and spend some time with his brothers and sisters and families. They always have Sweetwater from Friday to Friday during this week in July. Neal paid for the week. We went up on Friday afternoon and stayed for the weekend, coming back Tuesday morning. He invited Lyndsy and Maren to go up Tuesday afternoon for the rest of the week.
It was nice to spend time with Nita, Nanette, Nila, Ned and Natalie's families. McKenzie and Bryndy's family were also there. Nadine was in St. George at a missionary farewell and was coming up on Tuesday evening. Adam came up with some of his kids while we were there. It was nice to get reacquainted with the 2nd and 3rd generations.
Some fun and random pictures. This first picture is the group on Monday ready to play golf. I was not there when they took the picture. But got there shortly after. The golf day is a big day for the Maxfield siblings.
This is a picture of Nanette, Nila and myself. Nila is holding a rock that has Gary's name on it. The rock is permanently at the golf course.
Nanette and I ready to head out for nine fun holes of golf. I loved golfing with Nanette and having some very personal talks with her. Loved being able to share with her.
Bryndy also golfed with us. She brought along her little 3 month old Lela Wendy. Her baby was so good and hardly let out a peep the whole time we were golfing. Bryndy had her in the baby carrier and sitting on the seat of the golf cart next to her.
This is little Lela Wendy. I'm not sure how to spell her name. But no matter, you can't mistake this little one for Bryndy's!
Nanette took these as I was getting ready to hopefully hit the ball! One never knows.
Me holding the baby while Bryndy tees off.
Bryndy actually nursed the little one while we were hitting.
This is at the last hole and after the final putt. We were happy to be done but had an amazingly fun time with each other. None of us took the game too seriously - which is totally my kind of golf! Loved being with these two!
Nanette, Natalie, Laura and I were in charge of dinner on Monday night. We worked together getting things ready. It was fun to work with Nanette. We did have a good time tasting and then tasting again to make sure the casserole was perfect. Nanette is quite the cook.
We went to church on Sunday. There were many options to choose from so on Sunday, families went to different wards. Nita, Neal and I went to the Lake Town ward. The sacrament meeting was really good. There was a visiting authority there. I didn't catch his name but he made a comment that I love and one that I have often wondered about. He said that he often hears people say, "If I was alive back in the pioneer days would I have had the courage and faith to come across the plains?" He said without question that if we are faithful now then we would have been faithful then. I loved that. I like to think that I would have been strong enough and had the faith to make the sacrifices and the journey that the pioneers did. I have a great admiration and love for the pioneers who sacrificed so very much.
His talk reminded me of the quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard:
"The Lord isn't asking us to load up a handcart, He's asking us to fortify our faith.
He isn't asking us to walk across a continent, He's asking us to walk across the street to visit our neighbor.
He isn't asking us to give all of our wordly possessions to build a temple, He's asking us to attend regularly the temples already built.
He isn't asking us to die a martyr's death, He's asking us to live a disciple's life."
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