Our Labor Day Adventure

Several weeks ago, we decided that we might like to tour the new Brigham City temple, but when I went online to look for tickets, there were very few available. I called my sweetie at work and outlined the problem. Of course he had an answer! He suggested we make our appointment for early Tuesday morning and we could spend the long weekend at Bear Lake. Then we could simply stop at the Open House on our way home.

I excitedly made hotel reservations for a couple of nights. I had thoughts of our awesome vacation this summer and I was sure the kids would love to try to recreate just a mini-vacation over the long weekend. Boy, was I wrong!

Do you have high school students who absolutely refuse to miss a day of school? Well I do. And it trickled to the middle schooler and elementary-aged daughters as well. Unfortunately for them, I had already made the reservations and they were stuck.

We left Sunday afternoon right after the baby blessing of our cute new little nephew, Seth. It only took a couple of hours to drive to Logan. We stayed at the Crystal Inn and they even had free dinner as well as free breakfast! We drove around town a little and then headed for the hotel. The kids wanted to swim in the pool which turned out to be warm and crowded.

 After dinner we spent the evening at the hotel, playing cards and just being together. The next morning we got up pretty early, had breakfast and headed for Bear Lake. We parked at a little park about a block from the shore and unloaded the rafts. It was a bit of a hike, but the kids were excited to try them out on a real lake. I guess the one at Lake Hill last summer didn't really count.

I personally stayed out of the water, but the kids had a great time! They splashed around for a couple of hours until everyone was tired and hungry. We walked back to the park and then the Drama Queen, my sweetie, and I took off for ice. Our secret plan was to bring back fresh raspberry shakes. The kids had talked about them as we headed into town and I knew Bear Lake was famous for them.

We waited in long lines for about half an hour, but they were worth it. Then we drove back to Logan. We spent the rest of the day in the hotel, lounging in the pool, eating another free dinner and finally relaxing in our rooms. We sent the kids to bed early, knowing that we had to check out by 7:00 to make our appointment in Brigham City.

The temple was beautiful and well-worth the trip. As we headed back to the Salt Lake Valley, most of the kids chose to snooze. Princess was ready the minute we pulled into town, so we drove straight to the high school to drop her off. Then we drove to the middle school. Prima Donna was feeling an urgency as well. I checked in the three younger kids about half an hour later, so no one actually missed a day of school. Even my sweetie took off for work before noon.

It wasn't quite as much fun as our phenomenal summer vacation, but I'm not sure anything ever will be.