Bear Lake

Old friends are the greatest gifts in this life. Brent and I are fortunate to have a group of college friends we vacation with every couple of years. The core group is made up of Brent's roommates and a few others (like myself) who were in the same ward. A couple of spouses round out the crowd. We call ourselves the SNCP: Solid Nucleus of Cool People. It's a great group of friends to have. Over the years whenever the topic of a trip with the SNCP has come up, our response has been unanimous-- we're going. Whatever the location, whatever the cost, come hell or high water we are making it a priority to be with these people. We've never regretted it.

Liesel and Ella singing "Happy Birthday" and then jumping onto the ground in a gale of laughter.

Ireland loved climbing up and down the stairs at the condo, on the chairs and on the tables.
Life has had some funny twists and turns for each of us. Somehow in spite of changes, we're all perfectly comfortable chatting in pjs over cereal. We joke about the past, talk about the future and thoroughly enjoy being together. Even when we haven't seen them for years, Brent and I miss them as soon as we say goodbye. We admire their marriages, the way they raise their children, their commitment to their faith, and the kind of people they are becoming. It's almost like I'm hoping all of that will come to me by osmosis if I just rub shoulders with them. The time we spend with these guys always has me laughing, thinking, and inspired. They are indeed the very best kind of friends.

Steve and Sara with little Ellie. These two are the most relaxed new parents I've ever seen. I was dying to hold that sweet baby and they graciously obliged.
Blair and Katrina. If we were pioneers I would seriously want Katrina in my wagon train. She's adorable but tough as nails when you get down to it.
This year's vacation was to Bear Lake in northern Utah. I got to ride a wave runner for the first time in my life. My teacher was a bit of a speed demon and my introduction to it left me screaming for my life. Once I was in control I started out a bit slow but worked my way up to 50 mph. Whenever a wake rolled towards me I tried to mentally attack it but chickened out every time. Regardless, that is definitely something I'm doing again! I wonder if you can rent a wave runner on Lake Michigan... We were repeatedly told to try the amazing raspberry shakes. They were quite tasty but the REAL find were the chocolate covered raspberries. I seriously ate 6 in one sitting without remorse.

On our last day there I got up to watch the sunrise over the lake. There had been a huge storm the night before so the quite calm was even more profound. My first attempt at a panoramic photo!

Who knows when and where our next SNCP trip will be, but I can promise it's not soon enough.