40 Years!

Jeff's parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this summer! And they wanted to celebrate with this motley crew at Bucks Lake:

and happily, we were all able to oblige! It was such fun to all be at the family cabin together. It was Labor Day weekend so the water was low and the beach below the cabin made for a perfect launch point for fun activities.

Geocaching:

We found 4 caches around Bucks Lake in our first attempt at geocaching.
Here are the kids with our first find under "troll bridge."

Beauty Shop, courtesy of Aunt Janell:

Smores:

Boating:

Some tubing, some skiing, some cruising...

One afternoon Jeff, Janell, Jason and I took our 4 + 2 Bolinder kiddies for a loooong adventure on the boat. Even little Blake came along! We cruised the lake, took some swimming dips, found a geocache, and stopped at the marina for ice cream. There was a scare that the boat was malfunctioning and would not start, but the kids said a fervent prayer and the boat started right up ... Phew!

Swimming and Beach Play:

Ethan spent hours using this big stick as a lever, attempting to flip this big rock.

Jetskiing:

We rented a jetski for 2 hours and the time just FLEW by between all the riders. We now make a confession that since we were the last family to leave on Monday, we took the opportunity to rent a jetski all to ourselves for an hour before heading down the mountain.We played games, shared memories, ate lots of food, and mostly enjoyed one another :) Jeff and I made an ABC book of memories from Jim & Colleen's 40 years. It's so fun to be able to custom make books like that. It's a treasure! I hope the extended Smith family will get to vacation together in future years. It's so fun for cousins to get to know each other!