Raspberry Days

This is going to be a really long post, because there was a lot of fun had this weekend. And its so exciting because I got to cross off a ton of things on the summer to do list.
Growing up, we would go to Bear Lake all the time in the summer. It is my favorite childhood memories. I now have 2 cousins that live there year round so we have been going up over Raspberry Days and staying with them the last couple of years.
My cousin Ashley lives in Randolph just outside of Bear Lake, on a ranch. And I had such a blast.
My awesome brother and sister in law let me ride with them, which was so nice. Right when we got there, everyone was down by the dam hanging out. We drove to the dam and my Aunt Dana threw me, my brother and Mei Mei into the Kayaks within minutes of arriving. It was so fun. The dam in so pretty, and they had a system going where you would get in at the dam, and float down the river back to Ashleys house.
Here Is the dam where we started...

And here we are starting to float/kayak back to the house.

There were spots were the water was so shallow you could see part of the fish backs swim past us.
They had such a great system going where they would drive this cute little truck down by the river and drop it off and go back to the dam. So when we got to the house, the truck was there for us to load up, and take back up to the dam for the next pair to go down.
I got to drive the truck because I thought it was AWESOME. I saw them all over in Italy. The stirring wheel and shifting gear is all on the opposite side. I am already a horrible stick shift driver so to drive one all backwards was so much fun for me, and such a rough ride for my passengers :)

Kami & Dana- they had just dropped off the sweet car and headed back to the dam.

Their ranch was such a blast to hang out at. They have a million dogs which is heaven for me. 2 of their dogs had just had puppies! They were so cute.
K Bel loving the tractor

Kinley

My cousin Ashley and one of her dogs

We slept over at Ashleys house and had a fun dinner, and played a little Wii. We all had a blast.
The next morning after sleeping in a little, we got ready and headed to Laketown for the Raspberry Day festivities. We walked through the craft fair where I bought this cute little clock...

Then we had lunch and I finally got my Tigers Blood Snow Cone!

After hanging out at the fair for awhile we went to my other cousin Julies house. Julie lives right in Laketown close to the lake. She and her husband had a nice big BBQ at their house. All my cousins that were also up there came over and we sat by the camp fire. Julie is such an amazing cook, and was so nice to host all of us.
Julie has this fun little vehichle and all the girls thought we would take it for a spin and grab some shakes.

Little did we know we would run out of gas! We were all wearing dresses and pushing the car into the gas station. It was classic!

My cousin Matt taught me to shoot a bow and arrow. I am not good at all. Even though he put an arm gaurd on me, I still have a bruise on my fore arm because I sucked it up so bad.

I dont have a picture of this, but this was probably one of my favorite moments on the trip. Cody and Kami brought their bikes and Kam and I decided to take Kinley for a ride, while we waited for dinner. The best part is, Kami and I were both wearing dresses. Well it ended up not being a good idea at all. I kept losing my shoe and had to keep going back to get it, and kamis long cute dress got all wrapped up in her chain. I went to go help her, so she wouldnt rip her dress. Somehow my arm slipped and I clocked her right in the face. Still sorry Kam. Im going to go ahead and call that my long bike ride, not because of the distance, but because of how long it took us with traffic, me losing my shoe a hundred times, and trying to get Kams dress untaggled.
Me and Mei Mei sitting by the fire.

Check out those eyes...

For those of you who havent made it to the Raspberry days, my very favorite part is the light parade. At like 10 PM when its all nice and dark, we walk down to the beach and sit on the sand and watch a parade they do on water. The boat owners decorate their boats with lights and make a parade on the water. Its so much fun.
It was pitch dark and I couldnt figure out my camera settings so not a great picture.
The girls getting ready for the parade

Parade

After they had fireworks! I love fireworks, its like Christmas music to me..same thing every year, but never gets old :)
The next morning we got up, and headed to the beach. I didnt get a ton of pictures but it was so nice. The water was the warmest Ive felt in years. Such a great time.