Happy Anniversary to me

Frank and I have been planning to go away for our anniversary to Bear Lake for some time now.

We made the reservation a couple of months ago at least.

But we knew we were going out of season...

and neither of us were super excited about it.

Frank was especially unenthused.

How do I know?

The week before our vacation he kept saying things along the lines of "We need to go away somewhere"

and I would reply "We are going to Bear Lake on Monday"

And then the next day...

"I need a vacation"

"Dude! We are going to Bear Lake on Monday!"

-Repeat-

so, yeah.

He was so excited he couldn't even remember it was happening.

But we went.

It is quite a beautiful place...

But it was cold and rainy.

Day after day.

We did a few activities...

walked to the very low, very cold (but beautiful!) lake and looked at it (as it drizzled on our heads)

went and took a tour of a local old tabernacle (as it rained on us)

Visited the City of Paris, because...Paris.

It's a "don't blink" kind of place.

and even went hiking.

We played board games, ping pong, and rented movies.

We drove around to check out the area.

You know you are in the boonies when a bunch of cows pass you on the road

And every night we talked about going home.

I offered the idea that he could use the time off of work to do projects around the house...he really enjoys working on projects so that would be an enjoyable way to spend his vacation time.

We both wanted to leave, I think.

But neither wanted to be the one to admit it.

In the end a couple of things stopped us from coming home:

1-we had invited the kids to join us for the last few days so they might be disappointed to see us home early

2-Saturday was Amber's birthday so it felt like we should stay so she could come up and have a little get away for her birthday

But the REAL reason we stayed

was because of Amber's family.

You see, Amber's family is a hardy, fun bunch of people.

She sometimes tells stories of family vacations of camping and boating and hiking and other outdoorsy stuff.

Whenever we visit a new area she is able to tell us things to do and places to go because she has been there with her family...and never in a "stayed in a hotel and ate out" kind of way but always in a "oh we camped here and hiked and cooked our own food" kind of way.

As we anticipated leaving our rainy, kind-of-boring vacation, Frank said

"Amber's family would never leave a vacation early"

And we could not admit to our lovely daughter-in-law that we are so much lamer and less sturdy than her family...although I'm sure she's figured it out already on her own.

So we stayed.

The kids came.

The sun came out!

and we had fun.

And deep in our hearts we felt good that we stuck it out, just like the Finch family would have.

Except with a hotel and restaurant meals.