Bear Lake 2011

This past week was our annual Hess family reunion at Bear Lake. It was a week of fun with fishing, swimming, walking, and relaxing. As a matter a fact I wish we were still there doing all those fun things. Here is our picture overload from the week.

Because of the awesome winter the lake was almost right up to our wall. It was great!

Gavin reeled in an ugly carp. I think there were 4 caught throughout the week.

Fishing for the nasty carp.

Ashlyn with her "fishing pole"

Another view of the lake so close to our cabin.

Relaxing.

1st Grandpa nature walk.

Ashlyn and Liam at the park.

Gavin testing out the COLD water.

We set up a little pool and sprinkler for the little kids, but the big kids got a kick out of them too!

Gavin and Liam making goofy poses of running through the sprinkler.

Ashlyn enjoying a snack in the sun.

A view of the cabin and out to the lake.

Some of the kiddos watching a movie. From left to right: Bryce, Liam, Lizzy, Ashlyn, and Thomas.

The kids in action at the lake.

My cheeser!

Nate getting back from a waverunner ride.

Gavin enjoying his s'mores a little too much.

I think Liam got more marshmallow on his hands than in his mouth.

Skipping rocks. A favorite past time when the water is up.

More rock skipping.

2nd Grandpa nature walk. Grandpa is telling them a story about Bear Lake.

Ashlyn climbing at the park.

Swinging!

All the Hess grandkids.

A little better picture, but not much better. :)

Best buddies, Lizzy and Liam.

Ashlyn and Thomas "boating".

We love Ashy!

She loves her sunglasses and loves to pose!

4th of July

I am late getting this posted, but at least I'm doing it, right?! We had a fun 4th of July with plenty of good food and family. Nate cooked up some great BBQ and the men put on a great fireworks show in the evening. Here are some pictures of our day!

Ashlyn with her cousin Bethany. Cute friends!

Gavin wet from doing the slip-n-slide.

The two girls again after playing in the water.

My brother-in-law Todd with my nephew Bryce.

Nate and I relaxing after eating WAY too much!

All the Hess grandkids posing for an after swim pic! This was the best picture out of many taken. Guess you can't get them to all look at the camera and smile. :)

Swimming Lessons

I have been a slacker when it comes to swimming lessons for my kids, so this summer I finally decided we needed to take the time for some lessons. The boys just spent the last two weeks getting more comfortable in the water and learning some basic skills. Gavin made huge strides from the first day. He was even brave enough to go down the waterslide they have at the pool. I was so proud of him. Liam also did well, but didn't get into it as much as Gavin. I took a bunch of video, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to get it on the blog, so you will have to enjoy the few pictures I took. Now we just have to make it a priority to go swimming so they don't forget everything they learned!

Gavin waiting to start his last lesson.

Gavin the fish.

Liam kicking and not enjoying getting splashed.

Kicking again.

Europe 2011-Barcelona

Day 16-Day 1 of Barcelona

The cruise boat docked in Barcelona early on our last day, so we tried to get our energy back up to hit our one day in Barcelona hard. I didn't have the same energy I had when we were in Prague, but I was able to give Barcelona a good effort. I was ready to go home and was not looking forward to the long flights ahead of us the next day. But here is what we saw of Barcelona!

Christopher Columbus Monument

There is a long stretch of shops called "Las Ramblas" so we walked up this street and found an open market with a ton of fresh seafood. It was VERY fresh, right off the boat. Some of the crabs and lobsters were still moving. Yuck. Nate thought it was awesome!

A view of Las Ramblas

The most touristy sight in Barcelona is this church called Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi. It is a church that he started back in 1882 and is still being worked on today using Gaudi's original plans. It isn't even close to being done. They still have many towers to add and one more facade. It was an incredible sight to see. This of view of the Nativity facade which is the only one that Gaudi actually worked on himself before he died.

Passion facade

Inside of the church. It was enormous. Of course we couldn't capture the magnitude of the building in any of our pictures.

We loved how the columns looked like trees. Gaudi was very inspired by nature in all of his works.

Another inside view.

View of the Nativity facade and the outside of the nave.

Sadly I can't remember the name of the square and arch (without look it up on our map), but we thought it was beautiful with the palm trees.

Barcelona Cathedral

Another of Gaudi's works called Park Guell. Very cool design.

A last view of Barcelona from Park Guell. We also went to a Picasso Museum that was awesome with many of his early works before his cubism began. It was very cool.

Our trip home didn't go quite as we planned. Our flight from Barcelona was delayed so of course we missed our connecting flight at JFK. So instead of getting home at 7:00pm on the 19th, but got home about 1:00am on the 20th, but I think the kids forgave us for being late when they saw all the souvenirs we brought home for them. It was an awesome trip full of memories for a lifetime!