Bear Lake and the Alpine "Quail Fire"

Well, the morning after Tanner's Eagle Court of Honor and the day we were planning on leaving to Bear Lake Bailey came into to me and said that the faucet in the main bathroom is leaking and ruined ALL the toilet paper under the sink, in the cabinet. So we threw away many, many rolls that were RUINED! Mike turned off the water and chose to what to fix it until while we were gone. Mike had to work the rest of that day, Monday and chose to come up with Tanner on Tuesday after Tanner's practice. We had even asked Nathan Henley & his little sister Shaelynn to come up with them and hang out with us for the week.  

One of our families FAVORITE parts of going to Bear Lake is coming up and over the last mountain in Logan Canyon, coming to the top and getting to the Bear Lake overlook area. It is absolutely breathtaking, the Blue, blue waters of Bear Lake. It was a beautiful day, and we got some great pictures. 

So we got a few pictures with the girls too

Then I had to get in there & ruin the picture...

We FINALLY arrived & we were SO excited

Monday evening we HAD to make our trip to La Beau's for a Raspberry or Reese's PN Butter shake! We had to fill Morgan in on this tradition- At this point, it was me and my two girls, G&G Paskett, Rachel, Morgan and Matt.

Precious little Morgan napping. This first evening we sat around, ate dinner and our shakes, then just visited with Matt. Where Matt told us that it looks like he & Katelyn will be getting married what they think will be in December this year. We had an enjoyable evening- 

The next morning, it was around 9:30 or so when I was looking for Matt to go and help me put up our Shade Canopy at the beach. He wasn't in the condo so I headed out to look for him, maybe by the store. When I walked out of the condo, I saw Matt sitting on the bench next to the store when I noticed this older gentlemen looked like maybe an older Hollywood movie star. But that was until I heard his voice and at the same time, Matt mouthed "Elder Perry" to me. It was so exciting! I've never had the opportunity to meet any Elder/Prophet etc.  So as he was talking to another family we were all gathered around. The family asked if Elder Perry would like to go tubing with his family? It was funny- Then some mom's with their kids came up and wanted to take pictures with him. They asked for a handshake, but then he said "Kids now a days don't give handshakes, so I will give them "Stones!" It was so cute. Then Elder Perry said he has been coming up to Bear Lake over the 4th of July for 22 years. Then he said that he was meeting Elder Quentin Cook, and moments later he walked up and said "Hello."  We did end up seeing Elder Perry again one evening at La Beau's- ya know EVERYONE wants a shake when they're up there in Bear Lake!!!

We enjoyed a morning of fun at the beach, in the water and building sand castles with G&G Paskett, Matt, Rachel & Morgan.

Within an half hour of Matt & I putting up our Brand NEW Shade Canopy, it had been blown over & someone had chased it down into the water while we had gone back up to help bring everyone & everything down to the beach. It was totally ruined, it wouldn't even slide down to close up. Ugh!!! I couldn't believe it happened and especially within a half hour of putting it up. I was really frustrated at the time-

Uncle Matt, Madi and Bailey hanging out in the water-

My CUTE girls!!! I sure do LOVE these girls-

So after hanging out at the beach for the morning we decided to head into the condo and have some lunch. We had been sitting around visiting and just started talking about heading down to the swim pool for a little while. When I got a strange text from Suzanne Archibald about "Lambert Park in Alpine being on Fire and please pray for my friends..." at that moment the text only came into my phone with a phone number not a name, so I called the number back & asked who it was that sent this text. She told me it was Suzanne, then told me about the fire. When I hung up with her, that's when Kim Huish called me because she knew we were in Bear Lake. She then sent me a few pictures of the Alpine mountains up behind Uncle Ralph's home. She said that at that point the wind was forcing the fire down the mountain. She told me to start thinking about what I would want out of our house. She and Devan would go over and get some items that we named out of our home. The shock, the fear was in ALL of us- everyone's phones started ringing, and texts were going. Tina Schneider was at G&G Paskett's and said Camon was headed home, Todd called Rachel ans said he was heading to Alpine & would go to our house. I couldn't get ahold of Mike & Tanner who was on their way to Bear Lake (without the Henley's) and in the mountains & wasn't getting reception. So I left messages, but kept calling & calling until I got a hold of them to tell them about the fire. They had also been hearing from everyone too- So G&G Paskett, Matt and Rachel all packed up and headed home right away but before they left we had a Family Prayer and asked for Alpine to be protected & watched over. Dad & Tanner got there, dropped their stuff off then turned around and went home to be there just in case the need to evacuate our home or neighbors. Me and the girls sat by the tv, for ANY and ALL updates- Mike & Tanner got home to Kelly, KP Powell, Todd all at our home watching the fire. They sat up and watched it from the middle of the street. It was all over Facebook and twitter so the pictures were amazingly scary!!!        

This was a picture I took just a few weeks before the fire, this part of the mountain is just above Smooth Canyon and where the last fire burnt. It is just barely starting to come back with some lushness of greenery. I had fb'd about it & how I love our GREAT & beautiful mountains. The new fire burned south to where the old fire had burned.  

This is the picture that Todd text to me when he got to our home. You CAN'T tell me this wouldn't SCARE you...

This is a beautiful home that has Christmas lights decked out every year that you can see from far, far away. This home up on the mountain was thankfully protected. The Cove area had been evacuated, Bailey's friends home Kobie was one of the first homes to be asked to "Leave Immediately!" Then over the course of the week, other homes along the bench line were asked to leave until further notice. You could see flames at night & during the day. 

This is what Cory Powell described as he saw it from Provo, like a Volcano erupted!

For days and weeks we had been praying for rain. And just the Sunday before we left to Bear Lake, we had been praying & fasting for RAIN!!! Yes, we laughed even though we were going to be in Bear Lake, we prayed for it. And YES!, it finally came! It helped start to put out the fire, but even to this day Tuesday, July 24th we are still seeing smoke up there & in different places on the mountain side. 

This is that same house that I posted before, but just a day later. What an INCREDIBLE job our Firefighters did to save not only THIS house but every home. We only lost one old barn in the whole fire.

Back to our family vacation...I had to take this picture, we didn't come up last year but the year before the water WAS NOT up this high toward the beach. We use to drive to the right side of the dock/pier then there was still beach for people to sat on then the lake didn't start until further out. Its so great to see the water up so high, even with a low water year. Not sure WHY this is the way it is-  

I sure LOVE this Bear Lake Beach!

This was Wednesday afternoon when Dad & Tanner made it back up to Bear Lake.

Tanner sure MiSSeD the girls, he had to make up for the days of no teasing and made sure to do it.

This was my view from behind Bailey

and this was my "other" view

You can't go to Bear Lake without going to Bear Lake Pizza

And then we had a night or two of playing Soccer with the family. This evening was the evening that Jana arrived, saw us, and came out to say Hello! She was another friend that had called and left a message at home about Alpine's fire & how we were. But then she called my cell number and we spoke & that's how I knew she was going to be up in Bear Lake for the week. 

We had a fun night of Soccer with just our family

And there are always Beautiful sunsets up here