The Lovely Lake Roosevelt

I know, I know. I've been gone for a while. I have an excuse. I flew cross country to see my family in WA (where we went to the lake and had a ball); went to VT for the Labor Day weekend to visit Josh's brother, his wife and their daughter (I forgot my camera but we had a blast eating hot dogs and s'mores around the fire pit, going raspberry picking and making yummy jam, eating out at Flatbread Pizza, making fresh fajitas with fixings from the garden and having a mountain bike adventure where I only biked for one mile but am still feeling the effects of a sore bum); and then last night I had my Personal Progress Kick-off for the year (which, after FAR too much work, actually went off spectacularly! I had 12 girls come! That, in the Schenectady Ward, is a MIRACLE). So, I sincerely apologize that I have been absent from the blogging sphere. I am SURE most of you have been waiting with bated breath to read the next installment of the lives of Joshy and Jessy. So, without further ado, I present to you pictures (most of them stolen from my siblings' blogs) from the lovely Lake Roosevelt, my favorite place on earth.

My brother Ryan and his son, Cody, walking down to the beach. It was quite the hike. As Jon said, "It's a 5-minute walk down and a 35-minute walk up."

Ryan, Brandon, Katie and Kathleen building sand castles on our gorgeous beach. It was beautiful, private (for the most part) and HUGE! Perfect beach!

Our daily ritual of wiffle ball! After lunch, we'd return to the beach and play some hard-core wiffle ball. When it got a little warmer, we played out into the water. And, I don't like to brag, but in one particular game I was totally awesome. I got back-to-back doubles, one even bringing in 2 RBIs. Basically, I am the next Big Papi!

Josh hard at work doing his infamous "drip castles".

Tanner and Kathleen watching Josh give the final touches to a sand castle that eventually baby Cody plowed over.

Josh preparing to wakeboard off the back of the boat. This was only his second year wakeboarding and he was pretty much awesome. He got better daily and my entire family (well, mostly me) was quite impressed with his mad skills.

Josh in the water, preparing to board.

This is me taking a picture of Josh wakeboarding. No one ever told me how difficult it is to actually take a shot while the wakeboarder is behind the boat. They're constantly moving. So, we have a thousand pictures looking just like this: absent one wakeboarder.

Finally, I begged Michelle, Jon's wife, to take a picture. She's a pro and thus she got a beautiful picture of Josh showing his stuff! Present, one wakeboarder.

This picture just cracks me up! We got all the little kids to try out skiing on this sweet ride called the Ski Skimmer. Here's Brandon, barely 3, skiing behind the wave runner. He looked so TINY out there. Though the kids screamed and cried initially, they LOVED it in the end.

There was a fire pit where we had yummy s'mores one night. Yum, yum. Does it get any better than s'mores, I ask you?? I think NOT!

Josh and me looking over the view of Lake Roosevelt. Man, do I look good. I guess that's what happens when you spend a week at the lake, sans make-up, hair-dryers or more than two working bathrooms for 17 people (yikes!). We did have a grand time at the lake, though! Thanks, Mom and Dad and all Spokanites who prepared for and planned our big trip. And I didn't even get pictures of some of our grandest times: watching Tommy Boy outside on a big-screen projector, playing lots of card games & other activities late at night, and, of course, EATING. Boy, did we eat and then we ate some more. But what else can you expect from the Spear clan? Can't wait for our next adventure--hopefully, sometime next summer and, hopefully, at the lovely Lake Roosevelt. I do love that lake. It's my idea of heaven!