History of the Eyres at Bear Lake

Bear Lake is one of my favorite places in the whole world. It’s synonymous with beauty and family and great memories – what could be better than that? 

I’ve been coming here every summer since I was eight. My dad bought my mom a tiny piece of land here as a wedding present (since she grew up nearby).  10 years later, at the tail end of our family’s three-year stint in England (1976-79), my dad sent a cousin who was a builder $10,000 and asked him to build what he could by way of a cabin on that piece of property.

 

That first summer after England we camped out in the resulting half-finished A-frame cabin. The only working plumbing was the bathtub so we had to do the dishes in there and used a porta potty for most of the summer (I’m not quite sure why the bathtub came before the toilet or kitchen sink…). A shower curtain was wrapped around the 2×4 studs for the future bathroom to create a little privacy. We had plywood floors and an old garage-sale range that smelled awful whenever you used the oven (some mice had built a nest deep in its coils or something).

Some nights, my sister and I got to sleep in the big unfinished upstairs all by ourselves while the rest of the family slept in one room downstairs. We felt very privileged and brave as we climbed up a ladder and into the upstairs window (there weren’t any stairs inside yet).

 

Here are a bunch of the grandkids in front of the original A-frame cabin

Over the next 10 years, the A-frame became more comfortable – we finished the bathroom and got what seemed like the coolest spiral staircase to take us upstairs a little more safely (and cause plenty of casualties when its sharp corners met people’s heads – it wasn’t really positioned in the safest place…). 

The dangerously-placed spiral staircase

My dad helped each of us build our own beds that folded out of the wall upstairs. All 6 kids slept on the fold-out beds in one room while my parents slept in the other room. 8 people, 2 bedrooms, one bathroom – somehow it worked fine.

The fold-out beds my dad built with us – the upper ones are folded up – there were mats on the floor under the bottom bunk so we could sleep three-deep (my bunk was the upper left one, folded up in this picture)

Each night, my dad told us wonderful made-up stories as we lay in our beds (often sweating up a storm – those July and August nights were HOT). Each morning, my mom had us all practicing violin, doing music theory flashcards and reading (often snuggled in blankets – those June mornings were COLD). We spent our days playing at the beach, catching chipmunks, putting on various little plays, and earning nickles by carrying up big rocks from the beach so we could have some semblance of landscaping.

Once a week, we went to my grandma’s house (about ½ hour away) and took care of the big garden there. We each had a crop to plant, weed and harvest. I always had the peas. Shawni had the beans. Josh did potatoes. Saydi did carrots. My grandma made sure we knew exactly how to do our jobs and we’d work SO hard in that garden and then enjoy the great fresh produce for the second half of the summer.

Over time, we traded out the old stinky range and falling-apart cabinets for newer, nicer stuff, added a second bathroom, and put on an addition so there was a room for the girls there and the boys kept sleeping in the fold-out bunks upstairs. 

 

The cabin as it is today – with the addition

The crowning glory (for my dad) was when he was able to buy the lot next door and somehow cram a tennis court on it. There we all took tennis lessons from my dad, played basketball there and did lots of sleep-outs under the stars.

Dad’s beloved tennis court – right up against the addition and the deck – but it fit!

Fast forward to today: Lots of things are the same – evening storytimes, morning reading, lots of unstructured time for imagination and fun, lots of love and learning. But everything’s bigger. Now we’ve got 29 kids (ages 2 months to 21 years old) and 19 adults (my siblings, their spouses and my parents) enjoying the old A-frame plus a lovely new 6-bedroom house nearby and my parents have built a writing-get-away up on the hill overlooking the lake where they stay most of the time.

Ever since I started having kids, my sisters and I plus some of our sisters-in-law have spent most of July here with our kids while our husbands come in and out based on their work schedules. We have 4 days during July that are protected official Eyre Reunion days and we’ve been lucky enough to have pretty much every family member make it pretty much every year for at least those 4 days while there are a whole lot of people here for a week or two before the reunion and/or a week or two after. 

There’s nothing like seeing our kids playing together, seeing my parents teach our kids some of the cherished things they taught us, watching different combinations of adults and children play and chat on the beach, learn to water ski, build sand castles, play tennis, cook and clean up together, and play games and laugh late into the night. 

My mom does “Grammie Camp” each year with kids five and up where she teaches them about their ancestors, does some art with them (she’s a big art lover) and teaches them to work (they do weeding projects and that sort of thing – bringing back to the days when we used to work hard in Grandma’s garden).

My dad does “Grandfather’s Secrets” with the kids where they memorize great quotes and learn principles of living well in fun ways.

Here’s my mom with the Grammie Camp kids

We all help parent each others kids and love cooking together and talking about all sorts of stuff late into the night. There are certainly issues around who’s doing more than their fair share of grocery shopping or clean up and the kids have their little spats (although it’s pretty amazing how well everyone does get along). Sometimes in the midst of all the mess, noise and heat, tensions start to run high.

But life at the lake is good. Very very good. And we all feel so amazingly blessed to have this place full of memories and love and fun that we can come to every year and now share with our children.

Here’s the whole family at last year’s reunion:

* For more photos of Bear Lake, check out what family members have posted on Instagram here and here.

** For specific information on how we do our reunions, check out this post: 3 Keys to a Great Family Reunion