Ode to Shaver Lake

Last Monday my ward went boating for FHE. I was giddy. I hadn't been on a lake since the summer of 2008...the days of Shaver Lake.

Shaver Lake has become one of my all time favorite family vacation trips. The days of Shaver started back when I was 12, awkward and loving Britney Spears. We would go with the McMasters and Barnums for at least one week every summer. I fell in love with being on the lake, windblown hair after riding in the boat, face planting while wakeboarding, the freeness of wakesurfing, and the wrestling of tube war-ing with the boys. Shaver is beautiful and has spoiled us all, no other lake is quite the same.

I remember the year that I could finally go out on the sea doos without an adult. Kels, Jess, and I love the freedom of filling the tanks alone and driving back to the dock for batteries and playing cards. The three boys (Tommy, Nate, Zach) always slept in the room across from the three girls(Me, Kels, and Jess). The boys and girls were both enemies and best friends as we played games like...mostly mafia. But then the pranks. The boys would think they were being so funny, throwing some sandal into our room with a walkie talkie taped to it so they could try and hear our conversations.

We did the Dinky Creek hike and the rock/waterfall hike we found in the lake. We would chase lizards on the beach and the monster frog terrorizing us all. We found buried treasure and jumped of rocks that shot forever into the sky. We battled the nasty lake bathrooms that were pitch black at noon. We learned what each cove held, where each rock would sneakily hide just below the water.

Every year we went through music phases. Sugar Ray, Notting Hill, and A Knights Tale soundtrack will always be the music of Shaver. But the first year, it was definitely classy Britney Spears. A few years later the boys were on some country kick (that was horrible). There was the summer of Fall Out Boy and Smash Mouth's Allstar. Armageddon was a hit for several summers and we ended with Matisyahu being a favorite as you were being towed behind the boat. We would watch Dante's Peak and Far and Away.

I loved everything about Shaver Lake and it is one family tradition that hopefully will start again someday. Shaver has this amazing power to create an instant bond between anyone and everyone who has shared in the adventures of "shave your legs?".