Bear Lake: Then and Now

My in laws have a cabin up Bear Lake right over the boarder into Idaho. We spend a lot of time up there in the summer. Its nice to have a get away spot that is close by.

Before our first trip up there this year my mom and I had gone to the Layton FamilySearch Center to scan some of my Grandma's photos. It was our first of many ventures there and we scanned over 200 photos, front and back, in about 45 mins. I took the flashdrive with the photos to start typing what my grandma wrote on the back of each photo into the metadata of the photos. (I will do a post later on how to edit metadata on scanned photos.) I happened upon a few photos that were taken at Bear Lake 53 years ago. It was such a tender mercy to find these photos while we were there at Bear Lake.

This photo is of my Mom, my Aunt, and my Uncle. My Grandma remarked that the water was cold. In my experience the water is ALWAYS cold in the lake. It doesn't matter how late in the summer it is.

I had to chuckle at what my Grandma wrote about my Grandpa on the back of this photo. The words she used to describe her husband were "big pale legs." We still give my Grandpa a hard time about how white his legs are.

This photo features my Aunt again, a different Uncle jumping off the dock, and my Mom's cousin in the water. I get chilled just thinking about jumping into that water!

This photo however was the best find of the day! It is my Mom and her brother gathering shells on the beach at Bear Lake. There are zillions of tiny little snail shells on the shores of bear lake. I know exactly what her haul that day would have looked like. Like what this little girl gathered that weekend on the beach of that same lake.

Taking this photo only a few hours before I found the above of my mother was such a great moment. I have had so many fun moments looking at my Grandma's old photos and learning more about her. I love working on family history.

Working with all these photos makes me want to document my life even more than I already have. Did you know that we are taking more photos now than ever before in history? According to Mary Meekers 2018 Internet Trends Report people upload 1.8 billion images every day in 2014. That's 657 billion photos a year. Its not surprising since we all carry great cameras around with us wherever we go. What do your photos say about your life?

I will be sharing more about how we store the digital and physical versions of these photos. In the mean time do you have any questions that you would like answered about family history?