Lake Powell

Home for a bit and now it's back to traveling! This was our last big trip before school starts but it was a great one--we spent 3 days down at Lake Powell. 3 days of fun filled with swimming, eating, boating, eating, exploring, eating, wave-runnering (I know it isn't a word), spending time with fmaily, more swimming and more eating! We all had a blast! And no, we didn't throw Joey overboard... thanks to Katie and Mat who so graciously volunteered to watch him for us. It made for a much more enjoyable time!

Doing some swimming in the perfect-temperature water...
Although I can't seem to keep Maggie away from the water everyhere else, she did NOT want to get in the water at Lake Powell unless it was right along the shore. Luckily we found a great campsite with a shallow pool where the little ones loved to play. Here is one of the rare instances Aunt Jessica managed to cajole her into the water.
For those who haven't been Lake Powell scenery can't be beat--most of the Lake is bordered by sheer cliffs--it is awesome and gorgeous! For a little perspective, here is Eric and Kaylee and Ashley swimming toward one--the cliff goes another 100 feet up!
Jake having a good time...
Tubing and "Hot-Dogging" (Maggie loved the hot dog--and Mom loved riding it wither her since Uncle Cory couldn't go too fast!)
Here is the little shallow pool by our "campsite" (we were lucky enough to have a houseboat for luxury thanks to the Hiatts). The kids loved to pretend to ride on the wave-runners. After sitting on it and pretending to drive Jacob turns to Eric and asks, "Does this have missiles?"
Kaylee and Tyler were great explorers--finding all kinds of fish bones and building a cool fort from driftwood. They even set up a Lake Powell museum and play for us all!
I had to put this picture in since it is pretty much the only picture with me in it....pretty sad huh? But it does show the cool canyons...
Cliff jumping was a favorite of the trip--Jacob and Tyler are awesome jumpers. It took some convincing to get Ty to jump but once he did he wouldn't stop--and he just got braver and braver as you will see.
Let's make it a family affair...
We did have some TIRED kiddos!
Maggie finally decided she would get in the water as long as she had her "tube."
So Tyler got pretty brave jumping--braver than me or Eric! Look at him go!
Just for a little perspective this is him before jumping at the top of the cliff--INSANE! You are probably thinking I am a terrible mother for letting him jump this high....and you are probably right.
Taken the last day of our trip just exploring and enjoying the general splendor of it all.
Overall a great trip with great people--a winning combo!

Tyler's Baptized!

It's official, I now have a child at the age of accountability! Tyler was baptized on Saturday. It was really nice--my mom was able to come out and see it and most of Eric's family was there too. We tried to get a family picture...this is the best we got...Look at those two handsome guys!
And Maggie was being so cute--she has this little closed mouth coy smile that is so adorable.
One more shot before the big event. Tyler was a little nervous but he did great. Although he said he didn't feel different after being baptized, he just "felt wet."
We had a little lunch at our house after where apparently we got everyone in the family sick...oops. Sorry everyone! It was a great day for us all. Well, one down and three more to go!

World Travelers

Okay, maybe "world" travelers is an overstatement, but we have been traveling a lot! Eric's been traveling back and forth to California for a training course several times. While he was gone, I took the kids up to the Lee (Sharee's family) Family Reunion in Idaho. It was actually pretty fun (I only say that because, let's be honest, most family reunions are a bit lame). There was more candy there than in Willy Wonka's factory, and that combined with the plethora of blow-up water playthings made sure my kids had a blast. Joey enjoyed his very first sucker, under the watchful eye of Aunt Hillary...

The trip was a success. Soon after, or before--things have been a blur--we had Tyler's birthday party--LEGO themed. It was all things LEGO, LEGO chopsticks, building LEGO cars, LEGO candy towers, LEGO races, even a LEGO cake.

The cake didn't turn out quite as cute as I pictured it in my head, but the kids didn't care so neither did I.

Not long after that we headed to California to visit my mom. It was great because my sister and her family were down there as well so it was like our own little family reunion! Of course a trip to southern CA isn't complete without the beach...

Diving in waves...
Getting sand EVERYWHERE (picture me sighing and rolling my eyes...I mean really, how do kids get sand in places I didn't even know existed...plus you find it for weeks afterward...I think if there were ever a nuclear holocaust all that would survive would be sand sand sand...)

Finding cool treasures along the shore...(the highlight was a lobster tentacle)
My feeble attempts to get Joey to like to sit in the water...it was a "no-go".
Bathing in the warm sun....(I couldn't see Maggie for a moment then found her sun-bathing in another kid's sand pit).
We did lots of other fun stuff, like Pretend City kid's museum and playing in grandma's hot tub. But of course I didn't get any pictures of those things. We also took our little family (me, Eric and the kids) to San Diego for a night. We spent the first day at Sea World then the next day Eric had to go to another conference. You will be very impressed to hear that instead of going straight back up to my mom's house I braved an adventure with the kids all by myself. There is a "retired" aircraft carrier in San Diego called Midway. I have always wanted to see it and thought the boys would think it was cool so I decided to give it a go. Aren't you impressed? It was a relative success, all things considered, but little did I know I would be climbing up and down what they call "stairways" despite the fact they are as steep as ladders. Talk about nerve wracking watching Maggie climb up and down the million stairways with me trying to be prepared to catch her if she fell, all the while having Joey in the carrier sling on my hip. Phew! More than a few beads of swear fell from my brow that day--and not just from the workout! But it was pretty cool. The boys loved it. And you will be even more in awe of me when you see that I actually took a few pictures to boot!

Here the boys are trying their hardest to get the ship to move--and yes, that is Maggie's leg sticking up at the bottom. She decided it would be more fun to breakdance at the controls rather than steer. Remind me never to get on a boat with her in charge.
The boys loved sitting in the fighter jet cockpits.
Here is a view of one of the "stairways". This is not just the angle of the camera--they really are that steep.
We spent over 2 1/2 hours there and still didn't see the whole thing--it just kept going and going! But by the end Joey was kaput and wouldn't stop screaming no matter how much I jingled my keys in front of him. So we called it a day (morning) and headed back up to my mom's for one last afternoon of hot-tubbing (kid style of course). And left the next morning to come home.

So here we are back in real life for a couple days, then my mom comes out here for Tyler's baptism in a few days, then it is off to Lake Powell, then not too long after that school starts. Phew! I am worn out just writing this! But I love it--a summer crammed full of fun-ness is the best way to go!