Lake Powell 2011

I think I probably say this every year, but I love Lake Powell. It's possibly the greatest place on earth. I love going there and spending time with my family and having fun, and eating good food, and sharing with my kids the fun times and memories I had as a child and making new ones with them. Love it.

Amber and Grandma Debra, as we were headed down the lake looking for a place to camp.
This is our new toy this summer. It's called at Water Mat. It's so much fun. We played on it constantly. The boys mostly played king of the water mat, the girls did stunts and played with water balloons, and the adults lounged and relaxed on it. It was great fun.

Amber getting tricky, doing a backwards, upside down dive off the slide.

The girls playing the whip cream game on the water mat.

That's me, trying to ride the wake board, as long as I don't have to go out of the wake.

Havyn and Ally taking a nap in the speed boat and using Amber as their bed.

The girls and boys usually like to play a little prank on each other. A few years ago the girls painted the boys toe nails while they were sleeping. This year the boys colored mustaches and beards and big eyebrows on the girls while they were sleeping. Some of them weren't very happy when they woke up.

Ethan on the kneeboard.

Ally on the kneeboard.

Jackie getting ready to ski. She's never done it before. Way to go Jackie!

Arts and crafts time.

That's right, that's me surfing, without the rope. I actually got pretty good at it, which is suprising considering that I am not athletic in the least bit. Javan had an unfortunate surfing accident. His arm got caught in the rope when he wrecked and pulled and muscle and broke some blood vessels. It was really bruised and sore and he was kind of out of commission for the rest of the week.

Vader keeping an eye on Ryan while he takes a nap in the speed boat.Michael skiing.

Grandpa skiing.

Dave skiing.

Ethan caught a nice catfish.

Ally going down the slide. Finally brave enough.Ryan just taking a minute to relieve himself. That's pretty cute.

Ally getting ready to jump off the top of the houseboat. She actually did it. I can't believe how brave she is. Good job Ally!

Ryan showing off his lizard. I asked him to hold it up so I could take a picture of it. He held it up and said "look at mommy" to the lizard.

A group of us took a trip to Rainbow Bridge. I haven't been there since I was a kid. It's pretty amazing.

The whole family, minus Steve (we missed you).My cute little family.

Cole caught this carp just with the net. He was very patient, and quick. Good job Cole!The lizards of the trip.

Ryan and Ledger playing with their cars.Nate getting ready to ski. Good job man!

Dave, the cowboy, tying up the boatAlly sliding down the sand slide.

A bunch of us made a trip to hike up the hole-in-the-rock.

We made it to the top.

What a fun week. Thanks everybody for the good times. Love you all, and can't wait until next year.

Memorial Day Hike

We spent a fun Memorial Day weekend with my brother Dave and Tif and their family. On Saturday we went on a hike to see the Citadel indian ruin and had a picnic. We saw this cool lizard just as we started out the hike.
This ruin is in a pretty awesome place. You have to walk along the rock "bridge" and the ruin is on the other side of the larger rock formation at the end of the "bridge". You can see when you are closer that the Anasazi people had built a wall along the width of the "bridge" to protect themselves from enemies crossing.

Our family, with the Citadel in the distance. We left Ryan home with Grandma.

All of us at the ruin taking a little rest and snack break.

Checking out the ruin.

On the way back we hiked down to another little set of ruins. This one still has an intact roof.

And corn cobs inside.

These ruins are still in really good shape. Pretty cool to see.

Spring "Sports"

You know what it means when May rolls around, that's right, Baseball, in all it's various forms. Ally and Ethan both played again this spring. They both had really fun coaches and good friends on their teams which made the season really fun.

Ally is a really good hitter and can really whack the ball hard.

Here she comes, crossing home plate.

Ally and her friend Tenli in the outfield. The could usually be found doing cartwheels or dancing around instead of watching for or running after the ball.

Ethan was nervous to play machine pitch again this year. Last year he only had a few hits and he got very frustrated. This year he did much better.

Running the bases.

Playing hard in the outfield.

This is a sport too right? Ethan loves to shoot guns, and does a pretty good job hitting his target. So I decided to include this picture.

Ally's Preschool Graduation

In May, Ally graduated from preschool. She is so excited to start kindergarten next year. She looked so cute in her cap and gown.
She got to sing a solo at the graduation performance. She sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and did a great job.

Ally told her teacher that when she grows up she wants to be a dentist helper like her mom. That makes me happy. And then she received her diploma.

Ally with her teacher Mrs. Lana Lee.

Ally and Ryan after the program. Ryan was so proud to be in the picture with Ally. Look how nice and good he is standing there.

Congratulations Ally! Great job!