Lake Powell 2011

We were so excited to go back to Lake Powell! We typically go every summer with Aaron's family, but with Aaron's parents being on a mission the past two summers we had really missed it. This year the WHOLE family came (which hadn't happened in at least 10 years) and we had a lot of fun.

We found a great campsite with a nice beach for the kids to play, and off to the side you can see the tent where the five oldest granddaughters slept every night.

Here's looking the opposite direction, at the houseboat. Zoe's standing on the "font steps" of the tent -- this was after it had been taken down. Being parked up against an overhanging cliff, we had glorious morning shade (no bright sun to wake us up!) and we only had about 4 or 5 hours of afternoon sun each day. That was great news for our slightly-more-pale Utah relatives :)

We did plenty of swimming & floating,

jet-skiing, tubing, kneeboarding, skiing, wakeboarding, playing in the sand and of course late-night card games for the grown-ups.

It was great to spend time with relatives that we don't get to see very often. Here's Jake & Tiffany and their cute kids Sloan & Owen.

And here are Josh & Nicole's two boys, Parker & Preston.

Emily & Nate's baby Eli is the newest member of the family, and he did great!

Aaron found this big fellow, not a welcome guest! He was disposed of properly to keep the beach safer for the kids.

Molly and a few other brave kids tried cliff jumping.

We had planned a few "extra" activities for the kids like decorating foam visors,

And Tiffany brought some fun "minute to win it" games.

One day some of us took a hike up Long Canyon;

There's so much to see & do at Lake Powell!

We ate a LOT of good food,

And even though we were "roughing it," a little technology was on hand... the kids watched a couple of movies using Tom's projector & laptop, and a big white board hanging from the ceiling.

And when these dads weren't busy wrestling their kids, they had a few minutes of iPad time.

The whole group!

On the way home we stopped by some ruins off the side of the road.

Unfortunately we misjudged the angle of this little dip in the road getting out of there, and we got stuck! See how the basket on the back of the car ran aground? It took about 45 minutes to get out of this predicament but it all turned out okay.
We can't wait to go back to MAGICAL Lake Powell! :)

Swim Team '11

This year, all four of our kids were on swim team! We had a great time going to meets as a family. Yes, it's hours of sitting in the HEAT, but we bring shade & food & drinks and it's really fun watching the kids compete. Also, I love that the kids got up early every morning for 6 weeks and spent an hour swimming laps during practice.
The true athlete with her swim cap and gatoradeThe kids mostly got "average" placement in their races, but they were happy with that.

The kids each swam in their preliminary meet to try to qualify for the championship meet. Molly was the only one of our kids to qualify, which she did in the 50-yd breaststroke. The top 16 times qualified, and Molly had the #12 spot going into the Championship.

(We had some time to kill at the championship meet...)

Molly's heat was made up of the slower 8 swimmers, and she won the heat! We didn't know until the end of the meet, though, how she'd placed overall. Her prelim's time for this event had been around 56 seconds, and at the Championship meet she swam it in 50! Shaved a full six seconds off her time! So... she ended up getting the 3rd place medal! How exciting!

Here she is posing (and flexing) with her medal while we were at Lake Powell ... I occasionally have her flex for people because I'm so impressed by this girl's muscles! Hooray for a great swim team season!

BFC

In the middle of July we took a little camping trip with my whole side of the family. It was so much fun! We were all able to get there before dark and in plenty of time to set up tents and everything, and our family ate dinner up there (chili dogs). We went to a spot we've gone before, in a beautiful mountain meadow not far from where we had a cabin when I was younger. It's such a pretty area with high elevation so the weather was nice and cool.

At night we had a great fire, roasted marshmallows and made dough boys (which I learned about at girls camp and was determined to get my family to eat) and everybody's "performing side" came alive! There were songs and skits galore. Zoe & Presley singing
Molly & Brooklyn
Tyson had us all cracking up with his unexpected mime skills.
Everyone had a great time.
The next morning we had a delicious breakfast of pancakes, fruit, and sausage. Then everyone got the annual quad briefing and the kids & dads all took rides.
Juno came, along with my mom's dog Pete. They had a great time! Juno wore herself out running at full speed after the quads; finally we had to tie her up so that she wouldn't give herself a heart attack.
Paige, Zoe, & Keeton
Jamie & Crew enjoying some hammock time
Zac Presley & LucyWe all stayed til early- or mid-afternoon. Next year we should plan on staying two nights! It was a fun little trip.

Busy Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy has had a busy time around here lately; Lucy lost her two front teeth only a couple days apart, and Noah has gotten old enough that his side teeth have been popping out left and right; I think he's lost 7 of them in the past few months. There was one week in July when between Noah and Lucy, the Tooth Fairy came four times.

Lucy has been our only child to successfully demonstrate the full effect of missing front teeth; our other kids all had their grown-up teeth starting to come in before their baby teeth fell out. Boy, we're counting down to the last of the baby teeth around here... the kids are growing up way too fast.

Canyon Lake

The boat hasn't had a very good year, but we have managed to go to the lake a couple of times. Our favorite local lake is Canyon. Zoe & Noah
Molly & Lucy
One day we were hanging out at the dock for a while, while Aaron worked on the engine, but the kids had no trouble keeping themselves entertained.
Once when our lake trip was cut short due to the boat acting funny, we made the afternoon more complete by driving the few extra miles up the road to Tortilla Flat. That place is a trip! A neighbor had told us that we HAD to get the prickly pear ice cream, because Tortilla Flat is the only place in the world that sells it.
We weren't posed for this picture (obviously) but I thought it was kind of a good one. Tortilla flat is not a town, like I once thought. It's only a handful of buildings: a very cool gift shop, a restaurant, an ice cream shop, and a tiny museum. I was glad we went that afternoon. And for the record, prickly pear ice cream is tasty! It has a mild berry flavor and we all enjoyed it.

Girls Camp

In July I got to go to Girls Camp! It was a "ward camp year," which alternates every other year with Stake camp. We had 26 girls there this year, which was almost all of our ward's Young Women. The camp we went to was only about 20 minutes away from Snowflake, AZ (and about 3 hours' drive from home). It looks pretty deserty in this picture but the weather was nice; we had highs in the low-mid 80's with a rain shower every day, and cool at night. We stayed in tents and had a nice big ramada & kitchen for gathering. The other leader who was going to stay with me in my tent wasn't able to come until the final night, so until then I had our family's large 7-man tent all to myself! So luxurious! I set up a table & chairs, and had plenty of space for my sleeping bag and the extra "stuff" brought... I was in charge of the obstacle course.
The afternoon of the obstacle course it rained... and unfortunately it ONLY rained during the time the girls were doing it! I think they had fun though.

The last station was the most hilarious to watch; the girls (in two teams of 10) had to coordinate walking with these boards to the finish line.

They put on some really cute skits and had fun playing games.One afternoon we visited the Snowflake Temple.

I was really glad to be able to go (thanks to my mom for watching my kids!) and I hope I am still in Young Women's when my own daughters are that age.