Lake Powell

We left home on Sunday afternoon & headed to Manti. We figured it would be a good way to break up the 6-7 hr trip & we wanted to see Grandma & Grandpa Bown. I was happy to see how good Grandpa was doing. He has a walking cast for his broken ankle and a regular walker that he's using. They released him from home health & Grandma told me he's been sneaking out on the 4 wheeler without telling her & she finds his abandoned walker & the missing 4 wheeler out front! I had seen these photos on my mother in law's camera, but had to get some for myself. I'm sure glad Grandpa fought as hard as he did so he didn't end up like his boots.

We headed for Lake Powell after a visit with Grandma & Grandpa Whitlock on Monday. Everyone was fairly happy once we were on the road.

Not too far down the road I turned around to see this...(it made for an awful quiet 3-4 hours!)

The kids were so excited when we got there they could hardly wait to get in the water!

Even dad joined in fairly quickly.

Brooke was a trooper through all the heat, lake water, life jackets & sun screen.

Travis took my dad's little kid water skis with the intention of getting Nash up on skis. That kid tried his hardest for about an hour to get up. Travis said once he was actually up but he thinks Nash got scared & let go. We're going to get the knee board out because we're pretty sure he could do that really easy. We're quite certain he will be able to get up on these skis next summer!

We had floatie wars:

And good ol' "bobbing" on floaties:

There was riding of floaties across the lake to the cliff where there was also cliff jumping (not too high off the water mind you):

Caleb tested Brooke's floatie...it works well!

We went up to Forgotten Canyon to see the ruins (we stayed in Hansen Creek this year)

I love the view down there

Out of 188 pictures, this is the ONLY one I am in!

There were many, many boat naps taken:

There was much bobbing in the water. Brooke did NOT like the lake water at all, no matter how many times we put her in! This is a quick lull in the scream fest!

Daddies make great sea horses:

Like I said, little sister was a trooper!

The Captain & his daddy:

Little sister was so happy the entire week!

The mud was as much fun to play in as the water:

Nash is getting quite good at riding the little jet ski:

Floatie Queen in training:

I thought for sure Brooke would roll over this week. She gets to 1 side & then either stays there or flops back onto her back! I think she'll have it before her daddy comes home in 2 weeks.

See what I mean about not liking the lake water?

She liked the boat though:

Sam was a good little babysitter to cousin Jaxton. She was feeding him Air Head here:

Nash did lots and lots of tubing & had lots of fun playing with Clayton:

Another quick lull in the scream fest:

All 3 boys are asleep here:

Can you spot Brooke in this picture?

I was really glad I took the bouncy chair with us. It was great for keeping her from spinning herself into the fan!

Caleb eventually ventured out into the deep water all by himself! I was shocked because it has taken him all summer to get to where he'll get in my mom's pool & go around the edge hanging on to it for dear life!

The boys filled up countless buckets of water to throw down the slide before they went down so they didn't burn their bums:

The ducks were frequent visitors & were only pests when we were fishing. They liked poking at our bobbers & kept trying to eat our worms! We had to shoot them with water guns to leave us alone while we were fishing!

We had surf & turf on Friday night thanks to all our fishing skills:

Mom even caught fish too!

Sister liked riding in the back of the boat, laying down in the shade more than riding up front with a towel over her to keep the sun off.

Travis rode the tube with all 3 kids - one right after the other- one day. I think his arms are like 3 inches longer now from holding onto the kids & holding himself onto the tube!

Sam thought it was funny to push Uncle Robbie in the lake. She didn't think it was so funny when he grabbed her and threw her in the lake. We all thought it was funny when Nash snuck up behind Robbie & pushed him in the lake as retaliation for throwing his sister in the lake! Sam cried when she came up but her dad got her to laugh.

Sam still sure does love that Aunt Jamie of hers:

Travis did lots of wake boarding & skiing. I got some good pictures of Travis jumping the wake on the wake board.

Brooke got some sweet sparkly blue toes thanks to Aunt Jamie watching her while Travis & I went on the big jet ski!

We all got tattoos on Friday while we were waiting for our surf & turf dinner:

Friday night Travis caught 3 toads on the shore by the houseboat. Nash was thrilled & soooo wanted to bring them home. Luckily for me, we convinced him to let them go so they didn't die!

We had a great trip - the best trip yet in my opinion. The kids were really great in the truck & even listened pretty well while we were at the lake. Everyone but Brooke is sun burned. Sam's lips are so dry & sun burned they are cracking open & bleeding. Nash's face is peeling & he looks like he has spots like Grandma Kris. We counted Caleb's bug bites and he has 14 of them! Sam has 2 on her neck that look like a vampire got her! Despite not wanting to go, I had a great time & am looking forward to next time. It was a great way to spend the last week of summer vacation!