Lake Powell 2009

We are back from our annual trip to Lake Powell with something like 350 pictures to show for it. So hard to pick which ones to post, thank goodness for digital cameras. We had a spectacular time on the new houseboat-Moenkopi, with Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen. I am still shaking my head at how nice houseboats are these days. We got to see the Witt's and Jearlene and a glimpse of Craig and Chyleen and Melissa and Nate. The weather was so fabulous that I can't even remember a trip with such good weather. The stars were indescribable, you almost forget how awesome a night sky can be until you are at Lake Powell.
Some favorite memories of the trip:
Conor: Unlimited time on the SEA DOO's. He was a regular sea doo snob/hog. (Fortunately he didn't have a lot of competition.)He also liked tubing behind the sea doo and going down the slide off the back of the houseboat. Swim Swim Swim. Oh and I can't forget our bat sighting and catching the frog.
Josie: Fishie, Fishie, Fishie and that fabulous bucket of water that kids are suppose to stay out of. She loved to ride in the boat and be with the cousins.
Julie: AWESOME water skiing. It doesn't get better then Powell, and of course spending time with everyone and just soaking up the fun. I will never forget hanging in mid air with Galen on the tube...we were superman for a second. I still laugh when I think about it.
Kevin: Monkey rope scaling, starting those blasted coals, fabulous Wake Boarding and exploring the cool canyons. Incredible scenery.
We are so lucky for the opportunity to go to Lake Powell and make so many great memories. It is something we look forward to every year and we will do everything we can to get there. We love you Grandma and Grandpa.

Swimming Lessons

Amidst the fun of summer we did squeeze in some fun swimming lessons. Sister Keenan in our ward teaches them at her house and she does a great job. It is nice to go to her private pool instead of the public pool and her classes are almost private. My challenge was keeping Josie out of the water. She adores swimming so it was a lot of running around the pool for me. I got my exercise. She got to get in the water on the last day and she was in heaven. Conor learned a lot and he can't get enough of the pool. This year he almost learned to dive. He is so close. He was excited because now he can pass the swim test at the public school that allows you to go off the diving board and the slide. Bring on the water!

New skiier in the family!

YEA! Conor got up on his first try tonight! WAY TO GO CONOR!! We went out to Long Lake with the Hamilton's for the evening and Conor was the star! For some reason he wouldn't stand straight up, but he just popped right out of the water and hung on. The pictures are awful since the sun was the wrong way, but you take what you can when the little one says he is ready to go! Next time I promise better pictures. I hope he will always love to ski as much as I do. Thanks to Kacey and Garth for providing all the equipment. We had so much fun. Nothing like getting out of the sweltering heat and on to the lake for some fun.

Camping

This little camping adventure started out a little rough and did not follow my meticulous planning, but does it ever? We started out with Taj tossing his cookies (doritos) in the car on the way. Well we got that taken care of then we realized that the planned destination wasn't exactly where we wanted to be so we decided to wing it. We ended up in a very commercial site by default, but we had a fire, which by the way will always make Conor blissfully happy, and we roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, slept in a tent, needed bug spray and we could see the stars like nothing else. So we met all camping criteria. Good times!

Riding the Haiwatha

We finally did it! Our weekend adventure on the Haiwatha trail was so much fun! We were going to go last year, but it never happened so we talked our friends the Willards into coming with us and we had a great time! The Trail of the Haiwatha is a great biking trail that follows an old rail road line. It is about 16 miles of a gentle slope down hill. It goes through several tunnels and a bunch of awesome bridges and trellis's. The Taft tunnel is just under 1 1/2 miles of pitch black darkness, that is why in the pictures you will notice that we have lights on our bikes and helmets. The scenery is absolutely beautiful. The trail is located about 1 1/2 hours outside of Spokane right on the Montana/Idaho boarder. Aside from the camping before hand not turning out exactly how we wanted, and a little sickness still lurking all went well.

Josie turns 2!

Happy Birthday Josie! Where does the time go? Josie was lucky enough to celebrate her 2nd Birthday in Yellowstone. She was thrilled to blow out the candles and open presents. She is pretty easy to please at this age. We are so lucky to have our happy Josie in our family. We love you!

Keeper Kid Conor

They have this great program at the wolf and bear center that the kids adored. They get to be keeper kids for an hour. Notice in the above pictures that Conor is standing in almost the exact same place as that bear? No worries. They take the bears out then allow the keeper kids to go in to the bear habitat and hide food for them. Once the food is hidden and the kids are out the bears return and look for the food the kids hid.