Lake Powell

Lake Powell is one of my favorite place to vacation. We would go there growing up with my Uncle,and ever since Todd I were married I have told him about this wonderful place on earth. I mean really this is a beautiful place where all concept of time is lost. Cell phone reception is little to none-existent, you can see more stars in the night sky than I have ever seen, and if you wanted to you can just sit and float in the water all day long with not a care in the world. I finally got to share all this with my little family, and our Uncle Kevin thanks to a very nice man my husband works with who invited us to stay a week on his house boat.  My pictures tell all.....

We all loved it...

 

Okay almost all of us Bailey was not a very happy girl this week she was getting 4 of her molars, and was not a fan of the loud noise that the boat made.

However, we did get her to smile a few times.

Kambree loved the slide off the back of the house boat.

 

Karson made a new friend,

We played on the tubes...

Cliff jumped everywhere we could....and yes I got my children to jump to and they loved it!

 We jumped, rolled, and hopped down a giant sand dune...

Knee boarded, Skied, and my favorite learned how to wake board.

I'm sorry but one should not go a week without washing

their hair so one of the many joys at Lake Powell washing your hair in the lake.

 We explored a cave we could only get to by water.

This was my favorite spot. We parked our boats and ate lunch,

 it was very peaceful. Then we spent time swimming and jumping

 off the rock in the bottom corner.  Is this place not beautiful.

We HIKED up to an old Indian Ruin. It was little scary, but we all  made it.

This is the view from the ruin at the top of the cliff.

Our Hike/slide down from the ruin I didn't know if we would all make.  

We saw a lot of Lake Powell that I had never seen before. Including this "Secret" canyon that just keeps going and going and is so narrow the boats couldn't turn around we had to back out of it. At end is a big sand bar your supposed to be able to play on but it had rained the week before and the runoff made it so we could 't get the boats all the way back.

Rainbow bridge was beautiful and amazing to see.

A guide at rainbow bridge showed us a  dinosaur print in the rock.

Karson is  knelling by it, but it is kind of hard to see in the picture.

  We really had a good time and I can't wait until we can go back.

Yellowstone

So I have to admit Yellowstone is not one of my favorite places to go. I feel like if I have seen it once that's all I need, and yet every year I end up going who knows why I put myself in this position, but I do. I Spend a whole day driving through the park, and every time joining all the cars pulled over to the side of road looking at who knows what but I'm sure there is something out there but my eyes just won't let me see it, unless it's a Elk or a Buffalo I've got those animals down. Well this past week the Ivie family came to visit and yes I let them talk me into going to the park with them. Kerie said something like "I want Abbey to be able to see it with your girls." Thanks for the guilt trip Kerie. So Monday Morning Kerie Jared the girls and I all got up and loaded ourselves in my van (yes, I do have a van now I know I have not shared this knowledge, because I said I would never be a van mom, but I couldn't help it they are so convenient, I don't know how I lived without it. I am know pro minivans) Any way back to Yellowstone The day ended up being very eventful, and yes fun, So fun in fact I might even find myself wanting to go back next year. The girls did very well in the car (thank you DVD player, and barbie movies) Bailey loved seeing all the Buffalo, she never let us miss one. And Jared with his hunting eyes was a big help at pointing out all the animals that I probably would have missed without him being there.

Here is the play-by play of the day:

Jared was our trustee guide for the day

           Our First animal sighting: Buffalo. Kerie and Jared wanted to see how close we could get since there was a Fly fishermen standing right in the middle of about six of them. I however had my fight or flight response on and every time one stirred even a little I wanted to run to the car. Being trampled by a buffalo is not how I picture my death.

When we got to old faithful we had just missed it.So while we waited...

We ate lunch...

The girls had fun seeing how much pop they could drink...

And they had fun playing  peek-a-boo through the bench. Where would any mother be without this game. I mean really this could be the best little kid game ever invented to pass time.
I also have to put a plug in for the new visitor center here, the girls and i got sucked in and I thought it was very informative.

 Finally the show the girls loved it.

Next we went into the old Lodge...

Second animal sighting. Isn't it beautiful. In Jared's opinion this is the most majestic animal.

Last stop of the day Mammoth springs. It was very dry I was a little disappointed.

Now where would any trip be without a little drama.

The only thing standing between me and the bathroom at mammoth springs was a herd of elk crossing THE only path, and signs everywhere saying DANGER do not approach the Elk, What was I supposed to do? It was either pee my pants or take my chance at being speared by an elk. I took my chance, and yes I made it safely.

More animal pictures, we also saw eagles, a swan, and a coyote, but didn't get pictures.

She's Finally Five!

It has been a long year waiting for five. Kambree has been to many birthday party's over the past 12 months watching her friends turn that glorious age. Not to mention she has been making her "what i want for my birthday list" since last September. Now, it was finally her turn. She had a great birthday, I mean we did three day's of celebration and two cakes, who wouldn't!

Celebration # 1
(with the family)

 This Celebration came the day before, due two to our dad/football coach. Kambree wanted dad at her party and because JV football games are played every Thursday this wasn't going to work, so we had her turn 5 a day early.(lucky girl)

Celebration #2 (preschool)

Sorry no pictures, but she had fun being the line leader, sung to, and passing out her treats.

Celebration #3 (friends)

She had a birthday party with her friends, where all  the girls got manicures, glitter in their hair (I tried to recreate little sassy's a beauty saloon just for little girls in Memphis TN , and the most anticipated, ride on  Grandpa's horse (Todd is such a good dad. He was the lucky one who got to walk up and down the road with the horse for and hour giving all the girls one, two three turns on the horse.)

                  (And I  I have to give a big thanks to Jessica and Kerie for helping with the parties.)

ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE YEAR

She likes to do her own hair.

She can write her own name without help along with the alphabet and numbers.

 She learned how to swim this last summer 

And, no more training wheels!

Happy Birthday Grandma Barber!

This Sunday we celebrated Grandma Barbers Birthday !! The party was full of food, fun, and of course football.

We played an exciting game of flag football, I'm not sure but I think it was my team that won. Kambree and I do have amazing skills when it comes to this game. Kambree's good at holding down her dads arm and not to brag or anything but I am really good at watching that ball go right through my fingers.

We had some great cheerleaders!

Emily would have been playing but she was to busy timing her contractions.

(she's due in 5 days.We are all so excited to meet our new cousin)

Happy Birthday Grandma we are so grateful for

everything you do for our family. We love you!