Lake Powell

We let the kids go to a whole week of school before we pulled them out again for a week of fun in the sun. I'm not sure we made a very good impression with our teachers, but oh well.

I feel that this year might be the beginning of a relaxing week at Lake Powell again. My kids are all reaching the point of independence. Of course I still watched them, but I didn't have to stress about their every move. I was even able to leave to go the bathroom or wash my hair a few times without worrying about them drowning while I was gone. :)

The weather this year seemed to be about 10 degrees hotter then usual. Which is great when you are in the water, but when you get 24 people in a room with crappy air conditioning it is another story. After a day and a hot night of this, Marc and my dad went back into Page and brought a portable air conditioning back. We loved it so much we named it Kevin. Kevin is now part of the family and will go with us to Lake Powell each year.

There were a lot of first this year. Some that you might see in the video are Tucker going down the slide by himself, Cooper going down the slide at all, Ivan slaloming, Kaden and Ivan surfing and Tucker skiing. We were proud of all our boys this year! They all had great attitudes about trying new things and made the week great.

School...Hurray!!!

This summer marked our longest summer yet. We had 6 weeks off! How did we spend our precious summer time you may ask? I'm not quite sure, but I know that we fit some fun in there somewhere. :) Some of the hightlights: a lot of swimming, the Mills Cousins campout, Grandma Hale camp, Marc & I went to the Tour of Utah, scout camp, a night movie on the garage, boating, lots of night games and countless hours of playtime.

After all the fun was had, I happily sent the kids to school. Kaden started 5 grade this year, Ivan 3rd grade, Tucker Kindergarten and Cooper will be going to preschool. Yes it is true, there will be two short (45 minutes & 2 hour) periods when I will be childless. What do you suppose I would do with that precious time? Volunteer at the school of course. :)

4th of July

As to follow our usual tradition, we headed up to the mountains for the 4th of July. Unfortunatly as we arrived at my parents house, my dad told us that my mom had come down with something that afternoon and was up sick in her bed. :( We were all so sad for her. The 4th of July is one of her favorite holidays. We all crossed our fingers and said our prayers that she would feel better by morning... and she did. We were able to have a great time together.

It was great to be in the beauty of the mountains. Because of all the moisture this year, they still had patches of snow around their house. Cooper and Lincoln thought this was great and had a grand time sliding down on their bums.

The boys before the Brighton parade.

We had a circle of fire with a bunch of our neighbors that night. It sure makes it a lot more fun with aerials.

My cute neighbor doesn't like the noise, so she wears these stylin' earmuffs.