More LP 2013

 Some action shots of the divers. My parents were giving them scores on each dive, Beans may have lost some for his split legs here :) These two seriously could have practiced diving the whole day. They became fast pros—practicing can have that effect!

 Playing on the boat and Stacey's cute pregnant bump

 Livs and I had a nice, slow tube ride together. My little siblings taught me these cool tubing moves a hundred years ago...

Bentley and Cares had a more exciting ride full of laughter and lots of screams thanks to Cares!

 Cutest freckled Cares :)

 My blonde boating girl

 Heading up Antelope Canyon (I think...)

 In the July heat, shady canyon walls are our favorite. This one turned out to have a great little cliff jumping spot too (but none of the pics of jumpers turned out...)

 Our little LP family (felt so small and easy to have just 3 kids!)

 Back at the house boat taking a paddle board turn. 

I'm laughing at how white the backs of my legs are!

 

Beans on the paddle board. He was a rock star on it.

 

Joseph's turn

 Livs at the cliff jumping spot just a short swim from the houseboat.

 Brave girl jumping in with her daddy!

Sea-doo rides with uncles—long standing LP tradition

 Trying to make the slip-n-slide work. I think we needed a steeper beach and slipperier bums :) 

But look at that sand–too pretty.

 Bean the skiing machine! He was a pro at the trainer ski this year and had several successful runs.

 I had some fun skiing too :) It's just the perfect place to do it—warm water and perfect, morning glass. So fun. But I sure pay for it the next day 

(sore in muscles I never use except for getting up on a ski!)

Love these houseboat drivers!

Lake Powell 2013

This vacation is always a highlight of summer. We think about it and plan for it from the day school ends and dream about our fun time playing in the water and with family non-stop. It's just our favorite natural playground and so beautiful all around. We decided to leave our Luke home this year because he is just the busiest bear who has absolutely no fear and would be a huge bundle of stress on the houseboat and in the water. Luckily, both my big sis and Nanny were able to watch over him so we could head off without him for a few nights. The only sad part of our trip this year was that it was so short—we only slept out on the water for 3 nights! Next year we are determined to stay for the whole week with our whole crazy crew of kids (here's to Joseph not having to take 3 vacation days for pioneer trek :) We loved trek, but it was definitely tricky to add that in this summer).

 The Smith LP crew 2103

And so, Powell. It's such a gorgeous place. The adults were all talking about how when we see it each summer it takes our breath away year after year. Even though we think we remember and know we love it, it's colors and skylines, that bright blue water against the red rock and towering cliffs—too beautiful. It's one of my happiest places for sure.

 

We had the most perfect beach this year. Maybe we like the water level being low!

 

A little family of rabbits lived in the brush of the beach and we saw them regularly coming to drink from the lake and check us out. This one was super brave and let my dad walk right past him!

I took this shot from the back of the houseboat. It was fun to have our own secluded bay and swim and play in so much open water without worrying about boat traffic.

My cute dad had a new toy this year: his auger drill so we could anchor into rocks just in case we needed to. We didn't need to but he certainly wanted to try it out anyway :)

More shots of our beach and the view of Gunsight. We had such amazing clouds. Every year we have sudden rain and micro-bursts of wind and weather as the monsoons do their thing down there. We had threats every afternoon, just before dinner time but they never turned into anything–kind of a surprise. My dad may have been a little sad he never needed to fire up the props and keep us steady in a wind storm :)

 Lots of fun boating time this year—no babies felt pretty liberating and gave us such a free and easy schedule.

 Of course the kids had some great downtime on the iPads–

especially playing all of Mason's cool apps.

 My brother and his cute family. And they are expecting another baby in the new year!

 Crazy pose after lots of smiling and holding still

 Stacey and I channeled the matching vibe

 Cool boy Beans

 Livs and Mase watching as we made our way back to Wahweap at the end of our stay. It really was too short of a trip but we couldn't leave Luke too long, I had to speak in church the next day, and also had girls' camp with my YW starting the next week. Plus our babe got some gross virus while we were gone and was feverish and sad. It was good to end when we did but yes, next year we will sit back and enjoy that gorgeous place for a longer stay.

 

The best part of LP is the non-stop playtime with family. Love seeing my cute kiddos together, love seeing them make fun memories with cousins, love having so much time to swim and cliff jump and hang with my children, love playing games with the grown-ups at night, and love, love, love the great bonds my kids build with my parents. I would love to have these kind of memories with my own grandparents. I'm pretty sure my mom and dad spent a full hour with Bentley and Cares teaching them how to dive. And the next day they did it again but helping them practice and perfect their dives. What a fun thing that would only happen during our long days on the lake. Hope my kids realize how lucky they are to have these people in their lives!

More pics from the underwater camera coming in another post...

4th at the Cabin

 

Just holding up tradition by heading to the cabin for a long 4th of July holiday weekend.

So much fun playing with cousins and grandparents!

On Friday the 5th, while hubbies were back at work in the valley, we dropped by my parents' neighbors who had invited all of us over to see their baby bunnies and chickens. It seemed kind of random to just show up with all our 9 kidlets but our children were in heaven (ok I was too—those bunnies were so soft and snuggly!)

That was definitely a highlight of our trip. And the neighbor just happens to be the guy who did the voice of Thumper in the original Disney movie Bambi. He was all too kind to give us a free autographed copy of the movie since he said he had tons of copies of it. Such a fun addition for us!

 We also popped over to this fun splash pad to get a bunch of wiggles out.

That night was the annual Oakley Rodeo. 

Getting dressed up for this is no small deal for these cute posers:

 

  I sent Joseph with everyone this year and stayed home with Brigg and Luke 

(the rodeo starts at 8:00 pm—much too late for those little dudes). I think they all enjoyed the nice cool temps and even though they got a little rain, they stuck it out to enjoy the awesome fireworks show at the end.

The night was a little crazy as we had arranged with the LeBaron family to be on a conference call with everyone as Neil and Ruth Ann opened their mission call. The call happened at 7:00 pm, just before my crew left for the rodeo, and we were all so excited to hear where they'd go. Turns out they are heading to the MTC really soon, August 5th, to prepare for their CES mission in Houston, TX. They will be heading up the institute program at a small college outside Houston and will serve for 2 years. Luckily they will be around for Bob's August wedding before heading to Texas but it will be so sad to have them far away for that long. It will be wonderful experience for them though, and we are already planning a family escape to go visit!