LAKE POWELL 2008

Another great year in Lake Powell. We started off a little rocky...but we ended up having a great week with great weather and great friends an family. We are so blessed to have these people in our life and even more blessed to spend some quality time with them. Here are some of the pictures from our trip and a really funny video. Enjoy! Dad, Mom, Layne, Brayden, Casey, Jackie, Weston (hiding behind Jackie), Carson, Jamie, Cody, Connor, Me, Dave and Mikey our Motley Crew!

Geez... this doesn't look like the Angeline. When we got to LP we found out that we didn't have the houseboat that week. We were actually scheduled for August 12, not September 12. Mom and Dad saved the day and rented a houseboat for us to enjoy. Thank you for your generosity, we had a great time.

By the way the pink flamingo is Pinky. For some reason he follows us on all of the trips we take with the Batemans. Maybe he was trying to warn us about his family members that landed in our yard, painted our fence and had a party while we were gone. See The Bray Family blog for more details.

We had the most awesome sunsets and sunrises this year. And every night we had a full moon. It was amazing.

Sunrise Mikey still has it and just look at that water.
This is the Bow Do courtesy of a ride on the bow of the boat. Great look Boo!

Jamie is the bomb. She got right up and skied great. Way to go girl.

Boo on Mikey's wake board. He also tried skiing for the very first time and almost got up.

Ok.... here is the best video. This is Boo on the left and my nephew Brayden on the right. Brayden was just knocking the fish down. Every time he put in his pole he'd catch a fish. He just threw in his pole again and we thought his luck had run out as we didn't see the fish at first. So I had just said to him "you're luck must have run out" well, he pulled up his pole and sure enough there was a fish on it. In the video you can hear Brayden say "I guess my luck hasn't run out"! Too funny.

Lake Powell 2008 part II

Grandpa and Connor. Connor loved this he stood straight up while grandpa toted him around and babbled (just to clarify - Connor babbled not grandpa)

Casey and Brayden feeding the ducksThis is Connor's first time in the lake. He didn't really like it much which was actually ok with me as I was a nervous wreck at first worrying about him falling in. He ended up having a great time and I was able to relax.
The boys - Brayden, Weston, Casey, Carson and Connor
This is Braden ringing the dinner bell. I wanted to get this picture because earlier that week we had rung the bell and Brayden came running in and ask "is it lunch or dinner?" we had just finished eating so I told him we rang it for snack time and gave him a rice krispy treat. He is so funny.
Somebody left their turtle

This is a spider in the house boat that we watched kill a fly. It was actually pretty cool. If you look close you can see the fly underneath it.

Casey's science project - Hypothesis - a copper penny in a plastic baggy with water keeps fly's away (per Jamie) Conclusion - yes it does work.
Connor was up bright and early as usual. This is your 5:30 am wake up call. Your welcome everyone, hope you didn't want to sleep in.
Mom and Cody
Is my mother making Cody collect more rocks for her?
Casey swimming

Carson Brayden and the stick bug
Mikey, Cody and Jamie. Hold....hold... Layne and Jackie

Layne is the only adult crazy enough to try this move

David
Mikey and Connor
Layne and Connor
This is Connor's first ride in our boat. He did really well. I even did ok. :)

Camping

We had a great Labor Day Weekend camping with friends in the Unitas. The weather held out for us until Sunday night and then it rained all night. Everyones been asking for the pictures, so here are a few from my camera. You'll just have to stay tuned to see the pic's from Mikey's camera, including the group shots. I made that hat. I have to mention it because it's the extent of my craftiness (is that a word?).
More humming birds. The feeder was drained by Sunday, Jamie had to refill it.
Mikey is so patient to sit and wait for these incredible shots.
This is me and Carson at the stream behind our camp spot. We got the BEST spots in the campground. When Dave and I noticed that they were open, he got out of the jeep and stood there guarding the spots while I went to get Mikey, who was only about 100 yards away.

Looks like they traded the horse in Virginia City for the cycle! Is that a celery stick Mikey?
Ok... now this is a fun game. Dan and Country brought up a bean bag toss game. We had a blast playing. Here I am with the world champion, Amy Dickerson AKA Bullseye Betty! Showing off the final score, Betty and Jackie were the winners, but I live right next to Country who owns the game so... look out next time Betty! I don't know why Country was giving the thumbs up, she was on my team shouldn't she be giving a thumbs down or the bird or something? Side note... the jr. champion is Carson. That kid is spot on.

Connor and Jamie. I'm counting this as a workout. I just had my son take my place. Connor walked Jamie all over the place. He loves to walk and talk and look for the birds with Aunt Jamie!
Mikey said this pic is him being a "responsible parent". He noted that he wasn't driving because he'd been drinking.

Boating!

Well, I don't know if you can actually call what we do boating. It's more like floating. We went to Utah lake recently with Dan & Country. We wanted to get the boat out and make sure it still worked before we went to Lake Powell. It hasn't been in the water for a few years (we've been busy!). It ran great and we had an awesome time. Mikey even water skied. He popped right up and skied until he just let go (did you expect any less from him?). Here's the pic's.

This is the extent of our exercise regimen. Country and I enjoying the water.
We met up with Don & Deb, Jim, Jackie and Boo, Todd, Amy, Jordyn, and Kayden, and Andy, Michelle, Alex, Otis and Max (the dog). We tie the boats together and float.

The girls; Brownie, V, me and Country (Deb came later)
Some of the boys in Andy's jet boat; Mikey, Jim and Andy

Brownie and Max. Don't you just love the doggy life jacket? They just pick him up, like a purse, and move him where he needs to go. I think Max was loving it.

Fun with Brenna

A few weeks ago, Connor had a playdate with his cousin Brenna. They were pretty funny together. They didn't really play together they were both just playing. Brenna'a a few months older than Connor, so it's fun for me to see what she's doing. Here's a few pic's and a funny video from that day.Brenna's a ham, she smiles and let's you take her picture. Connor has his dad's gene and rarely do I get a full face shot.
Connor loved this horse. He would hug on it and talk to it, but he wanted nothing to do with riding it. Funny. Another cute pic of Brenna.
Connor doesn't have much of a vocabulary right now. It's basically moma, dada, puppy, hi, huh and a lot of babbles. So when I tried to get Connor to show off his skill and say puppy, he wouldn't (of course - it's that dad gene again), but Brenna would answer -puppy puppy puppy! Too funny. She's got mad skills on the animal sounds. Here's Brenna doing a coyote.