lake powell 2014.

for the past 19 years i have gone to lake powell at least once every summer.

this summer however, we were not able to go with my family and i was deeply saddened.  luckily, matt's mission buddy tyler invited us on a trip towards the end of august and my lake powell streak is still going strong.

i was kind of nervous bringing brooks along not only because he was the only kid, but also being 35 weeks pregnant myself.  but it was a lovely time.

there were 11 people total and it was so much fun.  we all rode down together in a luxury RV.  it was perfect because we were all able to get to know each other and hang out on the way down.

we spent the next four days swimming, boating, wake surfing, wake boarding, knee boarding, tubing, playing on wave runners, eating like kings (we basically had a gourmet chef on board), and relaxing times ten.

if you have never been to lake powell i highly suggest it.  it's my favorite place on earth, next to disneyland.

brooks took his first tube ride.  he was pretty indifferent as his face shows.

also, matt and i celebrated our 2nd anniversary while we were in lake powell.  we also celebrated our 1st anniversary in lake powell, so apparently it's becoming tradition.  anyway, we had taken a similar kissy picture so we were recreating but matt had brooks in his arms.  rather than put brooks down, i told matt to just lower him so he was out of the shot.

we kissed, snapped the picture, and ended up with the best photo bomb of all time.

this picture is priceless :)

it pretty much sums up our little family.

until we meet again, beautiful lake powell.

newport vacation - part one

about a month ago we began the first of our summer vacation adventures.

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

this is a trip my whole family does every other year.  this year not everyone was able to come, but it was still a lot of fun.

much of our time was spent at the pool.  it was so nice because brooks loved to play in the water for about a half hour and then he would just lay on my shoulder as i walked around in the pool, until he fell asleep.  the pool just wore him out.  i was in heaven because then i was able to lay out and read without having to worry about brooks.

^^this picture is one of my favorites :) if you look really close you can see brooks' precious hippo teeth.  his middle teeth have since grown in, but this toothy grin was the best.

one of my favorite things about newport is eating at a little burger shack that overlooks the ocean.  not only is it delicious, but the view is pretty amazing.

part I
part II
part III

newport vacation - part two

another tradition we have while in newport is attending sacrament meeting on sunday, followed by a visit to the temple grounds.

for some reason, the grounds were closed but we were still able to capture the beauty of the newport temple.

^^pretty darn good for a self timer shot!^^

after the temple and some lunch, we headed downtown newport to the pier where it was quite windy.  we were able to see some dolphins off the end of the pier which was pretty cool!

part I

part II

part III