Our Girl Elleory

This year, Elleory decided to try wake boarding. After some coaching from Aunt Julie, our resident expert, she got right out of the water, and never looked back. Can't even tell you how proud we were of her. Brian and I witnessed this whole thing from the back of the houseboat, and patiently waited for her to come back and tell us about it. She was pretty proud of herself. She is looking forward to going out again in the next couple of weeks with Uncle Brian on Chatfield Reservoir. I guess we are going to have to make some friends with boats in Seattle or buy our own... hhhmmmm.

Lake Powell: The Pictures...

Anders, Elleory and Liam on a boat cruise with Grandpa Gary and Brian. We call these little excursions "Snooze Cruises", because ultimately...a nap is the whole reason for the wandering around the lake in the middle of the day. Generally the temperature is HOT by that time. Heat induced nap, LOVELY.
Our family photographer, Anders. He takes very good pictures. Brian on top of the houseboat, probably being the Liam life guard. Liam was perpetually hanging off of something, over the lake, or trying to kill himself in one way or another. I really hope this phase doesn't last.
Anders continues to amaze me with his "recovery". Last year he would barely get into the water, this year we couldn't keep him out. It's a great deal, and I'm very proud. Lake Powell is a sensory overload for him and he is so happy. Every thing goes so fast, and is BIG, and he just loves it. This year he discovered jumping the wakes on the wave-runners, and the ION. Each time he got on anything his first words were "are we gonna go fast?" So love that we are getting out of the scared of everything stage. ALSO...He went poop on the potty in the houseboat, a first for him. YAY!
This is me, in a swimsuit, on the blog, again... I had the award winning fall this year. Just barely pushing my sister Lindsay out of the spot. (She had basically the same fall) I was crossing the wake, and trying to figure out how to turn and jump, when the nose of the board got sucked under. I hit my face hard on the water, and lost the board. Thankfully, the only water I breathed was the stuff that got forced into my nose by the hit. My smack on the water was loud, and I actually lost my bottoms. (This is the reason I got the award...) I did want to get right back up again, but I was pretty certain that I'd broken my nose. I had Brian Jr. take me home for ice, Advil and a nap... This was the next attempt, the next day, and me being very cautious (only slightly more cautious than normal)... which is sad, because these are the only pictures I got of me wake boarding this year.

Another Anders shot. We are looking forward to next year.

Best of Lake Powell

OK so here it is...

The Lake Powell Awards. Maybe on the same level as the Darwin Awards but no one has to die to get one.

Sorry no pictures yet... some coming soon.

Best Houseboat Driver goes to my Dad. He drives it every year, but this year he did it the best.

Best Vacation Planner goes to my Mom. Meals, extra sunscreen, she thinks of everything.

Best Surrogate Child/Right Hand Man (woman) goes to our friend Kir, who is ultimately more helpful than all of the Birth Children. What can we say? We're all pretty lazy...

Best Smiliest, Nicest, Kindest, Most Thankful Person goes to Doug's friend Kaela. Who would say thank you to the ski boat driver, even after she wiped out hard.

Best D.J. goes to Doug who kept us in tunage for the trip.

Best Quotable Quote goes to Jay. "Guys...I'm sinking...I'm really sinking here...guys?" Apparently his life vest wasn't really as buoyant as it needed to be, and the wake board was really buoyant. Pretty much every body just watched, and laughed. Sorry Jay. Welcome to the family.

Jay gets two awards this year. Best Improvisation of First-Aid-ish/Meeting a Very Specific Need Thingy. The Skill Socks are marvelous! Can't wait to be able to buy them at R.E.I. Also I think you should go with the rainbow color scheme to pay tribute to the bad 80's life vest. Maybe some stripes at the top?

Best Hair and Most Swim Suits goes to Lindsay, who always looked stunning.

Best Mullet goes to Jack

Best Ski Boat Driver goes to Brian Farnsworth who hauled us around the lake daily to wake board. You are awesome and I know you didn't get in the water nearly as much as you'd have liked.

Best Wake Board Coach goes to Julie, who finally talked Elleory onto the board and up out of the water, from the water. Way to go!

Most Naked Kid and best Pee'r off the boat goes to Cannon.

Best behaved baby goes to Mya.

Most Improved Wake Boarder goes to Brian Bergholm, who just started this year and got up the very first time, and started turning. You make us all look bad honey, but WOW!

Best Beginner goes to Elleory who also started boarding this year. Way to go kiddo! You make your Mama so proud. Keep it up.

Best Sleeping Through The Final Wind Storm goes to Anders and Liam. Who amazingly slept through the noisiest storm.

Finally, the Award for Best Wipe-Out Without Dying goes to me. Pretty sure for about half a day that I broke my nose. But really I'm OK, and the bruising is not so noticeable anymore.

We had a great trip, that went way too fast. Nobody died, or had to go to the hospital. We all ate well, and slept as much as one can in that situation.

Can't wait for next year!