Monday, August 18, 2008

Lake Powell, Oh how We Love Thee!!

Utah Trip August 9-17 2008
Matt, Carter, and I just took a trip out to Utah and had a blast. We couldn't have asked for a better time. Carter has flown several times now and continues to do fairly well. The older he gets the harder it gets, but he still does a pretty good job. Here is a video of him trying to find "choos" at the airport. He thinks the luggage carriers are "choos."




The first Sunday we were there we headed up to Logan and had dinner with Matt's brother Kurt and his wife Meagan and then headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen's for a long time family tradition of going over to their house to chat and have Grandpa scoop you up an ice cream cone. This family is quite big and I am always amazed at how warm and welcoming they are. The crowd you see down below doesn't even scratch the surface of the size of this family.


Carter enjoying his ice cream cone.
Lake Powell

Big Timmay throwing huge moves on the wakeboard (as well in the next two pictures). And yes ladies he is single.




There's me attempting to get "air" on the wakeboard.

Matt lookin good out on the water.

Matt and my brother Timmy are best buddies and loved getting tossed around together on the two man bumper tube.

Timmy, Me, Carter, my sis Stacey and one of her twins (Ashlyn) under the blanket (which is how all the babies slept) out on the boat.

My big brother and the eldest Chris with his little girl Emily on the left and Kaylee (Stacey's) on the right. I have such adorable nieces.

I loved this hat on Carter (and Bonnie I am sure you are thrilled to see that I found it). It covered his face so well and by some miracle he actually wore it quite a bit.

Bradley (Stacey's husband) and his daughter Kaylee. We call her "KK" and Carter was so fond of his cousin KK. He even called her KK which was so stinkin cute. Carter was not loving his life jacket and KK let him wear the one she was wearing which was a much more comfortable one and he put it right on with no complaints because his big cousin was wearing it. Thanks Kaylee for your help.

My Big Thirsty Boy.

We had an awesome beach right in front of where we were staying. Carter loved waking up every morning and looking out our tent window and seeing that we were still at the lake. He got so excited every morning. He had to get right up and dressed so he could go play with all the toys (esp the trucks) and play in the shallow park of the lake.

Originally we were planning on going on Chris's in-laws houseboat but that didn't pan out so we decided to camp it on the beach and this was great. As you can see we had our own little spot with plenty of great beach and water to play in. Carter is really into buses, choos, and trucks. He kept calling my mom's trailer and Chris's motor home a bus. I think from now on they will be known as buses.

Me waterskiing.
My brother Chris in these two pictures totally showing me up. He is amazing out there the way he can cut and throw out his rooster tail. I have extremely athletic brothers not to mention my father who is still out there cutting it up in his late fifties.


Stacey and her family except for the twins.

Chris's wife Kari, Emily, Me, and Carter on the bumper tube. Carter actually got quite the ride going out of the wake and over some good size bumps. He seemed to enjoy it well enough but was not a fan of the water splashing in his eyes.

Beautiful Lake Powell.

The Twins
This seemed to be the best place to feed Ashlyn (left) and Kyle (right) which is in the back of their mini-van. It was so funny to see them back there shoveling it down. Believe it or not but they are about to turn one in just a few days.


Kyle enjoying all the dirt his little heart desires.

We had such a great time with all of our family and feel so blessed to be surrounded my so many great people who like to have as much fun as we do and who are just all around great people. Thanks for the memories!

9 comments:

Dan and Jen said...

I'm glad that you all had a great time. I loved the video of Carter at the airport. He is so cute. Love you guys.

Scott, Kara, Paul, Brad and Andee said...

Love it! Looks like an awesome trip! I can't believe how big the twins have gotten, last time I saw them they were 4 months old and very small. Glad to see the fam is doing great! By the way, the picture of Chris in the hat with his girl and Staceys totally looks like your Dad!

Becky T said...

Oh, that looks AWESOME! You've got some sweet skills, Amber! Look at you hot mama wake boarding and water skiing. Wowee! And seriously, Carter looks like such a big boy in these pictures. He's so cute! And the sunset pic is gorgeous!

Trevor & Lindsey said...

We was good to see you guys for the split second I got to see you in the church, trevor thought I was crazy Im like watch youll see her at the house and then you no showed on me:)... lol, just teasing your mom said you had something else. But it looks like you guys had a great time, and hopefully will be out there to see you guys soon. For sure next summer... my cousins getting married!

Stacey said...

We had soo much fun! It was great to be able to spend time with you guys. I am glad that our kids got some quality time together. I need a copy of your pictures. You got some good ones. Love ya!

Whit said...

So cute!! Love the new Carter videos! Keep 'em coming! This is what is going to keep me alive at BYU. I should be packing and sleeping right now, but blogging is more important. Looks like your trip was wonderful! Miss you tons...

Mark, Holly and Boys said...

Looks like suuuuch a fun vacation. Thanks for sharing the pics. And Carter is still as cute as ever - I love how adorable he looks in that hat!

Alison said...

Ohhh, that looks like so much fun! I loved the picture of "eating out of the van." Funny! That is cool you & Carter got to be pulled by the boat. Did he like it?

Mamazog said...

Thank you so much for coming home to Utah and enjoying this wonderful Powell vacation with us. I went through the entire blog again and couldn't believe how much Carter grew up in the short 2 months between our trip to Pitsburgh in June and your trip here in August. This is such a blessing for us to be able to keep us updated with our Pittsburgh family.