Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Lake Powell Tri-L Style.....

Gil and Abe awaiting Lake Powell on some wave runners.
Every year Tri-L (The Lamoreaux Brothers) take their entire family to Lake Powell. When I say this I mean entire family. Lyle has 6 kids (four of which were there) 12 grand kids (10 grand kids came). Craig has 5 kids (all of them came) 19 grand kids (all of them came), Dave has 3 girls and 2 of them came. I am not counting spouses. So what I am saying is that it is a lot of people. These three guys take care of everything. You just show up with a swim suit and a tent and the rest is taken care of.
This is the spot we stayed. Jeff and Dillon found a spot that was shaded by about 4 in the afternoon.....very nice. Gun Site our usual spot. This was the first time I have been in 5 years, due to babies and living in Cali and school for the boys. Bob took the boys a couple of years with out me and baby.
This was Gwynnie version of cliff jumping!
Cougar is recently single and he brought is adorable son Maddox......We very much enjoyed this little man. We were sad Cougar had to leave early.
Speaking of adorable have you met Mr. lips?
Celton, Ryland, Tucker, and Hunter were trying their hand at a little fishing.
Aunt Sarah with Miss Gwyn. The littles can't get enough of Aunt Sarah's time. She is a trooper to come every year, it can't always be that comfortable for her.
Oh, here is another shot of Gilly.....we just think he is funny. He was so good about his life jacket, actually all of my kids were.

Papa Lyle cruisin with the napping babies....
Jeff and Amy brought their awesome pontoon boat and every afternoon for a couple of hours we would put all the littles on and it was nap time, worked like a charm.
Pretty Aunt Amy! We ladies would sit in the front of the boat while they napped and had some great chatting time. My picture of Laura was fuzzy dang it!
For example: Mr. Gage asleep and....
Gwynnie sleeping
Okay on to the the food situation.....When you are with these three men they feed you like you are at a steak house every meal. They fix amazingly delicious meals. Aunt Connie helps but mostly it was these three men taking care of us. I can't even begin to fathom what this amount of wonderful food costs them. This is Papa Lyle cooking up some breakfast.


Uncle Softy making some eggs for breakfast.
One night we had Carne-a-Sada the next night steaks and another night we had Ribs......mmmmmm. These were the best ribs I have ever had. Can I get an amen to that Dillon! Tucker was in heaven, can you tell?
Gil getting his grub on...
Even Mr. bones was enjoying the ribs!
Abe had never tried ribs before and he thought they looked so good he had to try them. His quote about the ribs, "I can't believe I never tried these before."

Gwyn and Amelia found some babies to take care of and they gave them many baths and put them to bed hourly while singing them lullaby's!
These two girls were inseparable. They had a great time together.
Oh, the beloved banana. We convinced the siblings to ride together plus Dillon. Nicole and I got such a kick out of watching them ride this......Let's just say there was a lot of laughing. (Nick where are you?)
This is Amanda, Bob's cousin....I just have to document how great she looks! She has lost 80 lbs since I last saw her.

The boys on the Banana. They liked this ride but they L O V E D Big Mable I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of them on it. The last day we were there we gave them a 40 minute ride on Big Mable, the next day Tucker's back hurt and Abe had stiff neck....I guess they learned there is to much of a good thing. It was so weird to have my boys be so old and enjoying Lake Powell like I do. Last time I was there Abe was a baby.


Another shot of a banana ride.....this is such a typical Tucker pose, makes me smile when I see it.
Here is the one and only shot of me in Lake Powell. Thank you Laura for taking it. The Wave Runners or "Little Boats" as Gwyn liked to call them were a huge success with my kids. Gil it turns out is a total thrill seeker, he loved to go as fast as we could. He also wanted to ride the banana and cried until we put him on it with Bob. The adult football game in the water was also a source of unhappiness for him and cried unless Bob held him while they played. Gwyn told me of her big dreams of "coming back to Lake Powell and driving her own little boat" The boys loved driving them while Bob or I were on the back.
Now to cliff jumping.......Here is Abe counting down to his jump off the 25 foot cliff! He was awesome. He has turned into such a big boy the last few months.....he was always such a little boy to me.
Here he is in mid jump....notice his form.
This is the picture where I win the worst mom award....See how my oldest son is crying? yeah that is because he is scared to jump and I am yelling from the boat, "come on Tuck, just do it! Don't be a chicken, Your little brother Abe totally did it." Aren't I great. Bob, Amy, Laura, and Dillon were looking at me like I was cRaZy.....Okay maybe I am a little. I swear the next time we went and he was hesitant I was fine about it.


Here is Uncle Dillon diving off one of the cliffs.....he jumped a fifty foot cliff the day before.
Hunter was a cliff jumper machine. He had no fear and jumped triple the amount of anyone else.
Here is Miss Kate from a lower cliff jumping.
Here is Tucker being as brave as he could and just running and jumping.

He did it!

The three little boys looking at the Bass that Hunter and Jeff had caught. Gage kept trying to step on it and Gil poking it with things....
We had to leave a couple of days early because Bob had work. So the Mitchell's so kindly drove us back to the dock. Jeff and Monson driving us.
A storm was rolling in so it was a bit windy....Daddy arms are always the best way to keep warm, and fall asleep.
Once we got on the boat it lulled our wild things into sleep.....here is Hunter relaxing.
Tucker alseep and his poor face so raw from his life jacket......we rarely let them take it off.
Abe was sleeping under a towel next to mr. bones.
We had such a great time. It was 10 years ago that I first went on the Lamoreaux Lake Powell trip and the boats were new and the wave runners were new. Time is showing in everything the boat was having a few issues the house boat seems a little out dated, the wave runners are pretty beat. The Brothers are a litte older and so are Bob and I (our 4 kids would prove that). It seems though that none of that matters. It was still as much fun or more fun than ten years ago. I can't say thank you enough to my father-in-law and his brothers. My children had a wonderful memorable experience in some of the most beautiful country around. They got to spend time with their favorite cousins and meet some new second cousins. They got to know their great uncles and see what wonderful men they are. After all the meals they cleaned up and then hung out in the lake just talking. At night Lyle read some things about our family history. Some great conversations were spurred by these stories. I love this family! I adore my sister-in-laws. They are great and I love my time spent witht them. They feel more like sister than anything and I can't wait for our Breaking Dawn read-a-thon this weekend at Amy's house in CC! What a great weekend! Thanks Tri-L.
p.s. Nick and Amy, get back here to Utah.......you were missed!









Thursday, July 17, 2008

GiRLs TRip.....

Greta and Kennan
Hot Air Balloons On the 4th of July
Gwyn and Rose in matching dresses from Nannie!
My beautiful mother (Nannie)!
Minzie Moo on her birthday.
Minie assessing her $100 personal birthday cake....
My very handsome nephew Gage.....Look at those eyes!

I am posting just a few of my favorite pictures from our trip home last week. I will give a detailed report at a later time:) I am off very early in the morning to Las Vegas to fly to Oakland Ca, for my trip with my mom and three sisters! Paige moved to San Ramone a few months ago so she will be hosting us. Here we come H&M! I am so excited to be getting some away time. Love my kids, but a break is always welcomed. I am also not taking my camera so that I can read by the pool, play some cards, go the movies.....and what ever else may sound fun to us. I am ready for some serious giggling time! I'll be back next week and I will get back to blogging. Thanks babe for being such a great dad so that I never worry while I am away!



Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Last day of our trip

Do you know what this is?
Bobby could tell you. This is his crabbing basket. My cousin and her husband so kindly took us crabbing on their day off. My boys had been dreaming of it. I have to say they didn't realize that it might take a little time.....
Here is one of the crab that we caught. Tucker got brave enough to hold it.
Here are the three youngest kids. Gwyn was really bummed that we didn't bring her own Barbie fishing poll, but what can you do? Cameron was a pro at casting out. I am pretty sure he never left that spot the whole time we where there.
Daddy and Gwynnie having a little snuggle time.
Mallorie is happiness! She is like a beam of light, she is always positive and happy.
Gwyn was finding the grass very interesting.

This is my cousin Carrie and her puppy Maddie. Carrie and Bobby were great at showing us things. Carrie is a fountain of knowledge (in many ways:)) She was really sick with a terrible cough (I am guessing pneumonia) but still took all the time to hang with us. She is 4 years older than me but I always remember her being my friend. She was always nice to me and we shared many a birthday party. It's funny because it's been years but I still think of her the same way. Somehow she has become a true blue Oregon Girl, you would be amazed to find out she hasn't lived here forever.
Up until know I haven't brought up Miss Daisy. Chrissy dog is just part of the family. She was very sweet with the kids, Gil was obsessed with her but then he would kick her? why? because he is 1 years old? He was driving me nuts with this behavior.
Oh, yep there is trouble, or as Lisa nicknamed him "frat boy."
I adore this picture of Cameron.
Here are my two boys! By the end of the trip they were a little weirded out. They were not use to being so confined. They loved running on the beach and burning some energy, it's hard not to be in your own world for 2 weeks. The last day there Chris watch Gil while he slept and Bob and I took the three older kids to the arcade and shops. We also drove the bumper cars and found us some great Seaside sweatshirt! What a great time we had. What good boys they are!

My very favorite part of my trip to Oregon was the late night talks with my Aunt. It was great to get to talk for hours and learn more about her. It was great to talk about my Uncle Felipe who passed away in 2002. Her home was so cute and very comfortable. She is a remarkable woman and growing up I ALWAYS knew she loved me. Thank you Chris for a wonderful time..... We love you! It's your turn to visit us.

We got up really early 4:30 am and drove 900 hundred miles to Nannies house. Bob was a trooper and got there in one piece. The scenery was beautiful. I loved that everywhere we went you could see why people lived where they lived. It was great to see our wonderful countryside. How blessed we are to see God's hand in every detail of life!