Road Trip to Lake Powell

This year we decided to trade our family camping trip for a road trip to Lake Powell.  We usually fly to Utah and then drive to Lake Powell, BUT this year we decided to go clear from Texas to the big lake.  

By doing this we were not only able to bring our favorite swim toys...but we also brought Paul's favorite toys.  Which included Rock Band, Guitar Hero, complete with projector, and his air soft guns.  I have to say that having Rock Band projected onto the cliffs of Lake Powell rocked.  We also watched a movie using the projector, which made it more like a drive in movie.  As you know, Paul has a lot of great ideas - this happened to be one of my favorites.  =)

The kids did remarkably well traveling.  We didn't even have to break out the DVD player until towards the end of day on the days we traveled.

Hannah kept herself busy by reading books, playing Polly Pocket, coloring, and drawing the letter H - on herself of course.
Jacob kept himself busy by watching for cows, horses, trains, playing with cars and soldiers, and reading his books.  
I love looking in my rear view mirror and seeing these two faces!!

The first day we drove to Amarillo.  It was a convenient stop, because we also got to see our friends the Humpherys.  They moved to Amarillo back in June.  We were able to catch up on the happenings of their family and the kids enjoyed the playtime with friends they had missed.  Thank you so much to them, for having us over for dinner.  It came complete with entertainment.  On our way out, saying our goodbyes, McKay said..."There's a snake."  Sure enough a rattle snake had snuck up right behind Paul.  Of all those present, Paul had the most snake killing experience.  He was quickly nominated to be the "snake killer."

Brian brought out the shovel and Paul proceeded to chop off its head.  The kids were quite facinated.  Jacob felt a little bad for the snake I think, because when Paul chopped off its rattler, Jacob let out a big "awww".   For a better picture of the snake you can check out Gayle's blog.

Much to my surprise the kids wanted to sleep in the same bed at the hotel.  Even more surprising to me, was they actually did it.  The entire trip they slept in the same bed peacefully and SLEPT.  (Jacob didn't even fall out)

Well sadly my camera is not downloading the rest of the pictures from our trip.  So this is the only one I have so far.  If I can get the others to work, I will post them later.  We loved every minute at Lake Powell.  It was so much nicer having Paul there with me to help with the kids. (last year he was only there a couple days)  Paul is a great dad and a husband.  I'm so lucky to be married to him.

Jacob loved going on the boat.  His favorite part was helping drive it, and catching a nap every time it went out.

Hannah preferred to swim with Grandma Oman and play with cousin Kennedy.  She also loved riding the tube with Aunt Jenalyn until Paul hit a big wake with them that sent them both flying off the tube.  After that, Hannah was a little skeptical about tubing, but she finally went again with Kennedy on a SLOW ride.

Paul was master of the grill, cooking his secret rib recipe.  We also had fun playing Rock Band on the cliffs.  One of Paul's favorite parts of the trip was the wake boarding and spending time with almost all his family.

I enjoyed not having Paul's blackberry get any service what so ever.  It was great just spending time talking to him, not worrying about his work or blackberry friends chiming in. (no offense to the blackberry friends. I like ya, just nice for a little break)  

This year wake boarding, I was able to jump and get some air and then land it. That was one highlight of my trip. One of my favorite parts of our vacation was just swimming and holding by kids with no guilt of anything else that I needed to do.  

Now we are back to the real world!

Fun at the Beach

We survive the summers here in Texas by playing in the water a LOT.  We have a little kiddie pool in our back yard. The kids prefer to go one of the 13 pools here in The Woodlands, so we go a few times every week.  Hannah's favorite pool is the butterfly pool. (Each pool has a kiddie pool slide in the shape of different animals.)

We recently decided to break up the regular pool schedule and headed to Galveston Beach with our friends the Hannigans. 

Hannah was instantly ready to run out and jump all of the waves she could.  She had a lot of fun with Hailey and Avery.  Avery is one of Hannah's favorite friends to play with here.  They are play really cute and well together.  Hannah also loves getting attention from Avery's older sister Hailey (12 years old).  She followed Hailey around as much as she could, trying to jump the waves like her. 

Jacob had on and off moments of loving the water.  At times he was trying to go off by himself and swim in it.  The other times he wanted me to hold him out of the water.  Jacob's favorite part of the beach was digging in the sand, but he also  enjoyed banging his tummy into the waves.  

Hannah's and Jacob's approach to the waves demonstrated the difference in boys and girls.  Hannah was bouncing over the waves like a ballerina, while Jacob was crashing into them like a football player.  I have a lot of fun with their different personalities.   

We were glad we were able to be there on a great day when there was no impending tropical storm or hurricane.  Tropical storm Dolly and Edouard did not had a major impact on us.  We just had rain when they came through.  We have a couple more months of hurricane season left, and then we will have no more exciting tropical storms and hurricanes to look for.