Family Pictures 2008

My mom thought it would be a good idea to take some family pictures before my brother Dan and his wife Emily and their son Andersen moved to Erie PA tomorrow for medical school. It's always so funny how you take 100 + pictures but only like 5 really sort of turn out. I think these ones are cute!!











My little family (Marianne, Mark, Ashton, and Justin)













My little family again (Mark of course forgot to take his sunglasses off)













My sister Katie and her husband Per (Nic) and their dog Maddie













The whole family (Marianne, Mark, Ashton, Justin, Holly, Scott, Dan, Emily, Andersen, Stefan, Sam, Katie, Per)













My brother Dan and his wife Emily and their son Andersen














My Boys: Justin and Ashton

Lake Powell 2008

We had a wonderful 8 day vacation to beautiful Lake Powell. This trip was incredible in so many different ways. This year my dad bought a new house boat… with AIR CONDITIONING!!! That was incredible. There were a lot of people on this trip which made it incredibly crowded. We brought Ashton which was both incredibly rewarding and incredibly hard at the same time. I’m still trying to loose my baby belly so I felt incredibly FAT… hopefully next summer I won’t be the biggest girl on the boat!! Especially next to my size nothing sister and sister-in-law!!

Justin was an amazing little wake boarder this year. He has officially graduated from the child size board to the adult Liquid Force board. I think he was very proud of that. He did all sorts of jumps, butter slides, and his own “tricks” that amazed everyone. He did get a pretty nasty sunburn on his lips… hopefully they don’t fall off!! We had a great little cliff to jump off of right behind our boat. He was always going over with Papa to jump off.

Mark learned how to do the stand up Super Jet Jet Ski and loved it. It was also Mark’s first experience on a moving house boat. He’s only ever come down and stayed on the boat in the marina or camped with friends. I think he really loved taking the house boat up the lake and having an entire bay all to ourselves. Mark even got to drive the houseboat back to the marina for a while.

Ashton did amazingly well. Much better than I could’ve ever hoped. He loved riding in the ski boat and he really loved the water. Especially when mom let him swim naked. Ha ha ha! We brought his Baby Einstein Jumper with us which was truly the one item that saved me throughout the trip. He loves that jumper. He’ll sit there forever and jump and play with “Mr. Sunshine” and the music.

I spent a little too much time in the SUN on Tuesday and ended up with sun poisoning. If you’ve never had the joy of experiencing such poisoning count yourself lucky!! I was stuck in a hot boat with 16 people sick and vomiting. Then to make matters worse... I had to stay out of the sun for a couple of days! I guess I learned my lesson… all things in MODERATION!!!

All in all it was an absolutely wonderful vacation. The best part being that my little family got to spend 8 full days together.