The circus would have been quite content to call the vacation good with that stop. Oh no, kids, hop in. We have much more of an adventure ahead of us.Gas station stop:
So I somewhat apologize for the millions of pictures I'm throwing on this, but this is keeping my children's memories alive, so I'm not holding back. Welcome to a week of living on beach front property. Though I do have to say that we probably should have switched our order, and done Powell before the Bahamas. Because then, as I walked into the slightly OK, but not really, water, over the very rocky sand, I wouldn't have know what I was missing!
For some reason, Hawaiian shirts were the "in" thing with the men of our group. And yes, they wore them all week long.
If you need a tow, Dustin's there for you. Though frankly I wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to just pull the thing down the beach by hand?
Sean and AJ:
Keeping the kids out of every one's hair as they set up camp. Let's build a sand castle:
"Whew, this is hard work"
We had a lot of wind, warm so we were still out in swim suits on the beach, but it made for terrible water. When we found the opportunity to get out on the glass, we certainly took it. West is amazing to watch on the wake board.
And I'm not so amazing to watch, but being as this is only my second summer to have ever been on a wake board, I'm pretty happy with the fact that I can even get up and out of the wake.
Mud babies. Gross.
West and I were in the trailer when we started hearing the cries "the boat is floating away with kids in it!" Damn wind. Casidee and Sean were smiling, but clearly wondering if they should be panicking yet. We grabbed the anchor rope which had been blown loose and pulled them in, tying it to Shane's pick up. West commenced in gathering the circus around the boat and giving a crash course on how to start, and slowly steer the boat back to the beach.
On to bigger and better sandcastles thanks to Jesse:
After a couple of days of non stop play, Cali went in to change out of her suit. This is where I found her, half out of her suit and out cold:
Lindee and her boyfriend Sam set up a treasure hunt.
It was cute Natalie's 3rd birthday.
Chatwin's brought glow sticks, very cool: 
Sam's pontoon boat:
Our beach front property:
Hiking to a very mysterious cave we saw from the water. Hiking in swimsuits in flip flops (all I kept thinking was of Jr and all her mishaps of hiking in un-appropriate shoes/clothes. No one get poison ivy (impossible here I know) and no one break a toe!):
Me, Cali, Lindee:
"Take a picture of me, Mom":
Mike:
Raschelle took the camera and told West to do something. That's totally the "something" that any normal person would do, don't you think?:
Beach volleyball until it's just too dark to see:
What you get when the circus has control of the camera: 
(Sean):
Sam and Sean:
I told you West is amazing to watch: 
Climbing Lone Rock, which is the camp ground we were at, Lone Rock, Wahweap. 
We were all to chicken to jump off the ledge of Loan Rock, so we headed to a more favorable, and less HIGH place. The dogs hiding out:
Sam:
West:
Sam:
Sam:
West:
Lindee:
I'm severely afraid of heights. I can't even stand at balcony railings. It makes my palms tingle and my stomach explodes with nerves and all I can think about is falling (and all the injuries and pain that will result). When we started this quest for cliffs to jump off of, I made it very known that I would not be joining in, and was more than happy to take pictures. But as I sat there, I WANTED to jump off of that stinking edge. They were having so much fun, and I just knew if I let this fear hold me back, if I missed this opportunity, I was going regret it and be mad at myself. I knew I couldn't let the fear hold me back from doing something I actually felt I wanted to do. I handed West the camera and told him to be ready, because I wasn't going to stop once I got up there. If I stopped, I wouldn't do it. I did hesitate when I got up there. The fear stopped me from walking up and off the edge, but the urge to not let it stop me from having fun pushed me on. After 30 seconds of hesitation, and with my stomach lurching into sickness, pushing panic up my throat, I lept. And plugged my nose, laugh if you must (I sure am, now in hind sight), but all I could think was to be prepared because it was frightening enough. Once I got past the initial leap, and realized that even though the fall was long enough for me to rationalize all of these feelings, it really was fun, and the drop really wasn't that bad after at all. I'm a fish in the water, and cliff jumping is definitely up my alley... well, you know, if it weren't for that leaping off of something high part...
Cali declared she wanted to jump. I took her up, panicking, and wondering if I seriously had to force myself to do this again? And how was I going to do it? Hold her hand and let her fall, hold her and jump? Luckily, Cali decided, once up there, it was too much, and I didn't encourage her to try. Perhaps I was the wrong adult to climb up there with her (ya think?!) but I'm still so proud of her for entertaining the thought, when none of the other kids would.
I'm impressed with Brynn's and Casidee's sports photography skills:
This would be me hitting it fabulously over... and Brian Chatwin slamming it back in my face:
Sam:
West:
Sam:
Sam:
West: 
Lindee:
I'm severely afraid of heights. I can't even stand at balcony railings. It makes my palms tingle and my stomach explodes with nerves and all I can think about is falling (and all the injuries and pain that will result). When we started this quest for cliffs to jump off of, I made it very known that I would not be joining in, and was more than happy to take pictures. But as I sat there, I WANTED to jump off of that stinking edge. They were having so much fun, and I just knew if I let this fear hold me back, if I missed this opportunity, I was going regret it and be mad at myself. I knew I couldn't let the fear hold me back from doing something I actually felt I wanted to do. I handed West the camera and told him to be ready, because I wasn't going to stop once I got up there. If I stopped, I wouldn't do it. I did hesitate when I got up there. The fear stopped me from walking up and off the edge, but the urge to not let it stop me from having fun pushed me on. After 30 seconds of hesitation, and with my stomach lurching into sickness, pushing panic up my throat, I lept. And plugged my nose, laugh if you must (I sure am, now in hind sight), but all I could think was to be prepared because it was frightening enough. Once I got past the initial leap, and realized that even though the fall was long enough for me to rationalize all of these feelings, it really was fun, and the drop really wasn't that bad after at all. I'm a fish in the water, and cliff jumping is definitely up my alley... well, you know, if it weren't for that leaping off of something high part...
Cali declared she wanted to jump. I took her up, panicking, and wondering if I seriously had to force myself to do this again? And how was I going to do it? Hold her hand and let her fall, hold her and jump? Luckily, Cali decided, once up there, it was too much, and I didn't encourage her to try. Perhaps I was the wrong adult to climb up there with her (ya think?!) but I'm still so proud of her for entertaining the thought, when none of the other kids would.
I'm impressed with Brynn's and Casidee's sports photography skills: 
This would be me hitting it fabulously over... and Brian Chatwin slamming it back in my face:
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