4th of July

For the 4th of July, the Brems have a tradition of going to Lake Powell to celebrate. We weren't able to get together last year, so it had been two years and it was a blast to have everyone together again. We have a TON of pictures of everyone (largely thanks to Dad's amazingly sweet camera), so here are some of my favorite pictures of the trip.

Well, it had been a long time since I've been wakeboarding and I was a little rusty at first, but it came back quickly. You can't see very well, but I'm showing off the Shaka to celebrate being back on the water.

Getting the feel again of jumping...

Here's Jason catching some air.

Angie showing both Jason and I how its done...

Jenna tearing up the water

Having never gone before, we got Jodie out on the water to give wakeboarding a try - I love the smile.
After a few practices, Jodie got up for a little bit, but the board got the best of her in the end. As you can see here, the board is pretty big and she was having a hard time controlling it. So, we'll have to go wakeboarding again soon to work on that, but I'm proud of her for giving it a try.

James helping Grandpa steer the boat

Robert and Emily then got on the tube... I love their faces in this picture.
Truth be told, Robert actually fell off shortly after the picture and that left Emily some time to rip it up on the tube.
Sorry Em, but I thought this was a pretty cool picture and I had to include it.

The next few pictures are of John's tubing run. Although Jodie and I missed the first day of tubing, I think that John won the prize for tubing this trip. Although it was a tough call for me becaues he didn't get the biggest air (see Thomas' picture later), but he definitely got tossed around like a rag-doll. Some of his faces also remind me of the slow-mo movies of boxers when they get hit. Anyway, here are some of my favorites...







After our first day on the Lake, we went back to the hotel. James wanted to drive the "Blue Car" for a little bit and I was really impressed by how well he can handle it, especially for only being two. This was one of my favorite pictures; I love the tongue sticking out.

The next day, some of us got up nice and early to take advantage of the calm water. The water was so smooth and we were practically alone for a few hours.

Here's my mom

Angie
Jenna
My dad
I was very impressed by this spin move my dad pulled off.

Jason
Me

I tried to pull off a spin move myself, but I twisted too far and caught my leading edge and quickly went down.


After wakeboarding for a litte while, we came back to the marina and picked up everyone else and went back out to have lunch. After we had lunch, we played around on some cool rocks and James started to get a little brave and jumped to Robert in the water.
Jodie watching Anna to give Emily a break and allow her to go into the water to cool down a little.
After lunch, we went to a little cliff and did some jumping. At first, I was taking pictures of everyone, but I got called out of the boat for this picture. Its a fun picture and you can see some people's personalities. We were all supposed to jump off at the same time... yeah... I kept messing that one up. Sorry everyone. I think the picture still turned out nicely though.

Next we piled everyone onto the tube. 7 people, not too shabby.

I love this one of James. Jodie set him up on the bench and gave him his two cars. A little bit of background info about James. Most kids want to fall asleep with teddy bears and blankets, but not my nephew. He wants matchbox cars. So, he grabbed the cars and zonked out in just a few seconds and I grabbed this picture of him.

Next we got three of the brothers on the tube for a ride.

Then Thomas decided to put on some googles and go for a ride by himself. With this ride, Thomas won the prize for the biggest air. Right after this picture, he practically did a headstand on the tube because he got so much air. It was one of the most impressive jumps I've seen by a tuber.

That night, we went back to the hotel to have some home-made ice cream and watch the fireworks.


I thought this was a very cute picture.

On the way home, Jodie and I made two pit stops. First, we stopped off at Coral Pink Sand Dunes National Park, just north of Kanab. Its a pretty cool place.





Next, we stopped off at Cove Fort. It was established by Pres. Hinckley's grandparents. They were called by Brigham Young to build a fort to protect the telegraph and mail office during the Indian Wars. He built a very impressive fort, walls of 18 feet high and at least 3 feet wide at the base, especially considering he had no experience. Luckily, they never had to use the fort and it was primarily a lodging for travelors heading between Filmore and Beaver (sometimes upwards of 30 people a night that they had to feed and provide shelter for).
This is a view from the top of the walls at the original cabin where Pres. Hinckley's grandparents were living when they received the call to come here. When they restored the fort, they brought the original cabin down to add to the site.

Jodie on top of the walls. The tree to the right is one of the original trees that they planted when they built the fort, nearly 150 years ago.

Well, that was a summary of our trip. It was so much fun and a very nice break from reality. Big thanks to everyone for making it such a fun trip.