Lake Powell Shred the Glass Tour 2011

Day 1 - We drove a long way. Mackenzie hated her car seat by the end. Had Dam Bar and Grill for dinner and went on a grocery shopping rampage.

Mackenzie checking out her new pad for the trip

Day 2 - Up bright and early to launch the boats. Of course this means Mackenzie and Zoe had to wear their life jackets. The normally very happy Zoe was getting impatient. Especially since we got stuck waiting for a repair on the house boat.

I love the look on Zoe's face here

As soon as getting anchored, it was time to bust out the little pool for some playtime in the water.

And then the raft.

And some playing with Zoe:

Day 3 - The next morning, I woke up at 5am and nobody else was up. The water was beautiful and glassy, so I decided to take some pictures. 

The Calabria

Some landscape

Looking back up the main channel

After after some wakeboarding in the morning and relaxing and watching Big Bang Theory (as was the line up for most days), Monica and Kirsty took Mackenzie out on the sea doo. She loved it. Every time they took her on the sea doo the rest of the trip she cried when it was time to get off.

Day 4 - Wakeboarding in the morning on this trip was great. The water was really nice and nobody was out until the time we were going back in. 
So Lucas and a girl from the singles ward, Efi, arrived on Saturday morning. They drove all night on Friday to get there so they were pretty zonked all day!
Zoe would lay on the top deck in the shade on her play mat. Which worked since she wasn't quite rolling over yet. Though she started doing it more consistently the last couple days. By now, she rolls around the room, which is funny to watch.

Since Lucas was there, Monica and Lucas went out with Mackenzie on the sea doo. 

And they are all smiling! It's a miracle!

 And tried out the "wee" slide. Mackenzie hated it. "Did you have fun?" Sobbing, "noooo. No wee slide!"

Day 5 - The next group arrived on this day. Whitney and her brother Jamison came. So we had a good sized crew on the boat. In the afternoon, most of us went on a boat ride to Dangling Rope Marina to get soft serve ice cream. Ran into some of the stake president's family there (there's a lot of people from our church in Glendora that go to Lake Powell around the same time).

Another favorite activity for Mackenzie was tubing. I liked going with her because her speed was just right for me!

I think her absolute favorite was looking for "izards" in her raft. There were a bunch on this rock wall. Someone would push her over on her raft and look for lizards. 

I try to go hike around the area a little bit every day. Gives a new perspective and opportunities to practice photography.

View of the house boats in the cove. Ours is the green one. The brown one is Doug and Nancy's neighbor.

Efi, John, and Jamison up on the "poopy perch"

Untouched sand

Epic silhouette of Efi

Looking up the main channel

Day 6 - Went to Rainbow bridge. I was amazed at how close the water was! It was a very short walk up to the observation area.

on the way

And of course we did some more sea-dooing.

Day 7 - This was the day everyone left. So it was down to Doug, Nancy, myself, Kirsty, and John for the rest of the trip. I found that the bindings on the wakeboard I ride had torn. But it was on my front foot and I was able to ride with no problem. 

Zoe is wearing a onesie that says "My aunt is the best!"

A group picture (except Doug) before everyone left

This was also the day we started getting some stormy weather.

But always some beautiful sunsets. 

Day 8 - We got some rain, but in the afternoon after getting in our morning wakeboarding session. 

Day 9 - So it got really windy and stormy around noon the day before and it did not stop. It was the 2nd night in a row that John and I slept inside because it was too windy at night. Unfortunately, the wind was still going strong this morning when we woke up. So it was way too choppy to go wakeboarding. We were bummed because it was our last day to go wakeboarding. Luckily, it calmed down enough in the afternoon that we could go out and ride. A church friend that was with the Jackson's came with us that day (he also came another afternoon for wake surfing).

Doug was catching some good fish this year. Kirsty also caught a nice bass. Though I don't like fish, so it wasn't so nice to me. 

I had John swim out to some rocks that were above water when we got there. 

Here are our favorite wakeboarding pictures of the trip:

And hello folks!!  It's John here giving you a little captioning on the pictures.  I had a great time at Lake Powell this year mainly because I could actually wakeboard.  Yea, having a cast on your hand kinda dampers your ability to wakeboard somewhat.  So being able to wakeboard every day was a definite bonus.  I mainly had a relaxing time.  I spent most of my R&R time reading "The Original Arguement" by Glenn Beck.  Basically it's quite a few of the Federalist Papers "modernized" into modern english with a lot of background parts about things that went on in those times.  It was a good read and really taught me a lot about what the founders intended when they made the Constitution.  Anywho, without further ado, here's the captions!!

I could tell my air wasn't that great, but I got a grab in here and there.

This was a "finishing move" I did at the final part of the run.  I tried to go for a cannonball, but I didn't get the back hand down :P

 So I then went onto wakeskating.  Here I am doing a tale-blunt manual.  Basically, you tweak the front of the board to the left so you're balancing on the bottom part of the board.

 Wakeskates make great launch pads!!

 This is living proof that Cari did, in fact, get air this year!!  I'm so proud of my sweetie!!

Cari was able to better feel her edges this year so she was carving like a pro.

 Then wakesurf is still one of my favorites.  Here's me carving up the wake making a beautiful spray!

Cari also learned how to dig into the wake.  This is one of her best Wakesurf shots to date!

Also, not shown here, was my show I put on for the Jacksons.  Lisa Jackson came up to me and asked me to provide juggling entertainment to her boat for a night.  I got my bag together and went over to put on a great demonstration of yoyos, juggling, astrojax, and even poi.  It was a great night and I know that they enjoyed my demonstrations and also my history with each toy and it's own history.