New Member of the Family

Carson is OBSESSED with dogs. His favorite book and movie is Where the Red Fern Grows and he begged and begged to get a hound dog. We tried to talk him into a nice older dog that was already trained and past the puppy stage. Carson held firm for a hunting hound. A really nice farmer, Ron Leavitt, had some red bone coon hound pups and Carson fell in love (actually we all did). We brought home our new baby girl last week. Her name is Ellie after Trent's dog Ellie May. When Trent was younger he had a black and tan hound. Ellie is so cute!!! She loves her big brother, Dodge. She follows him everywhere. The other night Dodge was inside but Ellie got put outside because she had an accident. She cried and cried at the back door. We have yet to hear her howl, but she does cry. Then she went around the side of the house and squeezed through the fence and scratched and cried on the front door. I think most dogs would find freedom and run like the wind. Not Ellie, she just tried another door. So far we think she is so cute!!!

Hiking the Narrow's

The weather was quite warm so the cool water felt great on our hike!
Carson was body surfing down the river!

I haven't posted in a while so I have a lot to make up from. In July we had a free Saturday and decided to hike the Narrow's at Zion's National Park. It had been raining and so the river was murky and you couldn't see where you were stepping. Trent went down on his face at one point and I couldn't stop laughing!

Lake Powell Trip 2008

We took the big "party barge" out on our annual Lake Powell trip this weekend. It was quite an adventure. We got to Lake Powell Friday evening to beautiful, calm waters and the most wonderful sunset in the world. Then about midnight the storm began--wind and rain. The worst part is we were sleeping out under the stars on the boat and had no shelter. Carson was in a deep sleep when all of a sudden he started yelling to leave him alone. He thought his brother was buggin him, when it actually was raindrops. Kallie thought it was great and giggled and laughed all night long. Needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep that night. Saturday morning was bright and beautiful again and we lucked out the rest of the trip.

Carson was obsessed with fishing. All he wanted to do was fish. He even stayed out in the dark trying his luck. Unfortunately the fish weren't biting and Dillon was the only one who caught one tiny fish.
Everyone loved to cliff jump. We found some really fun cliffs to jump off. Dillon was by far the most brave, climbing higher and higher each turn. Kallie even jumped!
Dillon and Carson loved the tube the most. We had to beg and plead the kids to try wake boarding and skiing. The bounced right up and did so good, but still loved the tube the best.
Trent even skiied and wake boarded. Here he is showing off on the board. The kids were pretty impressed. I was holding my breath hoping he wouldn't re-injure his achillies tendon. Luckily all was well.