Lake Powell - 4th of July Weekend - 2009

We went to Lake Powell over the 4th of July weekend. We had a blast. That was the first time we had ever been there. We went to the Wahweep Marina just outside of Page AZ. It is so amazing and beautiful. The Hall family invited us to their house boat and welcomed us in as family. We play hard, ate great food, swam and danced.

It was funny if you used your cell phone at one end of the boat you would get Utah time and service and if you moved to the other end of the boat you would get AZ time and service.

On the 4th of went off the boat and climb up a huge rock and sat on top where we could see the fireworks being shot off in Page, as we were returning to the boat, Ashley was almost bit by a rattle snake, thank goodness for Greg Hall, who caught the snake and killed it.


Devin

Donny & Derek

The House Boat

Alissa on top on the house boat, where we laid out, danced and all the big kids slept.

Christi & Donny

Inside at one of the kitchen tables all the girls 
Sierra, Lindsay, Ashley, Alissa, Kristen, Katie & Shelby. 
You will have to asked the girls about 

the sun burns that got!!

.

After our great weekend. (we over packed!!)

Thank you Hall family, for the great memories!!

Disneyland - The Happiest Place on Earth?

We had a good time on our graduation vacation to Disneyland, California Adventures and Knotts Berry Farm. We want to Thank Dad & Mom Williams and Mom & Michael for helping us so much. We were able to stay at Aunt Carole & Uncle Dave's house. We were spoiled with a wonderful breakfast each morning and hot dinner when we got home. They have a great hot water heater that never ran out of hot water, allowing all (11) of us to shower and get ready each day. What a blessing it was. Thank you for everything.

It was so fun to have all the kids with us. We started off on Monday at California Adventures, trading off with the big rides and the other things that Lindsay could do. It was a nice day and not very crowed. We could not believe who we ran into, two of our most favorite families - Roni and Charlene Andersen at California Adventures, one of their girls were dancing in a show there and Scott and Julie Edwards at Knotts Berry Farm with their whole family on Tues.

The week was full of great moments that we all will remember for a long time. As you would expect with this many young women we had a few suffering with PMS, can we say Grumpy. And at any given moment there was someone not happy with what we were doing. Besides that, we had a great time.

The weather was wonderful, being together was wonderful, riding rides, watching parades, laughing, trading pins, being scared and helping each other. I told all the kids "I hope one day when your the Mommy or Daddy, that you will realize how much work, energy and money it takes to make trips like this possible" I want them to be grateful for these moments, there will come a day that we will not always get to be together.

Mrs & Mr Incredible - Derek, Lindsay and Devin

Hollywood Tower of Terror

The whole family at California Adventures

Donny and Christi

Lindsay wanted to be in the monkey cage on the Casey Jr Train

The Mad Tea Party Tea Cups - Donny, Lindsay, Devin & Derek

Kristen, Alissa & Shelby

Sierra & Katie (You'll notice that Ashley and I did not ride the Tea Cups)

Derek, Devin and Lindsay on the train - (what's up with Lindsay)

Christi, Donny, Scott and Julie Edwards

The Williams Family at Knotts Berry Farm

Our Family picture with Pooh - 2008

Shelby, Lindsay with Minnie Mouse

Lindsay with Mickey Mouse

All of us with Mickey

Lindsay, Shelby with Cinderella

Walt and Mickey and the quote under their saute

A great picture of Lindsay with her Daddy Donny

Donny with 6 of his 7 girls (Shelby stayed home that evening)

Christi, Donny, Aunt Carole, "Buddy" the dog and Uncle Dave

It's a Whole Different World

On our trip to California the plan was to stop at Aunt Dee, Robbie and Alisa's house in Las Veges. But as we got there we had plenty of daylight left and the kids were doing great, so we pushed through all the way to Orange, CA to Aunt Carole and Dave's home. Because we arrived a day early we had a extra day, so we thought it be fun to go to Vince Beach, we walked to the Santa Monica Pier.

We started at Vince beach, it was crowded with people on the beach it has a great bike path with thousands of people on bikes and rollerblades. (just like you see in the movies) There was some very interesting sites to be seen. We continued to walk down the street that was filled with people selling their wares with a ton of stores on the opposite side. Let my tell you, we were shocked and sadden by the things we saw, tattoos parlors and body piercings stores left and right. I think what shocked me the most was the beautiful people (we could see a lot of their bodies) with full scenes tattooed on them.

Some very strange people dancing, painting, singing, it was like a carnival. We just walked past it all. We were told that it wasn't a bad walk to the Santa Monica Pier. Of my goodness, it was a huge hike. By the time we got there we were all very tried and hungry, just the thought of having to walk back to our van was over whelming. So we walked around the Pier a little, took a few pictures and walked up the hill and caught a bus back (thank goodness) to our van parked back down at Vince Beach. We all had an experience that was for sure, we also got sunburned not really thinking about it while we were walking.

I am just so grateful for the blessings of the gospel in our life, and for living where we do. It's a whole different world out there.

Vince Beach

Santa Monica Pier

The whole worn out group