Summer 2010

Things have been a little busy this summer and we have gotten behind in our blogging. Mainly all my time has been focused into work, shadowing at the ER, my research paper, summer classes, and med school applications.


But now that things are calming down a little, here is our amazing long catch up of our summer. Hope you have some time and enjoy lots of pictures- it's going to be a long one.

So, starting from the most recent... We had Annie and Jame come stay with us for the weekend. Our birthday present to Emily was to baby sit the kids for a weekend. We had a lot of fun with them going to the zoo, the pool, and just playing around.

First, here is a picture of Annie, our happy eater.

Then the rest of the pictures that we have are from the zoo. Here's a picture of Annie and I by the Alligators.

We found an ant eater- Annie thought he was cool, but James wasn't too interested. Like a true Brems boy, he was more interested in playing with the voice box recording.

Here is a carpincho between the two palm trees. They were all over my mission, people even had them as pets.

James inside a big egg.

By far, James' favorite part was the water park. He like pressing this one button that shot water everywhere.

Except for when it was sprayed at him.

Annie also enjoyed the time to cool off a little bit. You can see James in the back at his favorite spot.
James at the water pump.

After we took James from the water park, he wasn't too happy. So, I carried him around for a little bit.

He started to cheer up as we looked at some of the different animals, like the lions.


All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend.

The week before, the Brems family gathered for our annual trip to Lake Powell. On our way up through Phoenix, we decided to stop off for some good Hawaiian food- well, as good as non homemade can be.


This time, we decided to get a houseboat and camp out on the lake. It was a lot of fun being out there right on the water.

James especially enjoyed being able to drive the houseboat to our site.


One of the highlights of having a houseboat was the slip-n-slide that we made on the beach. I think everyone had a blast with it. For the sake of time and space, I'm planning on mostly just showing pictures with little narration. So, here's the picture of the slide we made thanks to Dad's water pump idea.

Robert takes the plunge and clears the path for everyone else.


We got a little braver as time went along.

James was having a blast going down the slide. Throughout our trip, he constantly asked to go down the slide.
Some of our brave attempts were less... graceful than others.

Jodie taking the boogie board down

Dad

Jodie
James almost always had a great smile going down the slide.

Robert
Annie

Even Sophie went down the slide with Jenna.

Jenna
Jodie
Sophie would try to catch James as he got to the bottom of the slide.

Me with the boogie board. We ended up putting some soap on the bottom of the board to help it pick up speed.
After some time on our slide, we went to the back of the boat and went off the houseboat slide.

Here's Robert and Annie floating for a little bit behind the boat while the rest of us went off.

Me
Jenna
Jodie
Taylor, he started getting a little adventurous

After a few times on the slide, I was able to take James on the Jetski.

Jodie and I went for a hike and she played king of the hill...
After the hike, we all started going down the slide again and got a little more adventurous...
We borrowed little Annie's turtle floatie and took it down the slide- it definitely sped things up a notch.

Jodie was the first to master the turtle...
Others shortly followed...



Even Annie got a little adventurous...

But also had a little help from dad.

The we went and picked John and Thomas up from the marina, they also took to the slide quickly...

Even Emily went down a few times...

Dad sporting his serious face.
Taylor got a lot of sunshine the first day and required some of Jenna's sunscreen.

Later that afternoon, we went out tubing.

Thomas and John went first.


You can see who survived each round and who didn't in the pictures...


They both did really good and put on a great show.

Afterwards, James and Emily went out. James loved it only once dad started going faster. After that, you couldn't keep the smile off of his face.



Then Jodie went out tubing. I think she won the prize for who got the most water in the face...

But still kept on smiling though

Pretty typical of her tubing runs, lots of splashes


She also won the best hair...




Overall, we all had a great time tubing.
Later that evening, Thomas and I went wakeboarding with dad. Thomas definitely caught some sweet air.
The next morning, Jodie and James were entertaining each other with wheelbarrow races.
I think we wore John out pretty good...

Taylor and little Annie having fun...

Jenna and having some fun together...

Not to be out done by little sister, James wanted a turn too.

James and Jodie having piggy-back rides.

Annie's favorite perch.

Crab walk races, James was the local champ of crab walking.
We also added a jump to the slide that morning to kick things up a notch again.
Annie enjoying the sand.
Everyone starting trying to get some air off of the jump. Some got really high, others... not so much.












Regardless, we all had lots of fun.

John and Annie reading together.

That evening, Jodie began teaching some improvised Hula lessons.
And she found an apt student in James.

The next morning, we got up early for another wakeboarding run.

Here are some pictures of me.






Jodie and I went on for a quick jet ski ride to go check out one of the slot canyons.

When you first look at them, they may not look like much. However, some of them can go miles into the rocks and have some very impressive views.








You never can be sure exactly how far you can go until you start exploring.

Before we all left, we wanted to take a picture with all the Brems boys together.


That was the end of our trip to Lake Powell- aka Mark's Disneyland

Lastly, we had Robert and Emily & family join us for the 4th of July weekend. We had a lot of fun with them and here are some pictures.

Bath time was a big hit for Annie and James



Afterwards, we read some stories.

One day when James "woke up" from his nap, he came out of the room like this. He had found some electric tap that I had used to organize the cord on the lamp and decided it could be put to better use.
We also enjoyed catching the fireworks from the golf course next to our house.

Bubbles were also a big hit.


The other big event, according to what James remembered the most, was going to the pool.



This is where the turtle floatie seen at Lake Powell was introduced.


Also, James started swimming on his own. We just have to work on how to breath now...


Well, that's all of our pictures and covers, essentially, the past 2 months. Hopefully everyone enjoys!