July and August have been pretty busy at the Miller house. We spent the first week of July at Beautiful Lake Powell. Lindsay’sDad as of last summer became part owner of a house boat on Lake Powell and the first of many summers weeks was spent on it in July. Lindsay and Jessica flew up to Utah for a niece’s baptism and then hitched a ride with some family to come down to Powell, I met them there after a long truck ride up to Powell.
The picture out my window on the one lane gravel mountain pass I took to Powell beautiful views
Night one on Indian Summer (yes that is Dad’s hair there in the middle), thank goodness for the Kokopelli
We had a great week, Jessica loved the boat rides on Indian Summer (the ski boat) and enjoyed playing on the beach picking up shells and playing with rock. That girl loves her rocks, that is probably one of the first words she learned. We did all the normal things at Powell; went sight seeing, tubing, attempted the air chair, de-pooped the boat, fixed the batteries on the Kokopelli (house boat), wake boarded, field dressed 2 inch wake board gash to the brother-in-law head, found medic in the early hours of the morning, and had a great time.After the long car ride home (Jessica wasn’t too excited to sit in the car seat again) we came home and started preparing ourselves for our next vacation. We were to leave again in 9 days to go to Silverthorne Colorado for a Miller reunion. Well, after one day of being home I get a call at work saying that we are now flying to Denver as there is no way we are turning right around and sticking Jessica in the car for 18 hours, it was a great decision. During that those 9 days of being home I had about 5 estimates on homes to complete which required me to work all day come home for diner and return to work again till the early hours of the morning. I still am not sure why they call it vacation, as you have to do so much work to get ready to go and when you get back that you just need another vacation. Upon arriving in Colorado we rented our car and headed up the canyon as we were driving we passed this really slow moving blue minivan pulling a turtle trailer behind and knew from the puffs of smoke coming out of the old minivan that it was Todd and the gang (Yes, Linda you have my vote you need a new car after 16 years it is time). We laid on the horn to see a bald man looking and wondering who the heck was honking at this slow moving vehicle.
We had a great time in Colorado we were able to go on a 5 mile hike led by AJ that turned into a 10 mile hike round trip. I guess when the map say 5 miles one and 2.5 miles one way you should go with the larger number.
Jess Hiking
With the Cousins
A number of the group ended up turning back after a mile or two but the rest of us pushed on I was able to enjoy some quality time with my older nephews which was lots of fun even if I had to catch Shawn when he almost passed out on us.
Oh Mom
We also went white water rafting down the Colorado, which was a blast. One day we rented some bikes and rode down a14 mile trail which was fun. It started out pretty fun. Jessica ended up getting the 24 flu that was being passed from cousin to cousin, right before we got the rental shop she lost her breakfast in the car all over her and the seat so we were about to turn back for the cabinet but decided she was feeling a little better and found a Wal-Mart and bought here some new clothes (what girl doesn’t like new clothes?). We finally decided that Lindsay and Jessica would go after some contemplation, and it ended being one of the best activities we did together. It was Jessica’s first bike ride and she loved it.
Sitting on top of rock art
Too excited about the rock art to stop for a picture
She slept half the time, we stopped in Copper Mountain and round around there for a while and found a rock garden which Jessica loved. We made the mistake of feeding Jessica as when we got to bottom of the trail a mile from the bike shop we ended up cleaning out the bike trailer :). But she was in good spirits and had fun other then that.
In the trailer before losing her lunch
Other then that we have just been spending time together and trying to get outside as much as the heat allows as Jessica loves going outside and picking whats left of our garden. She had fun earlier in the season picking the blackberries and peaches. It was amazing how quickly she learned at 14 months old which blackberries to pick and which tomato’s to pick. Our berry bush isn’t all that large so some days there were only a few, on those days the berries never made it in the house. She loves going and picking a tomato of the plant and by the time she gets back to the door it is gone. She is learning all kinds of new words and signs. She can say mom, dad, grandma, rain, ball, I wanta watch this, duck, and a number of other words and she has picked up sign language really well also which has been a great help in understanding what she wants and needs.