America the beautiful

We celebrated Independence Day with my family at Lake Powell (or Lake Pal for those of you who read seriously so blessed.  Funniest blog parody ever!)

Scott and I had to work a full day before making the 8 hour drive to Page, so we decided to stop at 1AM for some shut eye at this little gem in Mt. Carmel Junction.  Come for the fossils and shark teeth, stay for the endless shrimp?  Or not.  It was the cheapest place to crash I could find online before we left, I'll leave it at that.

We met the family bright and early the next morning at Wahweap.  Not sure what Scott is going for here, but I like it.   

Not sure what Chris is going for here, but we like him anyway.  This was our first trip to The Lake with the Winterholler family without Michael, which was pretty strange for all of us.  We missed him terribly. All weekend long we were sending good, sunshiney Lake Powell thoughts to Elder Winterholler in rainy Seattle.

Watching this guy drive a boat is like watching a master artist at work.  He's simply the best there is.  Sorry sons-in-law, to the Staples girls, nobody will ever drive a boat as flawlessly as our Dad.

Lake Powell is Ann's favorite place in the whole world.

Nana and Beth enjoying the tail end of a beautiful sunset.

Karly and Kate bringing the waverunner in for the night after a bit of a rough ride through the channel.  Those girls are tough!

It's usually difficult to find a decent beach at Lake Powell on a holiday weekend.  This year was no exception.  Patrice, Kate, Beth, and I searched for hours until we were lucky enough to find what we eventually named Gnome Hat Beach (for obvious reasons).  Check out that crazy rock formation!

We love climbing the rocks at Lake Powell...

but Beth scared us 1/2 to death by climbing all the way up the huge rock behind our beach.  That girl has NO fear whatsoever, which is kinda scary for the adults. :)

Mmmmm.  Sexy skier man.  That's nice.

Go Scotty Go!

Nice!

guy's a pro.

We had SO much fun riding the waverunner all weekend.

The best thing about waverunners at lake Powell is their ability to navigate slot canyons.  Just when you think you've reached a dead end, you come around the bend and see this...

and this...

Gorgeous!

Cap'n Larry joined us on our cruise up the slot canyon.

Another great thing about the canyons at Lake Powell: you can always find a shady spot to cool off.

Or you can just hop in the water.  Either way, you're good to go.

We celebrated the 4th in style at Antelope Point Marina with pizza and fireworks.

It was pretty cool to see the fireworks reflecting in the lake.

We found this abandoned parade float in Kanab on our way home.  Don't you ever wonder what happens to parade floats after the parade is over?  This.  This is what happens when you leave your float and glittery accessories unattended in the gas station parking lot.

Folksy roadside gems and oddities like this are pretty common along Highway 89.

Tell me, where else can one find a Flintstone car replica?  Thank goodness for small towns along the less traveled road.  God bless America!