And yet joy and happiness remain . . .

You know, my family and I were actually having a great time at Lake Powell before the accident.  I lost my camera to the bottom of the Lake, but if I had it back I would be able to share the awesome pictures I took of the kids playing in the huge sand hill next to the houseboat, of Aly rockin' it on the wakeboard by crossing the wake for the first time, Chris skiing, Chris and Aly hiking up to Cookie Jar, kayaking, swimming, jetskiing, and a ton of other great things.  Even with the things that were breaking down, we were still having a great time.

And, strangely, even after something tragic like this happens, life moves forward.  Kate and Analise had their birthday's coming up just a little over a week after the accident.  I wanted my kids to enjoy the rest of their time with family and cousins and come away from this trip with some happy memories, not just sad, so we asked each of them what they wanted to do for their birthday and did it.

I can't remember who chose what, but we ended up going to see Monster's University and going swimming.  I found out later that some people were amazed that we would take our kids swimming so soon after a boating accident, but the thought didn't even cross my mind that we were doing anything strange at the time, and my kids all loved it.  Maybe it's because we live in Florida and so being in the water is a huge part of our lives right now.  At any rate, I am grateful that they didn't have any trauma related to the water.

After all of the funeral stuff we wanted to spend some time with Chris' family.  So we headed down to see the O'Gwin crew to Celebrate the 4th of July and have even more birthday fun with the girl's cousin  Ella, who also has a birthday close to Kate and Analise's.  

Chris got to work with his brother's bees and loved it.  And he only got stung about 6 or 7 times!  :)

Here are some pictures of the O'Gwin Men doing "Manly things" - because that's what O'Gwin men do when they get together.  Things like picking up small cars just because they can and shooting random stuff out of homemade potato guns (not potatoes, mind you, that would just be silly.  No, they shoot stuff like water, Cheetos puffs, bouncy balls, or fireworks.  Things that could come showering down at any moment on the unsuspecting innocent people chatting on the back deck from all the mischief makers on the front lawn.)

But we love them anyway.  Underneath all the macho bravado, O'Gwin men know what it truly  is to be a man - a faithful priesthood holder and defender of God, Family, and our Freedoms.  We are very lucky to have them.  

Here we are getting ready for the fireworks.  My girls are lovin' all the cousin time and you can't beat glow in the dark sticks.

We also had a chance to go to the Oakley Rodeo together, which was a lot of fun (although I spent a good portion of it walking children back and forth to the bathroom.)

Aunt Missy and Uncle Sean were suckers and gave Kate an entire bag of cotton candy all to herself.  But they were good as gold to deal with her for the next hour when she was literally pinging back and forth between Sean's lap and the hand railing.

We also got to spend some time up with Grammy and Papa in the mountains, which is always a good time.  Between feeding the horses and chipmunks, ATV rides, ice cream, puzzles, and playing on the treadmill, the girls had a fabulous time.  Aly and I even gave tennis a try, which was a lot of fun, even if we weren't very good. :)

Also on this trip the girls were able to have a sleepover or two with their Jackman side cousins, which they loved.  It was hard to say good bye to family when we left this time, for many different reasons, but I am grateful for all the good memories we were able to take home with us and for all the wonderful grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that bring joy to our lives and helped sustain us and buoy us up with their love.  We love you too!