Lake Powell

We have talked for about a billion years about getting a houseboat on Lake Powell, but we have just never followed through. This year, thanks to my awesome cousin, Adele (yes, THE ADELE!), we were able to actually go! They have a timeshare on a boat and they just happened to have an opening. It was such a great opportunity that I couldn't say no, even though it meant a couple of days missed from school. (I don't know if I made mention of it here, but I enrolled the boys in an amazing charter school, that I love, but they are very serious about what they do and they frown upon missing school for just about any reason. They would have completely hated me during the last school year and probably would have kicked my kids out! ;) ) Anyway, I "climbed aboard" with no hesitation at all! The trip was planned over conference weekend (something which Gage is still bothered by. I am pretty sure I have already posted about how I keep my kids engaged during conference. He wants do do the conference store RIGHT NOW!!)

I haven't been to Lake Powell since I was probably 14. Luckily Adele and Lynn went out of their way to make sure I followed them from Draper and didn't try to have me catch them along the way because apparently the path to Lake Powell is a national secret, guarded from the unclean masses by a lack of road signs and a complete lack of cell signal necessary for communication or GPS.

We arrived at the boat with our necessary supplies, and probably a few unnecessary ones. I tend to overpack. We parked the boat at a little beachy area. The kids couldn't wait to get in the water. I am pretty sure they only got out of the water to eat and to sleep the entire time we were there. The Lamb family, and the other family we were with were so very patient with my kids, who haven't done much in the way of water recreation, but who wanted to try every little thing. So they tried the tubes, the wake boards and even a little skiing.

Adele taught me a cool way to use my sunglasses as a camera filter. Which was extra awesome because I don't even know what camera filter means... We had lots of beach time.

And lots of various boat time.

I was very impressed. The bugs really seemed very unbuggy. The sun was not punishing. The kids all got along really well, even though my kids hadn't really met or spent much time with the other kids. I took lots of time to myself lying on the upper deck just enjoying nature (no, I did not touch that nasty water, I don't even want to think of the things floating in it!) Sleeping under the stars was beautiful. I don't think I have done that since Jeff and I were dating and we had a little camp out in the bed of my pickup truck. On the way home we all stopped at a little burger place. I guess we took too long loading up and leaving, or we didn't drive fast enough, or something. But those directions back home seemed to still be a national secret of unmarked roads. But along our journey back to something that looked familiar, we saw some cool things that we want to go back and explore more. So next summer we will be taking a tour of Utah to see some cool sites.