A Few More from Lake Powell...

Here are a few more pictures from Lake Powell that Hillary took before her memory card was full...

Chad & Rob

Maddy & W.

Maddy & W.

W.

E.

Chad

Thanks for the great pictures Hillary!

Lake Powell...

This past weekend(9/24/09-9/27/09) we went to Lake Powell. We were invited by our friends Chad and Hillary. We had never been so we were super excited to get the invite. This was also our first family vacation since it was just Steve and I. Yep that's right... the kids had never slept anywhere other then their own beds. We were a little worried about the 5 1/2 hour drive(the furthest we had driven with them prior was probably 1 1/2 hours) and how well they would sleep. I have to say they did pretty good with both. They shared a room on the houseboat(Maddy in the bed and Avery in a Pak-n-Play) and it went pretty smoothly. Two of the nights we put Avery to bed first and then Maddy ended up crashing on the couch and so Avery was already sleeping by the time we put Maddy to bed. On Sunday morning Avery woke up really early around 5am and started being goofy and making all kinds of noises with her mouth(we could hear her) which woke Maddy up. Steve went in to try and get them to be quiet and go back to sleep. It worked for about 5 minutes and then we heard them both being silly and saying things like "I can see you." It was pretty funny. It was the perfect time of year to go... warm weather(high 80's), warm water and not many people there. We practically had the lake to ourselves. I've included lots of details(for journaling purposes), and as usual I went overboard with taking pictures and had a hard time narrowing it down so this is going to be a long post...

I was a little worried when Maddy started asking why it was taking so long before we even made it to Payson. He eventually stopped asking and the kids did pretty good. Other then a couple pottie/gas/lunch stops and getting pulled over for speeding(luckily the officer didn't give us a ticket and just told Steve to slow down), the drive down was pretty uneventful. Steve and I both agree that the drive was better than driving to Vegas... more scenic, at least from Panquitch to Kanab. The rocks are a really pretty coral color and there were tons of trees. I took these two pictures while we were driving so they aren't the best and I wanted to get a picture of all the pretty leaves turning orange and red but wasn't quick enough. Maddy absolutely loved the forests...

After a quick stop in Page at Wal Mart for some groceries we got to Lake Powell around 5pm. Chad and Hillary(and kids) came and picked us up at the dock and as we were taking the boat ride to the houseboat I knew we were going to have a great time. There is something very therapeutic about riding in a boat with lots of sweet music blasting. Have I mentioned you guys have great taste in music!?! :)

Playing in the sand was probably the kids favorite thing about the trip! They seriously played in it pretty much from sun up to sun down. They had lots of fun playing with their trucks and playing pirates and digging for treasures...

Here is a cute little video of Maddy and W playing pirates. Of course I missed the cutest part where Maddy was saying he was "Captain Maddy" and they were singing some Spongebob song(which you can hear at the beginning.) At the end of it Maddy takes off running because Steve was leaving on one of the wave runners...

Avery also LOVED the sand... I was amazed at how long she would sit still! That never happens at home.

E is such a cutie!!!


Aren't my toenails so cute... thanks Jamie!




Steve and the kids watching(and feeding) some fish.

Steve and Chad taking the wave runners out. Steve and I also took them out that first night before it got dark. I was a little nervous(I had never driven one before) but quickly got the hang of it. They are so much fun!

Thursday evening Maddy and I took a little walk along the beach so he could show me the sand dinosaur someone had made. There was obviously a lot of time spent on it... it was huge and had a lot of detail. It also appeared to be guarding a sand treasure chest. We had fun together and he even asked me if he could hold my hand while we were walking. Such a sweetie!

I love this picture... can you see his name in the sand? I was trying to get him to cooperate for some pictures and he made a deal with me... he said he would if he could take some pictures of me. I think he did a pretty good job...

On the way back to the houseboat Maddy said "Mommy take a picture of my footprints." Of course I did and I love how the picture turned out.

The houseboat we stayed in. Can you see the slide on the back end... Steve actually went down it when it was dark but I missed it. :(

I took this picture in the evening and it didn't turn out very good because the lighting sucked. I put it in b&w and thought it made it look pretty cool. When it got dark at night it got really dark... seriously everything was black. Chad decided to have a little fun in the pitch black and would let the kids throw a bunch of different colored glow sticks off the top of the houseboat and then he would jump off the houseboat and fetch them all and then they would repeat the process over and over. The kids loved it so he did it again the next night as well. Maddy is obsessed with glow sticks and would insist on taking them to bed with him at night. The kids also loved the "Mickey Mouse" pancakes Chad would make for them for breakfast. We had lots of yummy food. The first night they made some really yummy chicken/veggie kabobs. The second night Steve and I made Hawaiin chicken and the last night they grilled some steaks.

Another night we took another walk along the beach to see the dinosaur and brought Avery with us.

Isn't this so pretty! The first couple days were pretty chill and relaxing. Took walks, hung out, played in the sand, napped, did a little reading, layed out on the deck of the boat, etc. However Saturday we took the boat out wake surfing for about 4 hours and had so much fun...

Rob(a friend of Chad and Hillary) was up first. He showed us how it is done and is pretty good. Here is a video of him(without any rope)...

E & W being silly on the boat.

Avery absolutely loved Hillary! Seriously, she wanted nothing to do with me whenever Hillary was around. It was pretty cute.

The kids loved wearing other people's hats...

Steve was up next and he had lots of fun as you can see.

Here is a video of him...

Love this picture of W.

Chad was awesome! He was amazing without the rope as well but we didn't get video of it. :(

Then it was my turn...

I was a little nervous(mostly afraid of getting hurt while falling), but I definitely wanted to try. It was my first time trying anything like this so I wiped out quite a bit! :( I was finally starting to figure it out and starting to get up but couldn't stay up... I was so spent and exhausted! Thanks everyone for being patient with me and thanks Rob for all the great coaching! :)

Taking a rest and trying laying on the board. Don't laugh at my face. :P I did get up long enough for Steve to get this picture...

... and I'm DANG proud of it! :-D Little did I know how incredibly sore I was going to be... and still am. :(

Unlike me, Hillary got up pretty quick. Great job Hills!

Such a sweet face!

This is when we started having way too much fun-at least Steve and Chad...

You can't hear it very well but they couldn't stop laughing(nor could we.) Both of them are pretty competitive so neither of them was about to let go. You have to watch this video...

If this video isn't working well you can view it here.


Avery is such a monkey and loves hanging on everything.

Once we finished wake surfing the goofiness didn't stop... the guys decided to pull each other off the houseboat(while in a tube) with a wave runner. Crazy! You have to watch these two videos, it looks like something you would see on Jackass...

Chad(in the tube)...

Rob(in the tube)...

On Friday Chad and Rob also did some cliff jumping. Chad you're not a thrill seeker are you???

Steve having too much fun and ended up parking the wave runner on the beach. ;-)

After such a fun day Steve and I took one last opportunity to take the wave runners out before dinner. It was such a beautiful night-the sun was getting ready to set and we had lots of fun together. We explored a bunch of nooks and crannies until it got too narrow to fit the wave runners through. At one point there was a boat in front of us that went too far and ended up getting stuck. :( I had a blast but my knees(along with the rest of my body) took and beating and are still so sore. It was all worth it though! Everyone was so exhausted at the end of the day... we all played pretty hard. Steve literally was in bed at 8pm and Maddy and I snuggled up and fell asleep on the couch around 9pm. At about 9:30pm I mustered up enough energy to get off the couch and go to bed.

Maddy and E after we parked the houseboat and right before we left. We tried to get W in the picture as well. Hillary bribed the kids with chocolate chips... worked for these two but not W. Not sure where Avery was.

The only thing that could've made the trip better was if it was longer. We were so not ready to come home yet. It was so nice to just relax, hang out as a family, enjoy the company of great friends, enjoy the beautiful surroundings, enjoy how peaceful and quiet it was, snack all day, not wear makeup or contacts and not even care what time it was. The ride home was ok(always the worst part right?) The kids acted up a bit, I think we were all just tired. Steve packed his ipod in his suitcase which was in the trunk and there wasn't much on the radio so we ended up listening to "Sounds of Sunday" for a good portion of the ride home. Eventually it calmed the kids down. :)

Thanks Hillary and Chad SO much! You guys were so generous and fun to hang out with-thanks for everything! We couldn't have asked for a better time or better company! Seriously... we will definitely have to do it again!