Back in June we took a family vacation to Lake Powell with the Harding family. We did the hotel thing this time, instead of renting a houseboat. We missed the houseboat, but still had a wonderful time. The water was a little choppy, so we did a lot of exploring, and cliff jumping. Lake Powell is beautiful! It was great to just enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Here is a picture of us at Rainbow Bridge.
Because the water was high this year, it made the hike to Rainbow Bridge quite short, which was a good thing because I don’t think we could have gotten the kids to go any further. They were so hot it was all we could do to get them to stay and let us take a picture. They just wanted to get back in the water. As soon as we could we stopped the boats, and let them have a swim break and jump off the cliffs.
One day we found this fun little cove. The kids had a blast swimming, dancing, jumping off cliffs, and trying to catch lizards.
We had lots of swim breaks throughout the week.
We also made sure each day to stop at one of the marinas and get ice cream. It was so hot, that cold ice cream tasted great (but, when does ice cream not taste great). One of the marinas had a nice little swim place for the kids. They loved it and had fun swimming there.
Although it was a little choppy, we still got plenty of time to play behind the boat. There was one night when the water was even good enough to slalom ski. Everyone got a chance to play behind the boat. Even Sadie & Aubrey
We stayed on the lake late each night. Our third day there as we were coming home late we hit a rock with our boat (or at least our propeller). I guess the lake wasn’t high enough to cover all the rocks. The rock wasn’t marked and with the sun setting in our eyes we couldn’t see it. We were close to a marina (not the one we put our boats in at) so we parked our boat at the marina, Wyatt & Randy took the Harding’s boat to get the vehicles, and Tari and I took the kids to the restaurant at the marina to eat. It was a long night, but we finally made it back to the hotel. All part of the adventure.
Wyatt found someone to fix the propeller, but our boat would be in the shop for a day. We didn’t let that stop us from having fun. We let the kids play at the hotel pool for a little while, and then we all piled into the Harding’s boat.
I thought this picture was funny. Wyatt was teaching the kids to dive right next to the "no diving" sign.
Once on the lake we found a great beach to play on. The kids were having a great time, until a tour boat went by and the waves nearly washed away our little ones. We packed up in a hurry and decided to stay on the boat until dinner. We found a better beach to BBQ on, but it was so windy we ended up having sand hotdogs, sand sausage, sand salad, and sand fruit.
Although it was a little crowded to have all 13 of us on the same boat, the kids thought it was great. A big party. They turned on the music and danced for us all. Even Sadie, and Aubrey joined in.
The next day we had our boat back. Yeah! We found a slalom course that Wyatt and Randy were dying to try. We asked the houseboat next to it if they could try it. It belonged to a 70 year old man who was happy to take Wyatt and Randy out to try it. It was the highlight of their trip. This man and his wife come to Powell for a couple of weeks each summer, set up their course, and do 40 runs a day. Wow! He became Wyatt’s new hero. I guess I better improve my slalom skiing skills if he wants us to do that when we are 70.
We must have wore the kids out everyday, because I had a lot of sleeping pictures on the boat. We just played hard everyday.
Here are some other random pictures I took of the kids on the boat. Aubrey did pretty good on the boat all day, as long as you were feeding her. She really enjoyed the sweedish fish.
