Can we LIVE here???

Sunday, August 2 was the start of our summer vacation! We had been waiting all summer to go and do something that was truly considered a vacation. We were invited by our good friends, Brandon and Cynthia Weekes to spend a week in Southern Utah at the infamous Lake Powell. We had a week on a houseboat - no phones, no TV, no internet, no other distractions that usually take over our lives. Just friends, fun and water and food! Oh, but the bonus was that we did have electricity and running water (if you know me at all, you know that I am not a "roughing it" kind of girl. I do like to have some modern conveniences!) We embarked on our trip after church and after hours of packing, loading, and driving, we arrived shortly after midnight on Sunday. We threw everything onto the houseboat and went to bed. The next morning we left the slip at the harbor and set off to find the perfect spot. And, we did. There was only a few select times that we even saw ANYONE on the lake with us. It was heaven. We took alot of pictures, so I am re-doing our SLIDE show at the top of our blog if you want to see more of our fun!!

This is some of the beautiful scenery that surrounded us each day... truly one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen....

T

These were our sleeping arrangements - a little compact, but we slept well. We had a little rain storm one night and had to get even closer, but laying out under the stars each night was definitely a highlight of the trip. The air would cool off just enough to be comfortable and we even used a blanket a couple of times. Our kids are a little wild when they sleep, so Staci and Craig had to battle them for space some nights - Staci even got kicked in the head a couple of times by Emily! Thanks for being patient, guys!

Every morning when it was still cool outside, we would find the dads and several kids out throwing a fishing rod into the lake. They literally would put anything (stinky cheese, moldy bread, stinky chicken liver) on the hook and drop it in. Within seconds they would pull up a blue gill, a catfish or a carp. We threw them back - no one would subject themselves to eat them - but the fun was all in the catch! Natalie loved to hang out down there with her dad and 'help' him fish.

Here's Emily with her white santa beard (see below for an explanation!)....she was already brown as a nut, but another week in a swimming suit has her looking like she lives at the beach! Emily's favorite activity was being pulled on the tube behind the boat. She also tried (and successfully stayed up!) on the wakeboard! She was very daring and tried quite a few things that were out of her comfort zone. We were very proud of her!

Not only was there water activities to keep us very busy all day, but the boys found a few others: digging holes (why do boys enjoy this so much??), chasing and catching lizards, swimming off the back of the boat, jumping off the top deck into the water, playing card games, and throwing large rocks (boulders, really) into the lake. The boys were not bored for a minute. This picture is of Jake with one of the many lizards that he caught over the week. Natalie must have felt sorry for them, because she was constantly setting them free! Jake was getting so irritated with her, because catching those lizards was hard work! **You may be wondering what all the white stuff on the kids faces is: after a few days of wearing a life jacket all day long, they started to get some serious chafing...we used Desitin to ease the pain a bit. So, they all looked a little like they had a white beard in most of the pictures!

Kim tried and was very successful on EVERYTHING there was to do on the ski boats.....slalom skiing, wake boarding, wake surfing, the airchair, kneeboarding - I think his favorite was the wakesurfing. It was a surfboard that you rode in the wake of the ski boat - you had a rope to hang onto until you could catch the wave and then you would let go and just surf on the lake. He loved it....I love that he still is young and healthy enough to out-do his kids! And, really, he will always be a 19 year old at heart! Yes, I attempted a few things also, but since I'm the one doing the posting here, there will be no pictues of my attempts at fun. I did try the wakesurfing and successfully got up on the wakeboard a couple of times. Let's just say that watersports are NOT my thing...

The kneeboard and Natalie became good friends...it was really the only thing that she wanted to do each time we were on the ski boats. She got quite daring with dad behind her...she would let go of the rope, stand on the knee board, and even attempted a 360 on it! This is, of course, because each time she was on it, Kim was right behind her! She did get dumped into the lake a couple of times and she just jumped back on for another turn!

Kim and I on the ski boat....we soooo enjoyed not having the cell phones ring, not having to work and just being able to watch our kids have a blast. It was truly the most relaxing vacation we've taken.

This one is our entire group, minus Shawn (he was taking the photo). L to R: Audra and Baby Devry, Kyle, Cynthia, Kevin, Brandon, Craig, Staci, Talon, Gabe, Jake, Emily, McKenna, Melodie, Darci, Abby, Natalie, Kim and Erin.

This picture just says it all...we were exhausted. Not from too much work, but from too much fun. We had a long drive home and pulled into the driveway at 1:00 am. Thanks, Kim for being the one to stay awake! We had an early day at church on Sunday morning, and Kim and I had meetings all day, but we went to bed early - something we haven't done in awhile. Today is Monday, August 10 and we are back to real life. I have a "to do" list a mile long. I overheard Kim telling someone yesterday about our trip and I love what he said about it - "If it's possible to have too much fun, we did it!"....Yep, we did.