Back from Lake Powell!

I'm a little slow on the update, but I'm here now!

Lake Powell was lots of fun. We only spent a few days, but it was plenty of time. We packed a lot in!

The drive down was pleasant, although Asher never did nap (even though we timed it so that he would!) Poor baby came down with a cold (which he caught from my dad) the day before we left. He fought it the whole time we were there and is just now getting over it. Summer colds are the worst!

Anyway, the drive was nice. The kids watched DVDs and Tessa colored. I had to turn around in my seat several times to fix Asher's head phones, change the movie, get a car, etc - but overall the kids were great.

We were pulled over in Wellington - notorious speed trap town - and even I will swear that Matt wasn't speeding (much.) He's a cop magnet, though. The speed limit drops from 60 to 40, and when I saw the last sign that said 40 I glanced at the speedometer - it read 45. The cop pulled us over then and said he clocked us at 53. Just a moment after that he said 58. Whatever - they guy was a jerk. He looked like Wilford Brimley - remember him? The Quaker Oatmeal guy? I just googled him for a picture and found out a bunch of information about him that I never knew. He was born in Utah! And he's campaigning for John McCain - riding on his bus! Who knew? Anyway - here's Wilford. The cop looked JUST like him, only his mustache was waxed into a handlebar style, curved up at both ends. Highly attractive dude.

Luckily, he came up on my side of the truck. I've only ever had one ticket in my whole life. The cop wrote it for 10 over, and he was very apologetic about it. I'd been doing something like 118 on I15 where the limit was 65. On my way home from St. George when Matt and I were first married - he was working down there for a couple of weeks, opening a new Ruby Tuesdays. Cops like me. I guess I'm respectful enough. I don't think my boobs hurt, either.

ANYWAY (sorry about the tangent there) he came up on my side, lectured us for a good 5 or 6 minutes - then handed Matt back his license with a stern "you're welcome" and left us alone.

The drive down took us just 4.5 hours! Good time - especially pulling a boat. So maybe Matt was speeding a little.

We met Dennis and Gretchen on the lake and went to the marina store, then the houseboat. They bought it this year, with 10 other people. All of them are older, so they named the houseboat "Life Goes On" - isn't that cute? I believe that most of them have grandchildren, too. They had metal railings and gates made for the deck area's of the boat - so everywhere that would normally be open is closed in. What a huge difference that made!

The houseboat has an air conditioner, but we decided to sleep on top to take advantage of the breeze. They have thick foam cushions for the top that we used to sleep on. Asher was in his pack and play, and we made Tessa a little bed of her own under the canopy portion. Matt and I slept just outside of the canopy. It was very comfortable.

I was a bit seasick the first day on the houseboat, because it was tied to a buoy instead of anchored down, but it was a lot more mild than it has been in the past. I bought a Bio Band for this trip so I would be constantly drowsy from Dramamine. It was wonderful! Made a big difference. All the times that I get nauseous on the boat, when it's rocking back and forth in the waves and I have to sit down and breath deep so I don't puke...the Bio Band took all that down to maybe 10% of what it normally is. Acupressure is a beautiful thing.

Monday morning Dennis and Gretchen and Matt and I and the kids found a spot for the houseboat and moved, anchored it and set up 'camp'. Our little canyon was beautiful. We didn't have a beach, but we had a lot of privacy and our own cove to swim and play in. So much fun! Matt and I marked out what a 'workout' would be right away, so that our challenge could continue away from home. We had to swim back and forth across the cove 4 times, which was roughly a distance of 300 yards. Not the most strenuous workout, but in addition to all the other activity when boating, we figured it was enough.

My mom and dad and Becki and Joey got there on Monday afternoon. (Colby was in Alaska on a fishing trip.) We played all day, swimming, tubing, etc. Tessa is a little fish and LOVES to be in the water all the time. She charmed Dennis and Gretchen right away, (she started calling them 'Den' and 'Gretch', lol!) but especially Dennis. She had him wrapped around her little finger. He was so cute with her! Let her drive the houseboat over to camp, played with her in the water...really, anything she wanted. It was very nice for her to be his favorite. My parents love her, of course, but Asher is obviously their favorite. Maybe just because he's the baby, but really I think it's because he's a boy. It's fine - Tessa is the clear favorite at Matt's parents house. It was just nice to have the balance on this trip.

Tuesday was our day for food. We got up early and made breakfast - a casserole. When we put it in the oven we went out on the boat to take advantage of the calm water. Becki, Tessa and my mom came with us. I drove and Matt skied - the water was like glass. He's a great skier - my mom, especially, was impressed. Unfortunately I didn't get ANY pictures of him skiing! I never even thought about it. Duh.

We went to Rainbow Bridge that afternoon. It's a long ride - about 2 hours each way! Asher went to right into the cabin and took a much needed nap. Tessa fell asleep on Becki, so we reclined one of the seats and moved her so she could keep napping. Becki fell asleep, then, and even I dozed a bit. Matt, as usual, was the only one awake. Luckily, I think he enjoys having a load of sleeping passengers :)

The lake was so dead that the entire way there we probably only saw half a dozen boats. I've been to Powell 3 times and I've never seen it so slow! I'm sure it was a combination of the time of year (so hot in August!) and the price of gas. The boat can only have premium put in, and it has a 75 gallon tank. Premium is something like $4.50 right now...do the math on that and then don't tell me how much it is, because I'm trying to block it out.

At Rainbow Bridge it was hot! We hiked to the viewpoint and stopped. Then Dennis and Tessa went to the top. Becki and I followed after a minute, then Gretchen came up and finally my dad and Joey. Becki, Gretchen, my dad and Joey didn't stay, but Dennis and Tessa and I listened to the guides story about the Native American legend of the Rainbow Bridge and saw/heard about the dinosaur print that's there, too. It was really cool, and I got lots of pictures.

When we started the hike down Tessa said she was too tired to walk. She was all red from being hot, so I picked her up. Luckily Dennis offered to carry her before I'd gone a dozen steps. He put her on his shoulders and kept her there the whole way down. She loved it, of course.

After the hike we stopped to swim for a bit, then headed back to the houseboat. On the way we ran out of gas! Luckily, Dennis had a 5 gallon container on his boat, which was just enough to get us back to the fill station. He ran out of gas less than 50 yards from the pump! We towed him in and both filled up.

We swam all afternoon, again. Matt and I made dinner that night - Sonora Chicken Pasta, which my dad kept trying to name "chicken casserole surprise", or something. It was a hit :)

Poor Asher was miserable at that point, so we decided to cut our trip home and leave that night instead of the following evening as we'd originally planned. So after dinner we packed up and left.

At the dock we tied up the boat and all 4 of us made the long hike up to the truck. Since it was so slow, I thought maybe I'd practice backing the truck down the ramp. Once we got there, though, I changed my mind. Too hot, too tired and too ready to get going. Instead Matt backed it down and put the boat on the trailer, then I pulled us up. We left the truck on and the air conditioner going while he got the boat ready to go and I hooked up the DVD player for the kids. It was 7:50 by the time we left and the truck said it was 104 degrees then. Wow! No wonder it felt hot.

When we got home Matt checked weather.com for the temp over the few days we were down there. It was 117 on Tuesday! Over 100 the other days, but Tuesday was the hottest.

Here is a link to the photobucket album with the lake powell pictures in it. http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s23/1141Mandy/Lake%20Powell/ None are very good! I fell down on the job :( And here's Tessa on a log in our little cove. The first day we saw it Gretchen thought it was an alligator, so that's what it was called the whole time we were there. Tessa swam to it and climbed up on it all by herself. She asked it if it knew Nemo...nutty kid.