Lake Powell

Labor Day weekend we went with our friends, the Whitings, to Lake Powell. So much fun! One of the best weekends of the year for sure! We sure are grateful for such good friends! We boated out to a spot on the lake shore to set up camp. Then spent the next 4 days boating and hiking and having a blast!  

Each day there was a short storm that came and went, but left our camp in disarray! Once our tent blew over and the rainfly shredded. By the end of the trip we were pro at quickly putting down chairs, taking down anything that would blow away, and holding on to our tents for dear life. There was always a beautiful rainbow at the end of each storm. This one was particularly awesome! 

I wake boarded for the first time ever this trip. It was all fun and games until I crashed and twisted my knee! Luckily, I could still move around and kneeboard and ski. I just stayed away from the wakeboard. When I got home the doctor told me it was a strained joint and after a few weeks I was all better. 

I think I ended up deleting pictures of me or Mark. From afar its hard to tell who is who. This is me? Or Mark? Either way, it represents us both wake boarding!

Tyler's favorite was the tube or should I say inflatable couch!

The kids and the dads climbed up this huge sand hill. My knee was busted by this point and climbing in the sand hurt way too bad. There's the boat way down there in the water. The kids made it all the way to the top!

We probably used the knee board the most! Everyone could take a turn. Malarie is talking me through a rope switch. 

We did it! We switched sides!

This was Clara's favorite. The ski trainer. It was awesome! 

Once the boat got going the kids could stand up like they were skiing. Clara loved it!

A whole different kind of beauty here at Lake Powell!

With the dads' help Clara and Harlee got to knee board too! The dads held on to the back to keep the boards stable. 

Tyler and Siena had the dads help at first, but once they got going the dads let go and they went around the lake on their own! Tyler loved it until the boat stopped to pull them in and his board flipped over and he couldn't get out of the strap! It was probably one of the most terrifying moments of my life! Watching him struggle while Mark swam as fast as he could to save him!! Luckily, every once in a while he was able to get his mouth above water to suck in some air. Turned out Mark had strapped him in too tight and he couldn't slip out and was too panicked to unstrap himself. After that he was slightly traumatized and didn't enjoy things quite as much. 

Traumatized enough that he didn't want to stand up on the ski trainer.

The next day, we bribed him into getting back on the knee board. We didn't want him to gain a fear of the water so we wanted him to see that it was a fluke accident. We showed him that he had been strapped in too tight and how to slip out with a loser strap. He finally agreed to it if Mark went with him. He doesn't look too thrilled. 

This picture cracks me up! Mark's trying to high five him but he gave him the stone wall. 

Mark and I did duo knee boarding too. 

I'm trying to kiss him!

I had to prove to myself that I could still get up on skis. And after a couple falls, I did! Woo Woo!

Life on the lake! Awww! Paradise!

Lake Powell is bigger than I could fathom! I'm so used to Oregon lakes. Lake Powell is CRAZY huge! To put it in perspective - Detroit Lake, where my family went to boat, is 5 square miles; Lake Powell is 284 square miles! Mind blown! On Sunday we boated to the Rainbow Bridge hike. It took us over 2 hours to get there and that's not even half way down the lake! By the time we got there there was a storm brewing and you don't want to be on the lake during a storm! So we hiked the mile in, took the picture, and hiked the mile back out as quickly as possible so we could get back on the boat and hopefully beat the storm back to the campsite! Luckily we did!

Such a fun fun fun trip!!