The Lake Powell Adventure

I am sure I can not do our adventure justice, but I will make an attempt.

Wow. What can happen when you have 10 adults, 13 children, 4 babies, and a 75 foot houseboat....a lot!

Our much anticipated vacation began on Sunday, June 1st. The Sims, Volks, Moffits, and Hipwells (to be joined later by the Cheneys) began the long drive to Lake Powell. We were hoping to make it to the marina before dark and with enough time to load and board the houseboat. We ran a little late and mostly due to a very long stop at Wal-Mart in Price, did not make it in time. It had been a long day and we ended up staying in a motel above the marina.

The next day the "men" decided to load the houseboat while the mothers stayed behind with the kids. The kids were having a great time playing around the red rocks and chasing lizards. We finally got a call from the guys and we were told that the Moffits' boat was not "plugged", started taking on water and almost sunk! We were so glad that we had not tried to load the night before in the dark. We may have lost a few kids, instead of just some water and food. Luckily, we still had some good karma, and some friendly boaters came to Sam and Jamie's rescue. After a rough start, we were finally able to see our beautiful new boat. It is really nice and we were all excited to get going. We set out to look for the perfect place to park for the week. After a few hours of searching, we found a spot in Iceberg canyon. We set the anchors in(spot 1) and the kids were quite anxious to get off the boat. We wanted them to stay on until we were set, but Tanner got a bloody nose and so we let him stand in the water off the shore. The kids didn't think it was fair that Tanner got off the boat, so I told them if they got a bloody nose, they could get off the boat. Jefferson turned right to me and said "Mom, just punch me in the nose. I am a strong boy." What a character!

On Tuesday, spot 1 felt a little windy and we moved the boat to spot 2 and the Cheneys arrived to join the party. Wednesday rolled around and so did our boat! Right as we were sitting down to dinner, a gust of wind ripped our anchors from their place on the shore. We were being tossed about and boats and waverunners were all about. Chad was trying to save the houseboat from being rammed into the rocks. Jamie jumped into the water to rescue a wave runner. Jodi set out in her boat to track down some tubes that had blown away. It was CHAOS! Finally, all working together, we were able to loosen all the ropes caught in the prop and wrapped around other parts of the boat and drive to our third and final spot.

Reagan was ou outgoing one on the trip. She was always ready to jump on the tube with the bigger kids and have Sam drive crazy.

Lincoln was our more conservative water bug and was drawn the the local wild life...lizards. He became quite the lizard wrangler and caught several that are now sitting in a cooler in my garage. He did catch one lizard that the kids named "Killer" because it had the naughty habit of biting. Typically it didn't hurt, but Lincoln let him crawl up his arm and it ended up biting him on the ear and it actually drew blood. The kids would pick him out of the cooler and hold his mouth shut so he couldn't bite. One of the nights, "Killer" made a run for it and jumped off the top of the houseboat. Chris grabbed a flashlight and went to look for him in the water. Chris found him a few minutes later...lifeless. So, he gave him mouth to mouth and the little guy came back to life.

Jefferson was our comic relief. He loved the water. He screamed as we pushed him down the big slide. We made Chris push him down this year instead of Jaimee.

Chris was the ever present "professor" as he taught the kids about sandstone, lizards, and stars.

As for me, I wished the water and the weather would have been warmer(I am still waiting for global warming). I adopted Boston Cheney as my baby (we left Ben with my sister, Amie) and was ready to see Ben again after eight days away. With all the excitement of this year, I hope next years trip is a little less eventful!!!