Lake Powell Part 2

Didn't see enough Lake Powell pictures? Want to see more? Good. We have plenty...the story of our amazing adventures continues:

Fishing

Nate was very excited to take his wife and kids fishing at Lake Powell. He guaranteed me that I would catch at least one fish at Powell...I did even better: I caught two!

We woke up one morning bright and early and went out with Grandpa Card to do some bass fishing. Mara's face looks pretty sleepy and yes it's true, Mara was still in her pjs!

The only problem was the boat was having a few mechanical problems...Grandpa and Nate worked a little on the boat and got it back up and running!

Daddy's little girl trying to catch a fish!

Ty is looking rather sleepy! We did wake him up a little early so we could get an early start catching fish!

Four generations here--just missing Grandma Lewis who hadn't arrived yet.

Ty giving a little fish kiss to his sister--she's less than thrilled!

Ty usually has the best luck catching fish! But this morning no one caught a fish! I guess we didn't get up early enough!

We seemed to have better luck the following night fishing with Grandpa!
There I was sitting in the boat relaxing and enjoying a beautiful sunset when I felt a tug on my pole. I quickly jerked it up and started reeling it in! Sure enough...
I caught my first fish!!!

I was so happy I wanted to kiss the fish--no not really!

Colin, Trish, and Garrett went fishing also. Trish and I were the only ones to catch a fish--the moms must just have brought the luck this time!

Catching that fish made me pretty happy! Glad I could have that feeling of catching a fish. It really was fun!

Grandpa, bless his heart took the fish off my hook for me. (I'm still not into touching fish, yet!) We didn't keep this fish we threw it back.

One of our favorite sayings for the trip "Two cute cousins!"

It's fun fishing with my buddy! Ty and I are fishing buddy!

What a neat experience being with Grandpa Card! He is an awesome man. I'm glad we had this opportunity to be with him. I've always wanted to go fishing with Grandpa Card and I finally got my chance!

One afternoon I was sitting at the back of the boat waiting for a fish to catch my line, I started to take my hair out of the braid when all of a sudden my pole started to move around. I grabbed the pole, started reeling it in...it was a big one! A huge catfish!! YES! I caught fish #2!

The boys were sure proud of their mama! Thanks Nate for teaching me how to fish! I had a fun time fishing at Powell!

Sleeping
Sleeping at Powell was no problem! We slept when we were tired and my kids could sleep anytime anywhere!

Here are two sleeping beauties!! Just kidding--they aren't really asleep, just pretending!

Caleb's not pretending! He had no problem sleeping on the bouncy ski boat! It seemed to put him right out!

This little sleeping beauty really is asleep! She's out!

I came back to the houseboat one day to find Caleb asleep on top of the house boat under a make shift tent to keep out the sun!

Speaking of sleeping on top of the house boat...
That is one of my favorite things about Powell, so when I found out we were sleeping in a tent instead of on the top I was rather bummed out! The second to the last night some of the party went home so there was room for us to sleep on top. We got our beds all ready and set up and the kids were even laying down when we looked to the horizon and saw lightening. Not just a few streaks of lightening but a lot of bright-the entire sky-lit up! At first we weren't too concerned but it only took Nate five minutes to realize a storm was really coming and we needed shelter. There just wasn't enough room inside the houseboat for everything to seek shelter, so in the light of the moon Nate set up our tent and we moved the beds in there and put sleeping children in their beds. We waited...and waited...no storm (yet) I thought for a minute that all our efforts were for no reason. As soon as I started to drift off to sleep BAM! The storm hits! Boy was I glad we were in our safe, warm, 100% waterproof tent!! Boy did it rain and boy did the wind come up!

I did get to sleep on top of the houseboat the very last night, and it was great! The stars were out, it was a full moon! Perfect night for sleeping on top!

Houseboat
So in case you were wondering what our home away from home looked like here are a few pictures of the house boat we were on.
It's name is the recovery room. I think I needed a new recovery room after this vacation!

It fit everyone just fine and it was a great little place to stay.

Here are two hot ladies in front of the recovery room!

Sand Castles
Another favorite tradition I have is making sand castles at Lake Powell.

Here is Ty's first attempt to a sand castle! Not bad!

The first place we stayed had white sand that just didn't make sandcastles very well. We didn't have much of a beach or place for the kids to play. When the houseboat across the bay left we hurriedly moved some things over to save the spot because it had red moki sand and a huge beach for the kids to play.

One day I told Ty that I would help him build a sandcastle. The next thing I know Ty has this master plan of the sand castle and has recruited anyone who would help to build it with him!

We used a hole that had previously been dug. Then we made a moat to go all the way around. We made spires and other attractions to make it look nice.

Grandma Lewis helped Ty a lot with the sandcastle. He had a really good time playing in the sand!

Family

The best part about the trip really was being with family! We had such a good time reuniting with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, and sisters!! It was a good bonding time for us!
Caleb and his daddy had a fun time together!

Notice anything different about Mara?! I braided her hair for Powell to make it easier on both of us and the last day I took the braids out and she had the waviest hair!

Nate's cousin Christy and her husband Randy and cute little Sawyer boy! It was really fun seeing them and catching up on old times!

Who is bigger? It's hard to tell! They are two cute chubby boy! Caleb is actually a year older than Sawyer but Sawyer is pretty chunky!

Zac and Mara going for a ride. Zac was a very fun cousin at Powell. He had a good time with the kids!

What a cute little sweetie! She wasn't always this happy and cute--but who is right?!

I loved getting a good tan at Powell--however Mara although I put sunscreen of about 50 on her she was pretty dark! One cute little brown berry!

Caleb had a few cuddles for his dad!

Upstairs on the houseboat these cute cousins had the funnest time running back and forth, back and forth just giggling and squealing! It was so cute.
Ty and Zac were good buddies this trip and Zac treated Ty like his little brother! It was fun for Ty to have a big brother this trip!

Cute Aunt Chelsie made the trip oh so good!

Water Activities
I said my favorite part was being with family...close behind (very close) was all the water activities.

My true love of all is water-skiing! It sure beats up your body, but boy is it a good feeling to ride on the water!

The water was perfect for skiing! We had some real nice glassy water and we took full advantage of it!

But when the water wasn't great for skiing we pulled out the surf board and did some surfing! Cool dude!

This was something new for me and Nate. It was a lot of fun.

You stand up on the board and ride the wave right behind the boat.

Grandpa Lewis gave it a try and well...

He did it! Way to go Grandpa Dan!!

Just in case you want to see live action:

Cute Garrett watching his mama surf. Way to go Trish!

And Caleb watching his daddy on the surf board--you too will do this in a few years Caleb!

But it's Uncle Mike who taught us what we needed to know on the surf board. He and his kids are pros! It was fun watching them do their tricks.

All you have to do is put your feet on the board, say 'hit it', and stand up! It's pretty easy!

Look at Nate go!

I really wanted Ty to try knee boarding again. He sure didn't want to, but I made him! Uncle Mike's board doesn't even make you hold on to the rope. All Ty had to do was kneel on the board and hold on and he was good to go! He did it! I was so proud of him. I had to help him a little at first get the balance, but once he got it, he was set and had a good ride.

Then I decided I couldn't leave Powell without one ride on the knee board. On the last day I wake boarded, skied, knee boarded, and surfed! Yes! I did it all, and boy was my body sore the next day!

What would be Lake Powell without cliff jumping? Well we drove over to a great spot to jump off the cliffs when all of a sudden a guy pulls up in his boat and starts taking pictures of us jump. It was kind of freaky! We didn't know why he was taking pictures, and it is against the law if you jump too high, maybe he just hadn't ever seen this before! Anyway, it kind of freaked us all out so we only took a couple jumps before we jumped back in the boat and drove back home!

Caleb didn't really take on any surfing or adventures outside the boat, but he did enjoy the orange flag and got a kick out of holding it up and throwing it in the water!

Just in case my brothers are wanting to watch their sister surf--here ya go! Eat your hearts out boys!

Food
The food at Lake Powell was fabulous!! How do you feed 33 people at Lake Powell? Well ask Aunt Diane! She did an amazing job planning the meals, shopping at Costco, organizing the meal groups! There was always enough food for everyone and tasty snacks in between

The kid's favorite meal is 'busketi!' We all love spaghetti!

We couldn't go to Lake Powell without stopping at the marina for an ice-cream or Popsicle! It was nice to eat something cold and yummy to cool off.

Mara's was very cold in her mouth!

And Caleb kept sharing his Popsicle with Zac!

Here Caleb is eating dried blueberries, one of his favorite snacks. He loved to stuff them in my mouth too!

Random
A few pictures that just were cute but didn't fit in any category!

Mara's favorite thing to say this trip was: "I can't take it any more!" For some reason she came up with that saying and repeated it over and over! It was pretty funny!

We looked out the houseboat and saw Ty trying to catch fish with his net! It was pretty hilarious watching him trying to catch fish from the shore.

I don't know who took this picture, or why! But sure! Here I am at my favorite place in the world!

This kid is just too cute for words sometimes!


Caleb just loved playing with the orange flag! I think that might have been his favorite part of the trip!

Me and my buddy! He is one cool dude!

I saw a T-shirt at a store near Lake Powell that said "I left my heart in Lake Powell" I almost bought it, but found a different one instead. It's true...I (heart) love Lake Powell! What a fabulous trip! It was so fun. Glad I could relive a part of my childhood, I felt like a kid again! Too bad we couldn't live at Lake Powell and Nate could commute to work! I hope we have the chance to go again!