Lake Powell Trip - July 2011

Sunday, July 10th

The Drive Up - A 12 Hour Adventure!  So Mom, Amanda, Julia, and I left at 6:00am from Placentia.  Julia slept for a total of 2 hours the entire 12 hour trip - which is amazing because usually she sleeps so much in the car.  It was very hot outside, so we had the a/c running most of the trip and we were all drinking lots.  So there was many pee trips, but being a Sunday, a lot of places were closed.  So lets just say we got creative with places we could pee.  We passed so many cool rocks and mountains - it was a beautiful drive!

Julia on the drive up!

Amanda at Chimney Rock

We got to the boat for dinnertime and arrived there the same time Chris and Gina's family got there.  The second we got on the boat all of the little kids swarmed Julia and she loved the attention.  We were able to get a room on the boat for Julia to sleep in her Play and Pack and me on a bed - which was heaven compared to my last trip to Powell three years ago. I usually don't do well not sleeping in a bed by myself or just Riley with me.

Monday, July 11th

Julia slept really well the first night except that at 740am all the little kids woke everyone up - but who's to blame them - they are ready to play at Lake Powell!  For breakfast on monday, Sarah made us some delicious crepes and Dave brought some fresh strawberries to go in them.  We then moved the houseboat, which I wasn't present for last time I was at Powell.  After 20 minutes of moving, we parked it in the middle of the lake and jumped off the houseboat.  I jumped off the the third floor (20ft) side twice - and I was so scared!  Uncle Darren was doing flips off  the third floor and the second floor. They got the JetSkis down so that they wouldn't have to do that later when the boat was parked against the rocks.  We found a great spot.  Some of the adult and kids took off tubing.  Amanda and I hiked around the rocks and took off Jet Skiing while Julia napped.  The Jet Skis were so much fun and we were gone for almost an hour.  There were so many places to explore.  

Amanda and Kristen on Jet Skis

 Later that night we all went skurfing.  I tried to get up four time but couldn't.  Amanda got up and did so well.  Darren could do some crazy tricks on that skurf board, he doesn't even have to start in the water he basically just jumps off the back of the boat.  This was the first time Julia has ever gone on a speed boat and absolutely loved it.  She fell asleep on me for about 40 minutes.  

Amanda on Skurfing!

 Julia was able to go in the water in her yellow floaty and really loved it! We had Mom's spaghetti for dinner that night.  Julia got to play a lot with her cousins and really loved Capri's "angry bird stuffed animal" and Dillan's RVCA hat.

Tuesday, July 12th

Julia went to sleep early on Monday night, but woke up for about two hours in the middle of the night which was hard for me.  A big group got up to go wakeboarding at 630 and there was no way I was going to get out of bed, but at least that allowed for Julia and I to sleep in.  For breakfast on Tuesday, we had some oatmeal.  They decided to move the houseboat because of all the junk in the water that started to mess up the generator and we moved down the canyon a little bit to a more open spot.  Amanda, Tristan, Kylie, and I did some P90X workouts after breakfast - which was probably a bad idea since it made us so sore the next day.  I got to go JetSkiing again on tuesday even though my legs were so sore from the day before going.  We went down an area called "Forgotten Canyon" and it was absolutely beautiful!!   Later that afternoon I got to try wakeboarding and was able to get up.  Amanda even got to show me her jumps. We also got to see Becca Ackley and Michelle McGill go single skiing - they both were extremely good.  

Kristen

Amanda Jumping

Julia was able to go in the water with her floaty, but it was a lot more cold this second day around and didn't keep her in too long.  We had some delicious tacos made by the McGills for dinner and watched a firework show put on by the boys later.

Wednesday, July 13th

Julia slept for 12 hours - back to her normal pattern - finally on the day we are leaving! For breakfast on wednesday we had yummy cinnamon rolls.  We went wakeboarding in the morning and it felt great!  I also tried to go Jet Skiing but it started to rain on me.  And then there was a crazy flashflood and rivers were forming all over the rocks.  It was pretty insane.  We left the boat around noon and saw such a beautiful waterfall that was at least 100 feet high - the Eadys said that they have never seen anything like it at Lake Powell.  And thus ends the happy part of the trip.

The drive home was horrible.  We almost ran out of gas for awhile, everyone was sick at some point, everyone was sore, and we were driving into the late hours.  But all that was worth the fun trip.  (now its Saturday and I am still extremely sick)