Tuesday, July 17, 2012

lake powell 2012

yet another reason i still haven't unpacked our house: jack and i spent the 4th of july in lake powell with my family. b couldn't come because of work (turns out early july is the WORST possible time to plan a vacation if you're employed by msft) and we missed him a lot, but we still managed to have fun. :)


i grew up going to lake powell every summer, but hadn't been back in almost 10 years. a lot of it felt the same and it was SO GOOD to be back, but (especially after living in the lush green-ness of seattle for the past year) the stark contrast of uber-desert was still a little jarring for me. i had missed those red rocks! we stayed on a comfy houseboat and went wakeboarding and tubing and swimming. i read half of the steve jobs biography and took a few naps. we ate tons of delicious treats. it was glorious.










just a few highlights from the trip:

+ jack LOVED the boats, especially driving them with pop pop. he did not so much love the water. the closest i could get him (without screaming) was to float in a tube, which he thought was cool. he also loved digging in the sand and exploring the beach (or really, doing everything) with his grammie. all in all, a successful first boating trip for the cute little monkey.



+ the night before we left, jack had a fever. a day later i found out that two of jack's friends had come down with hand foot & mouth disease...and yep, that explained the fever -- jack had it too! sick. that is seriously one of the grossest-sounding diseases in the world but it's actually not too bad. at least, it wasn't for jack -- he had a pretty mild case and got over it within a few days. i'd gladly take this over barf or a few other choice ailments. (i also got a cold the second day of our trip -- the wells family is incapable of staying healthy on vacation.) 




+ we spent the night of the 4th listening to patriotic music on the local radio station and watching fireworks over the canyon -- hands down, my favorite way to spend the holiday. we also lit a few of our own but saved the majority of them for a saturday grand finale. then the park rangers showed up to search our boat for firearms. :) that was fun. 

+ the morning after the 4th, we went out for a ride and discovered a grisly scene: a ski boat sitting about 25 feet up on a partially submerged rock. the bottom was totally torn up and there was blood on the boat and rocks. yuck. we got up close and my brother swam over to take a closer look, but when we went back again in the afternoon to take pictures they'd already hauled it away. later, we found out the boat belonged to a family who was driving back to the marina in the dark, after the fireworks -- they didn't see the rock at all and just drove right up onto it, ejecting three passengers completely out of the boat. luckily everyone survived...but DANG. that does not sound like my idea of a fun time.

+ my brother grant is jack's new best friend. jack would ask for him as soon as he woke up in the morning (probably so he could watch mickey mouse clubhouse on his phone) and wanted to play with him all the time. grant was so patient and sweet with him -- even playing catch in the houseboat hallway. so cute! i love my brother and i'm so glad he's back.



+ i loved spending time with my family! we have so many good memories on that lake and i loved that we could just pick up where we left off. not to mention -- it was good for my soul to be in such a beautiful place. i soaked up all the vitamin D i could get and absolutely loved being surrounded by those canyon walls and dry desert air. lake powell is my happy place.








i was also reminded how much i love make up and straightening irons. :) we were sad to leave but SO happy to come home to b and our regular routine.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

What a fun trip! So jealous that you live near bodies of water and that it's not too hot to go outside where you live :).

Owen just had HF&M disease, too. It was a rough couple of weeks for us, I caught it just as Owen was getting better :(. I think it is going around all of the nurseries in the church, some people in our ward had it too.

Roxanne said...

How fun!!! I love all the pictures!!!