Lake Powell!

Jeff and I have loved the opportunity to go to Lake Powell with his family when we can.  This year marked our 4th trip!  We went July 16th- 21st.  I ended up taking a lot of pictures this year, and I had a hard time not including something from every aspect of our week.  So be prepared for picture overload!  I just had to document it all!

My in-laws have a rule that no one under the age of 5 is allowed to go, but decided this year to try out letting the little ones come, since it was just Shad and Tylie that are under 5.  It was a lot of work having little ones who can't swim on a houseboat surrounded by water, but it worked out.  I'm not sure that they'll drop their rule, but it was fun while it lasted!

Jeff had a meeting on Wednesday that he couldn't skip, so rather than miss out on extra fun, I decided to go down Monday morning with the family instead of waiting for Jeff.   Those who went down Monday included Nikki and Spencer, Spencer's brothers Robby and Ryan, Tyler and his friend Jake, and Jared and his friend Dilan. 

 Shad getting his first look at Lake Powell!

 

Helping Grandma drive the houseboat:

I was nervous about not having Jeff there to help me with Shad, but it ended up working out well.  Everyone was helpful, especially Jeff's parents and Nikki who made it possible for me (and us, once Jeff got there) to still go out and have fun. 

Here we are our first time in the water!  

 

This tube for Shad turned out to be the best purchase we made for this trip.  He could float around without tipping over or wearing his lift jacket, it had a sun shade, and he actually liked it!  I swam all over our little cove with him. 

We found a great spot this year to park the boat.  There wasn't a beach, but it had every other perk.

 

The first day we were there was my birthday, and though I was really missing Jeff, I enjoyed a few minutes to myself before going to bed...

 It happened to be the calmest night we were there, so I sat on the back of the houseboat in the dark looking at the thousands of stars.  

I love when the water is calm enough to see the reflection of all the stars in the water.  It is a magical and romantic sight.  It took me back to our first year at Lake Powell together when we were just barely dating.  It was one of my favorite parts of the week.  This picture is only a sliver of what it actually looks like.  On a swaying houseboat and without a tripod I couldn't get any kind of decent picture:

I fell asleep looking at the stars and listening to love songs on my iPod.  I loved it.  :)

The second day I discovered I was the only one (besides Jeff's parents) who really knew how to drive the speed boat for both wakeboarders and tubers.  Tyler knew how but didn't really have any experience and wasn't real excited about it so I got to drive all the kids!  (Except when Tyler drove so I could ride the tube with Nikki...) I actually had a lot of fun driving.  I decided I prefer it over just riding in the boat...

 Nikki & Spencer

Robby & Spencer

Robby & Ryan

Jared & Dilan

Nikki & I

Tyler & Jake

Few random pictures from Tuesday, eating carrots and watermelon:

Naptime:

Taking Shad down the slide!  It's pretty fast, but he really wanted to!  He did go under the water and came up sputtering a little, but not coughing.  He wasn't too happy at first, but once we were on the boat he wanted to do it again!  Crazy kid.

Cooling off:

A common past time on the lake is card games.  This year we played a lot of Golf, Pit, and Bang.

That evening Shad and I went for a walk up on the hill behind the houseboat.    

We found Nikki and Spencer giggling and quite enjoying themselves:

Shad helped me rearrange a bunch of rocks someone left up on the mountain to make a new message for Jeff to find when he came.  Shad really loved grabbing a rock and moving it to where I pointed.  

He was super tired afterwards and kept dozing off on my head, but never let go of his rock:

Wednesday morning I took all the kids wakeboarding before the rest of the crowd arrived, though I don't have any pictures from this trip... 

Amy & Tyler and their family, along with Tyler's parents and brother Colby arrived Wednesday around lunch time.  We ate, and then we all cooled off in the lake and practiced our diving:

Colby

Nikki

Robby & Spencer

Jake & Tyler

 Me

That afternoon we decided to cliff jump off the rocks in our little cove.  It turned out to be a great spot for jumping!

Me

Ty

Colby

Robby & Spencer

Nikki & Spencer

Other Wednesday pictures:

Momma C found Shad and my footprints from the other night while she was out for a walk:

  

Naptime:

 More cooling off and playing in the bucket:

 

While waiting for Jeff to arrive later Wednesday evening, Shad and I went up on the hill and threw some rocks...

 

As well as spent some time jumping off mats.  Shad did this over and over... silly kid.

Watching Jeff try and shoot carp:

Happy cousins at Thursday breakfast:

Swimming:

We took Jeff over to cliff jump:

Jeff & I

Spencer & Robby

Jeff, Me, Robby, Spencer

Robby & Spencer trying to high five each other:

Jeff & I

Me

Nikki

Spencer & Robby

Eating cherries:

 

Dancing cousins:

 Playing with the cooler wheels and getting lathered in lotion:

Everyone just hanging out:

Skipping rocks:  

Jeff actually got quite a few to skip all the way across the cove and up the rock on the other side!

Playing in the water:

Naptime:

More swimming, of course:

Thursday afternoon a storm rolled in pretty fast (as they always do on the lake) and really started rocking the speed boat.  There were actually a few waves curling up and over the boat as it rocked!  So the guys all ran out there to save it and tether it to the houseboat instead:

After the wind calmed a bit Jeff and Ty tried out the kayak sails:  

It was nice and cool after that storm.  I don't think anyone got back in the water that evening.  The babies had fun running around the front of the houseboat and watching the water:

Tylie loves giving hugs.  Shad is good about giving us hugs, but isn't sure what to think when someone his age tries to give him hugs... or more attacks him:

 Playing blast-off with Nikki:

That evening Ty's mom pulled out some glow sticks she bought for the kids.  She even brought one for Shad!  So nice.  His was an orange sword.  The girls' got blue wands with stars on the tip.  Unfortunately a few of them didn't work, (the glow stuff had already been broken somehow) but they all shared and still had a blast with them:

 

Because of the storm we moved the sleeping arrangement around a bit.  Amy and Ty moved to the front deck with us and we put both babies inside with the kids.  It was pretty tight, but that was what we expected with 21 people on a houseboat!

Friday morning:

Playing swords with Dad:

 

 The Pickett boys on their adopted "Pickett Island"

Shad and I throwing rocks... again...

Friday Papa K took Jeff, Colby, Dilan, and I out wakeboarding.  The steering on the speedboat had started going out, so he came so he could drive rather than us trying to figure it out and possibly getting stranded.  I don't think it would've held up for tubing, but it held out for wakeboarding!

(Jeff and I were the only ones to get up and stay up, since it was Colby and Dilan's first times, so I only have pictures of the 2 of us...)

 

Eating dinner:

I absolutely LOVE lightning storms at Lake Powell!  They are always so intense, as well as bright, since it's so dark out there.  We had an awesome storm move right over us Friday night.  It took me a while to get my lens in focus but I still caught a few:

Friday morning Ty rolled over to find this little guy who'd made a home next to their bed!  I'm glad it was on their side of the boat! 

After packing up we were headed home:

Jeff's family has a tradition to stop at the Drive-In in Hanksville for dinner, but this time they were in a hurry to get back so Jeff's parents could get to a rodeo.   They still stopped to get shakes, but didn't stay.  Jeff and I decided to stay on our own and still got dinner with our shake.

We got home around 8pm, and took our traditional post-Powell pictures:

Thank you Mom and Dad Christofferson for all your hard work and effort to create another fun and successful week on the lake!  And thanks for allowing babies and for all your help with Shad, we were glad we were able to go this year and we had a blast!