Houseboat maintenance and Goblin Valley

Every March a crew from the "Getaway" houseboat timeshare head to Lake Powell to do maintenance on the houseboat. BS and the boys spent the weekend working with Grandmpa Jim.

But all work didn't mean no play...

They spent the next day in Goblin Valley hiking and exploring around.  They loved it!

Love my boys

Lake Powell Catch Up

The Clark family Lake Powell trip was in June and I am finally posting about it.  Yikes!

Once again, another great trip with great family!!!  The best part was that 7 out of 8 of the Clark siblings made it this year.  This is a feat!  We missed the Ludlows :(

We found a pretty little bay up in Hall's Creek that was perfect for bathing in the shallow water and playing on the beach.  We had lots of little ones on the boat, as well as 2 prego ladies - Jenny and Jess.

One of our favorite parts of this trip {that I didn't get pictures of} was going to Forgotten Canyon to see the ruins of the Moki Indians.  It was a way fun and cool excursion!!!  It has been a few years since we last made the hike and for some reason it gets neater each time.  Of course Will had a million questions and comments about the whole experience :)

AWESOME TRIP!

Sambo and Landon

Audree, Sadie, Q

Of course I brought crafts....we made Sharpie tie-dye shirts and bracelets with the Rainbow Loom

Also see picture at the beginning

Grandpa Jim surfing

Grandpa Jim biffing it

Fishing fun with Brady, Sadie, Q, Spencer, and Kade

Kade and Will

 

Will, Sam, Millie,  Rylee, Karlee

Sadie, Spencer, Q, Audree

Millie wake boarding

 

Sam and Karlee

Q and Mom

 

Pure Joy

Laters

Silly Grandma

Taking a break and watching a movie

 

Lake Powell Round #1

June was jam packed with as much fun as we can handle!  It started off with a week at Girl's Camp right after school let out.  More about that later.  Then the next week we were off to Lake Powell with the Guffey's!  Cousins Ellie and Cambree were in town from Oklahoma so they came, as well as Sambo's good buddy Max.  Bringing him turned out to be a good move because the kids lined up perfectly :)

Ellie, Will, Cambree, Quin, Max, Sam, Millie

Sam and Max

Every year it's the same pictures and the same activities.  But Lake Powell never disappoints!  This is truly our happy place!  We stayed in a perfect spot at the end of Lost Eden Canyon.  Shade in the morning and evening, and protected from wind and waves.  

"The Getaway" Houseboat

 I will let the pictures tell about the trip:

 

Nate and his darling girlies

The view from our houseboat - what a stunning place!

Lake Powell!

 Another summer, another awesome trip to Lake Powell!

We were so happy to be with the cousins from Minnesota {who will be moving to Oklahoma when they return home}.  There was lots of swimming, sliding, water skiing, wake boarding, knee boarding, tubing, exploring, Sea-Dooing, crafting, relaxing, laughing, game playing, and eating!

The most memorable thing on this trip was the nightly thunder storms!  The first night when we were on the slip there was a really bad wind storm which caused waves big enough to raise the front of the houseboat onto the edge of the dock!  We were tilted!  Of course Grandpa worked his magic and figured out a way to fix it.  Then, every single night for the rest of the week there were micro-burst storms that caused massive lightning and thunder storms for about an hour.  It was way cool to watch from the top of the houseboat until inevitably we would have to call "Operation Downstairs" and move our beds down because it would rain.  In all my life I have never been to Lake Powell where it rained every night!  It would only last about 30-60 minutes, but it was enough that we would get drenched!  Monsoon season I guess.  It was so hot that we almost didn't care :)

We made Sharpie Tie-Dye shirts, Duct tape pens, and T-shirt bracelets when we were needing a break from the heat which was fun for the girls and boys.

Will got up knee-boarding for his first time after only a couple of tries!  He loves it!  BS and I got to water ski and wake board a ton which was fantastic.  This Mama Duck and her ducklings would come visit us several times a day for vittles to eat.  We had fun watching and feeding them - so cute!

 We found a beach on Bullfrog Bay that had the most sand we have seen in a long time.  The kids spent hours playing and digging in the sand, especially Will!  He worked himself to the bone digging deep holes and looking for buried treasure.  He was a good helper when it came time to dig holes for the houseboat anchors.  Sambo snorkeled and discovered that he couldn't see much under water.

Quincy loved double knee boarding!  She is so brave and easy and will try anything!  She also thinks she is professional Sea-Doo driver, she insists on driving everytime.  Caitlyn, Millie, Sambo, and Will mastered 360s on the Knee Board - woot woot!  They also got really good going in and out of the wake {knee and wake boarding} and even tried to get some big air!  They don't really love water skiing on 2 skies, they think it is boring but they were good sports to do it anyway.  Maybe they are ready to try slalom next year?  Cambree had fun skiing and did awesome!