Lake Powell - Sept 2010

We were so lucky to get in a second Lake Powell trip this year. This trip was a little different. It was our first trip with friends, not family. It was a great little end of summer getaway! I have to say that Lake Powell in September may be my favorite time! The water was amazing, and although chilly in the night/mornings, the weather was beautiful!

Calie and Dave put together a great group of people! It was so fun to meet a few new couples, and I was so excited how well everyone got along with one another!

Billy was in heaven because he actually got to go fishing! We don't usually get much fishing in on our July trip, so he was so glad he final got to on this one! They did really well, and we even ate fish for dinner one night!

I was finally able to get up on the wakeboard after seriously 3 years of trying! I don't know what my deal was before because I was able to get up on only my 2nd or 3rd try this time! I credit Jared's advice of telling me to lean back...I seriously don't think I have ever leaned back before! Haha! I surprisingly got up on the wake surf as well! I have to say I was pretty proud of myself :)

(Don't mind my face, I was concentrating really hard!)

It was so much fun hanging out with this crazy fun group of girls! There was fist pumping, foot pumping, boat dancing, and fun times that sure took a few of us out of our shells!

We hiked up to the Defiance House Indian ruins for the first time which was a fun experience (and a great photo op!)
The guys entertained us all with a pretty competitive game of 500!
I saw my first ever actual roadrunner! I've only ever seen the cartoon version!
It was sure an amazing time! We couldn't have asked for better weather, better water or better company! A huge thank you out to Calie and Dave for such a wonderful trip! So to Lake Powell I say, thanks for the great times in 2010....until next year my sweet escape!

Much Needed Summer Vacation!

We made our annual week long Lake Powell Vacation last week! It was one of the best ever as far as weather goes! We luckily didn't have any storms and it was the perfect temperature! I think this was one of our first uneventful trips as far as breakdowns, storms and such goes!

Although uneventful in that aspect...it certainly was an eventful trip! We went down Saturday, hoping to leave at 8:30, but not actually getting out of town until 11. Then our stop in Price to eat Wingers, and visit Walmart. We eventually made it to Powell at about 5 pm. Here is the boat loaded with all of our stuff on the way to camp...

However, we get to our usual camp spot and the water is so high there is barely any beach left and to top it off...there is a houseboat there! We decided that we could share the area because it is such an awesome spot. We aren't so sure our neighbors were happy about it, but they left Tuesday anyway, so we didn't really care!

We spent the first couple days just lounging not doing much. Some of my favorite times in the trip were floating in the lake working on my tan...I made it my goal to get rid of my awful short tan line and by the end of the trip I had reached my goal!

Here are some of the other fun activities we did:

Hanging out at the marina letting the carp eat cheese off of Jordan's toes...
Hanging out at our favorite cove:
Jordan modeling some awesome clip-on shades he found at the dock:

Traveling to Tapestry Wall to see the dinosaur tracks... can you see them?

Hiking to this awesome cave..there were millions of baby frogs and tadpoles along the way:




Simultaneous cliff jumping, that's me on the shortest end, I'm not much of a cliff jumper:

A little kneeboarding:
Watching these crazy girls on the tube:
Hiking Hole in the Rock...yes we went to the VERY top of this. It was a crazy hike! I lost my shoes, Taylor lost a toenail, Monica lost the bottom of her foot to a blister...but all in all it was a fun hike!

Lake Powell is certainly one of my favorite places on earth! However after 8 days...I was very ready to come home! A big thank you to Billy's parents who provide so much for us while we are down there! Great meals, great company, great memories!

Lake Powell - May 2009

I swear that we can never go to Lake Powell with out having an eventful time! This year was no exception. Billy actually had to work all weekend, so I ended up just going down with his family without him. We left on Friday, and drove down in the rain. There were flash floods across the roads and rock slides everywhere! Things weren't looking to great for a good weather weekend. When we finally got there, our group hadn't even taken the houseboat out of the slip yet! We ended up spending all night Friday in the slip. We had yummy dinner and watched Top Gun. I don't remember that movie being so cheesy, and the chick that plays the love interest is not even cute at all! At least the music was good :)

At one point I swear it was snowing :)

It rained all night long, and Saturday wasn't any better. The 40% chance of rain really meant rain...all day...non stop. It was so cold and we had nothing better to do so we stayed in our beds and watched movies on the top of the house boat ALL DAY. We managed to watch Australia (which I thought would have been a great movie if the guy in the boat next to us hadn't of had his power washer going super loud during half of the movie!), Wedding Date, Failure to Launch, Finding Nemo, Jaws and Girls Girls Girls, no its not a dirty movie...is an old Elvis movie! This was my view for the majority of Saturday. Although it was disappointing to miss a day out on the water, it was surely a great day for relaxing!

We had some middle of the night entertainment that night. A couple from the house boat next to us got in a heated argument at about 12:30 am, and come to find out the girl had just been caught cheating on her husband, and he wasn't too happy. About 3:30 he finally threw her cell phone into the lake (which is how he found out...via text snooping) and they gave up and went to bed. I'm sure every person in the slip that night heard their entire argument!

Thankfully we woke up Sunday to a beautiful day! We got up early and left the slip to find a camping spot. It was still a little chilly but I managed to get a killer short line while on the boat waiting for the houseboat while saving our spot! We got some good tanning in and even got in the water and kneeboarded! The water was still pretty freezing, but once you were in it, it wasn't too bad.

Sunny & Hannah
Sunny, Me, Samantha and Tonya

Hannah, Monica, and Whitney

Monday we got up early and went for a boat ride to Escalante to check out a few of our favorite spots now that the water is alot higher, and toshow Jordan and Tonya our favorite Indian ruins. Its a little bit of a hike, but it was nice to burn some calories after eating like we do on this trip!

Making the hike

A view from the top

This picture just made me laugh :) Whit and Jordan


On the way down. This pic shows how steep it is, and you can see the little steps the Indians carved out into the side of the hill. We think this hike is high, but you have to remember when the Indians made it there was no water! I can't believe that they built their homes that high!

Then for the most eventful portion of our trip. Come Monday afternoon it was time for me, Whit and Jordan to head home. We loaded our stuff into the boat, and noticed a little storm cloud rolling in. We decided that we could beat the cloud and head over....wrong! The storm spread like crazy and we got caught in huge swells and white caps. I thought we were going to sink for sure! Water was coming in over top of the boat. It was like being on a really bumpy rollercoaster... think Wild Mouse at Lagoon X10! It was amazing to watch the smaller and bigger boats behind us, being beat around by the waves! Although it wasn't raining, Jordan and I managed to get soaking wet, along with all of our bags, pillows, and sleeping bags! We made it to Halls Marina and decided to stop and wait out the storm. While we were there the ranger got 3 mayday calls of sinking boats! SCARY! Luckily the storm passed quickly and we were able to get to the boat ramp and get out of there to get warm!

** MORE PICS TO COME!**

As I said, it is unlikely for us to take a trip to Lake Powell that isn't eventful, but that is certainly why we keep going! These trip are what make our summers fun and interesting! We will being going again soon I'm sure!

Lake Powell July 2008

We went on our annual week long Lake Powell trip this past week with Billy's family. Its so strange...the first year we did it by about Thursday we were all ready to go home, (except Billy's mom, who I think could probably live at Lake Powell) and now after we've gone the past few years it seems like the week just gets shorter and shorter and we never want to come home!

Silly Sophie

This trip will always be burned into my memory because I had my first rattlesnake experience. It was pitch black out and I had just finished changing into my pj's and I was walking next to the tents and heard that dreadful rattle....I nearly had a heart attack. I didn't have a flashlight so I had no idea where it was. Then Holly shined her light up towards me and I discovered that it was about 6 inches from my foot. I don't think I've ever jumped and ran so fast in my life! The guys found it and killed it for me, however I steered clear of walking around in the dark the rest of the week!

I just have to say that I love being able to spend time with Billy's fam down there! The girls have such a great time baking in the sun! I have to give a big congrats to Monica for being able to get up on the wakeboard! (Something I have yet to accomplish..I don't know what my problem is, but that's ok, I'll stick to kneeboarding!)

Me, Whitney & Jana

Our Camp

Most of the gang after Peterson's tent blew down

If you look closely you can see the pictographs we went to see.

Billy scaling the wall to get to the Three Roof indian ruins

Kenz & Hannah at the Three Roof Ruins

I honestly have to say that Lake Powell is one of my favorite places to be! I'm so grateful for Billy's parents who take us on these trips and always make them so memorable! A big thanks to them and to Holly & Blaine (Monica's sister & bro in law) for providing so much for us down there! Also a big thanks to Billy's sisters for being awesome tanning buddies, and always keeping me laughing!

Pics from our Lake Powell Trip!

No lie..this was taken at about 6:00 p.m. It was THAT COLD!

One of the warmest parts of the trip.
Usually we had our hoodies on in the boat!

Rachel, Gabby, Larry and Olivia enjoying ice cream at the snack bar!













The girls enjoying Disco night...what you don't see is Mary dancing under the disco ball!

Little Sophie was our entertainment most the time, such a cutie! She would sing songs from Hairspray and Scooby Do, then when she was feeling exhausted she would grab her mom by the hand and say "Mom I need a nap"! Then she really would take a nap! So funny!