Fun in the sun

Well, the girls and I made it back from a fun filled week in the sun down at Lake Powell. We left Monday morning and got to the lake mid afternoon. The drive down was pretty uneventful-lots of "kids songs" as Kadence calls them and lots of goldfish, fruit snacks, and PB&J sandwiches. Granny, Aunt Andrea, and my Aunt JoAnne met us at the dock where Gramps picked us up. The girls loved Gramps' boat and didn't even mind wearing life jackets for the week (well, Kadence loved hers and didn't want to ever take it off, but Tayah wasn't quite sure how she felt about it). We spent our days relaxing and our evenings putting up with the storms that monsoon season seems to bring. We usually have 1 or 2 storms with wind/rain, but this year we had one every night, starting around dinner time. We had a small group this year with just my Uncle Dwayne and about half of his family, and my parents with Andrea's family until Thursday night, and on Wednesday Kara and Scott came along with Jerry and his family.

We have a houseboat for the week that the adults (my parents and their siblings) get to sleep on/shower/bathroom. The rest of us rough it on the beach with our tents and porta-potties. Since we had a small group this year the rules were a little less strict, but mostly the same. Kadence and Tayah both love the water and I was actually really surprised with how well they did there. We were camped in a little cove and had a great beach and it made the perfect swimming pool as Kadence called it. Each time we went swimming she would cry when we got out. We were swimming on Tuesday when Kadence saw some of the other kids going off the slide at the end of the houseboat and she said, "Mommy, I want to slide too." I asked her again to make sure she wanted to and so I took her up there and went down the slide from the top of the houseboat. She loved it and thought it was great fun. She also even told me she wanted to go under water, so she and I practiced going under water and holding our breath for the split second we could go under water with life jackets on. Most of the kids/cousins even came up with a biathalon where they swam across our little bay, then ran over the beach/hill where we were camped, then swam across another bay, then finished by climbing up a huge sand dune that we have boated to in the past. I was the only one who didn't participate or go to the end as I stayed behind and was a photographer for the 1st leg of the race, and then tried to get Tayah to take a nap while all was quiet in the camp.

My cousin Blaine came down with 2 waverunners and I took Kadence on one with me and thought we'd just go on a short ride, not knowing how she'd like it, but she did not want to get off and wanted to go faster and faster. Granny took her on a special ride yesterday morning so I could finish packing everything up.

I loved being down there. Of course we really missed David down there, but I had lots of help with the girls and everyone is really good about watching out for kids headed to the water without lifejackets. I did attempt to slalom Tuesday night and had a tough time getting up (later realized that I was using a harder ski and the wind picked up right when I started trying), but finally did have success. Wednesday morning we took advantage of the calm, smooth water before breakfast and tried again while Granny fed the girls breakfast. Had a much easier time getting up with the smoother water and a better ski! We left yesterday morning and stopped at the Lake Powell store to look for paraphenalia. My cousin Katie rode home with me and was a great help with the girls as we hit a blinding rain/hail storm right when we got back on to I-15. We were caravaning with her brother, Blaine and if it hadn't been for his tail lights, we wouldn't have known we were still on the road. We were pushing 30 mph and saw lots of semis and cars pulled off the road to wait it out. We dropped Katie off in Payson with Blaine, and Kadence cried all the way home (10 minutes) for Katie. She really warmed up to her and everyone else that was there. We're sad to see our fun week end already, but glad to be home in our own beds and be home with David. Looking forward to next year...