Lake Powell

Doesn't this look inviting?  Makes you want to jump in, doesn't it?

It was not part of the original summer plan for me to go to Utah at the end of June; however, when I found out that my family was going to Lake Powell for five days I couldn't resist buying a plane ticket.  I was thrilled to be in Lake Powell again after almost ten years, and I was even more thrilled to be away from the hot humidity and soak in 100 degree days of dry heat.

The whole family was there sans Phil, Jerai & Boyd.  We stayed on a house boat with two wonderful King families and had loads of fun!  We ate delicious food, watched World Cup and Wimbledon, woke up early in search of great skiing water, swam, went off the slide, played on wave runners, jumped off cliffs, water-skied, wakeboarded and slept under the stars (some of us).
Cliff jumping:

 

Beth looks so tiny when she's falling through the air.

 Even Mom & Dad joined in on the fun, which is impressive even if the cliff was only 8 feet high :)

 

Here Rachel, Nate and I waited so someone could document us jumping of this rather high {for me} cliff. 

We tried to coordinate our jump to add some flare but it doesn't show in this pic.

Houseboat fun:

Most of the crew

Quinton was one of the bravest with his slide tricks.

Swim time

 Mom & Dad

The Boat:

Aussie Grayson

Handsome Quinton

Matching suits!  And not even on purpose.  We'll give the credit to Costco.

Sweet Beth

Dad wins for having the best boat hair.

Unfortunately, all of Steve's, Rachel's and Nate's attempts looked similar to this.  Nate is the star of this video.

As always, there were bound to be adventures like...
...when the boats wouldn't start.

 a boat pulling a boat pulling a wave runner

...and when the septic tank was overflowing in less than 48 hours {there was no way this was caused by us}!  We had to take an afternoon to drive to the dumping dock where we got to pump out the tank for an hour.  Unfortunately, the smell still lingered every time we tried to use the air conditioning...

...and when we got the rope stuck in the motor of one of the wave runners we had rented.  We ended up having to dissect the poor machine, taking off its bottom panel and sawing off the rope piece by piece until we cleared the motor.  Worked like a dream after that thanks to Dr. Stephen and the many people who helped hold the wave runner on its side!

Operation Wave runner

After an hour or so it was back in top riding condition.

...and finally, on the last run of the morning, Stephen's head hit the ski after a fall and gave him a nice little cut over his eye.

 The drive to Lake Powell is about 6 hours and takes you through quite a few small towns.  We automatically hit the brakes as we drove past this officer on the side of the road.

As we drove past we looked a little closer and saw this...

In the next town we saw a similar jeep, but with a man mannequin.  We thought it was a maybe a Sunday thing, but sure enough, the same troopers were in place on our return trip 5 days later.

 A trip to remember and a lake that is unforgettable.