Our Whirl-wind Summer....Lake Powell:The trip of a LIFE TIME

So...what do you do when an old friend invites you to come to Lake Powell for the 4th of July weekend to stay on his houseboat....but you have been training to run the 4th of July 5k with your friend and your close-enough-to-be-family friend is blessing his first son and you are leaving for a trip 6:00 a.m. on July 8?


You say, oh that would be fun, but I can't bail this weekend. So he says, I'll fly you down AND bring the helicopter...

So what do you do.....?

You GO!!!!!!!!!

And you have the trip of a lifetime!!! (Thank you Brandie for not killing me, or even seriously injuring me...I promise the next 5k I am there! And Matt and Ashley for knowing we really do love you!)

This is the houseboat....

or should we say floating mansion!!!! It is 78' long and 20 ft' wide. 4 floors, 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms...a garage. This is the biggest houseboat on Lake Powell! It came into the marina in 8 sections and was built on the lake. Afterwards the rangers said no more! Now boats can not be any longer than 75 feet. If Jer were ever to take the boat off of Lake Powell he could never bring it back!


Here are the toys that stay with the boat... 2 boats and 2 jet skis.

In addition...did you notice the sweet Nordic pictured with the houseboat? It has a 500 horsepower turbo engine and glides over the water so fast that our cheeks were plastered to our ears!

As promised....here is the helicopter!

We left Salt Lake from Airport II...

This picture says it all....

we were beyond excited!

Caleb and Abby happily waiting for take off.

Bryan sat up with the pilot!


We flew to Paige, AZ. Arriving 45 minutes later!

(Definately beats the 6 hour drive :)

Views from the air.....

Once in AZ we went to the boat and stayed there that night.





The next morning we played around in the water...beating the heat!








This is the only time Caleb was fully in the water! He loved the sandy shore, riding in the boats and on the jet ski, but was fine to never be in the water! Abby, however, LIVED in the water. She must have been a fish once upon a time.....

Caleb and Bryan taking in the

beauty of Lake Powell

while we were moving

to our little cove.

Bryan learned a bit about boating and even drove the boat to our anchoring spot ....Caleb loved helping dad, especially honking the horn!













Abby rode in the Nordic boat... they went so fast that they would stop and jump in the water to keep cool and to wait for the houseboat to catch up! As fun as it was, 2 hours was a much longer ride than any of us expected! By the time we anchored they were all ready to get out.






Once we arrived at our little cove to anchor it was time to dig, and dig, and dig, and dig....for a very big boat has very BIG anchors.







Despite all of the digging the kids could not get enough of it and were often found digging and playing in the very soft red sand....

Getting a little help from John.


The Sand Castle
More sand and digging fun....















A view of the sand mountain and rock behind where we anchored.

Try as I might to get Caleb to jump in, he was happy as can be just splashing around. I think all the water was just a bit overwhelming to him. Nonetheless, he was happy as could be.... Who needs to get in anymore than this?

ABBY, of course!

Abby could not wait to jump in and swim...jump in and swim was her moto.

In fact she even took to the idea of jumping off the houseboat.......

from the 2ND Floor no less!!!! Go Abby! (Thanks Barb for the picture :) ).

Mom joined in the fun, jumping from the very top of the houseboat!?! (Abby would have if we would have let her! She begged and begged.)

It was a bit higher looking down from the top.... but the thrill of the fall was worth it :) !

The only thing better than jumping from a boat was to drive a boat.






No matter what you were doing
Lake Powell was a blast.








The highlight, if you really could pick a highlight from all of the adventure and amazment, was the Helicopter ride.

To quote Abby, "I LOVED IT!"

Pictures say a thousand words....

It was a trip of a lifetime...a weekend at Lake Powell like no other!
We were spoiled, for most people can only dream of a trip like this. Fortunately for us...we will live this trip over and over in our dreams. A Million Thank Yous, Jeremy and Sharla!




Caleb was doing all he could to stay awake on the trip home....Abby started dreaming almost from take off!!