Just about every year since I can remember, my family has taken a week long trip to Lake Powell, aka, the greatest place on earth! My grandparents on my mom’s side, bought a time share, way back in 1989, to a houseboat known as “Moki Sunrise.” Although we only spend one week a year on this boat, it is my “home away from home.”

The past few years, I have had to take my kids on my own, without Adam because he is the head girl’s soccer coach, and soccer tryouts land on the exact same week as Lake Powell. As much as we would love to have him there with us, it actually works out okay. He gets to conduct tryouts, and then come home and unwind in a quiet house, and the kids and I get to play all week!

Every year,  we make it a goal to try something we have never tried before. I have found it harder every year to do something new, because as many times as I have been there, I have just about tried everything. My kids, on the other hand, have so many things to try—however, after all they did this year, they may find it to be a difficult task after all.

Cliff Jumping
We began the week with Anderson and Ace jumping off the back of the houseboat. (Ace holds the record for the youngest to do this, being 4 years old last year). This year, he wasted no time by busting out flips and 360’s. Anderson couldn’t let his little brother show him up, so he soon followed suit. It wasn’t long before the back of the houseboat wasn’t satisfying their adventure needs; so my brothers suggested we go over to the cliffs that were just behind our campsite. These cliffs, we figured, were between 30 and 35 feet high.  Anderson went with them first, and we kept Ace in the boat to watch. Anderson launched off without even a 2nd thought. Then, of course, Ace had to go…and go, he did! This put the pressure on big time for me. I’ve cliff jumped before, but I don’t think I have ever gone that high, and it has been a good 14 years or so since I’ve done anything like it. I got up there–hesitated and stressed out for a good while, then after coming to the conclusion that my heart actually belonged in my throat to begin with, and that after a few days of a fiber-less diet, an enema really wasn’t a bad idea– I thought I might as well get it all done in one foul swoop. So, off I went–flailing my arms and screaming all the while–not one of my prettiest moments, but I did it.

Here is Anderson jumping, I didn’t catch Ace’s jump in time.

Aspen and Aussie wanted to have a chance at jumping off cliffs, too, so we took them over to one they could manage a little better. They had the time of their lives!

Her is Aspen and Aussie jumping off their “cliffs.”

Here is my uncle Bryan (former BYU diver) doing a gainer.

Here is Aussie going off the slide.

Boat Fun

Another huge part of Lake Powell is the boat action. I love water skiing. When I was about 11 or 12, my dad taught me how to ski, and it has been one of my very favorite things to do ever since. I have tried wake boarding, and I can get up just fine, but I just can’t seem to figure out how to do all the fancy stuff. Water-skiing fits me just fine.

Here is my dad, who will be 55 this year…amazing!

Here I am trying to ski after having a two year old sleeping on my arm all night. Not the best ski, but still fun :). Oh and bear with it for a second. My brother, Joel was filming and taking care of my kids at the same time ;).

One thing that I could do without, though is tubing. My kids love it, but it just sucks the life right out of me. I can handle going straight and fast, but once you add turns and waves, I am all sorts of mess. I remember being on the water weenie, and my dad would turn the boat so that we were facing each-other; then he would gun it, and we’d all go flying off. This was fun for everyone but me, and I have forever been scarred. I was a good sport, though, and went on the tube with my 2 and 4 year old. That was my limit, though.

Can you see the terror in my eyes?

Swimming

I was so grateful to have my Uncle David and Aunt Rochelle there to give my kids swim lessons. Although I can swim, I don’t know the first thing about teaching them. I feel so much better knowing that my kids know some swim basics. The last day we were there, Anderson actually dared to jump off the back of the houseboat without his life jacket, and was able to pop back up and swim back by himself. He was so proud of himself 🙂

Here is his last jump off the back.

Although Aussie and Azure didn’t participate in the swim lessons, it was so fun to swim in the deep water with them while we all floated with our live jackets on. We played “Ring Around the Rosie” too many times to count. I just couldn’t get enough of Azure’s giggling every time I went under :).

Sand Castles

A trip to Lake Powell is not complete without building sand castles. This year, we decided to make a sand ball castle. Anderson took his and made some sort of robot man. Later in the week, they had a sand ball fight with them. So fun!

Running

Finally, of course my week couldn’t be complete without some good old Lake Powell running. I was only able to go out 3 times, but it was so fun. I was so glad to have my dad and younger brother, Rand there with me. It felt like old times, just running and talking. My mom took some pictures of us, that I will have to post later, along with Ace and my cliff jump.

Here are some more random pictures from the trip…

As a side note, while I was gone, my article for the Spectrum ran. Thought I’d share 🙂