Fall Break

Nate found out that I had a couple of days off of school. I was trying to keep it a secret, but we don't really keep secrets from each other so that didn't work.

He decided that since I was out of school it would be a perfect time to take a slightly extended weekend away... and to where you might ask? Well then you don't know Nate. He definitely has a favoritest place in the whole wide world... Lake Powell!

I have been so busy with school and trying to catch up around the house I wasn't really looking forward to going away, but Nate doesn't really give you many options. You either go, or you take the RISK and tell him "no". Telling him "no" is like telling a two year old "no" except he has a WAYYYYYYYY longer memory than a two year old.....

ANYWAY..... Lake Powell wasn't bad. Nate didn't have to swim to the boat from the dock this time. That is saying something!! OK, so it might be saying that there were very few other boats on the lake but come on... it still took me three tries to get him from the dock.

We, of course, picked the best spot EVER to camp. We only lost a few pieces of our boat to the rocks that we anchored between.

Day ONE- Wonderful Weather the WHOLE day!

We got on the lake about 9am. We searched the lake for a camp spot. We found one. we unloaded EVERYTHING off the boat. We set it ALL up. We relaxed for a bit. We went out and played with the water toys.

Seth got on the knee board for the first time. I was SO PROUD!!

My swimsuit broke and exposed me to the world... Luckily I only traumatized the kids (and myself) and no one else was around to see it happen. We made dinner with water that wouldn't boil. We went to bed. The tent was pretty cool because it didn't have the rain fly on it yet and we could see the stars... Twice in the night it drizzled on us just a tad. James was in his own tent and we could here him cursing Nate for not putting on the rain fly. We just laughed at him and went back to sleep.

Day TWO-Slightly Windy and choppy on the lake...

We woke up to a beautiful day. We made breakfast and relaxed. I read a bunch of Biology. The kids played and fished. We decided about 2:30 (just when the wind started to pick up a bit) to take a trip to Defiance House. We left Banzai (our tube) out on a rock. I told Nate it was to close to the water and it was going to take off. He thought it would be fine. We went to defiance house. Seth whined the whole way up. It was maybe a fourth of a mile away and he thought he was going to die (really need to get him off the couch more often)... Learned that going on a path through tree's that really didn't look like a path... NOT good idea! Got some pictures... Emmy had the camera and seemed obsessed with James ....but only parts of him....

Then we also got ones that included faces...

Played with water toys again on the way back. Went back to camp to find Banzai missing ("I told you so"). Took a trip down the canyon and found him at the back of one. Made dinner... put up the rain fly on the tents... I studies a bit... then we went to bed. It was windy and loud all night. I hardly slept. James kept yelling over to us from his tent that he was covered in sand. He finally came over to our tent. I wasn't a fun night at all.

DAY THREE- Traumatizing weather...rainy, windy
Day three didn't start off too bad. It was windy. We made breakfast. The kids flew kites around in the wind for a while. Ashlee fished.. and fished ...and fished ...which makes her oh so happy! Then came the trauma... it started with Emmy losing a kite in the water. Then I went down to do breakfast dishes in the lake and a wind gust came a long and blew my big pan (from my awesome camping pan set) into the lake. I went to grab it wading through the water with my sweats on and then I fell off a rock ledge and sunk into the water with all my clothes on. I was tempted to still swim after the pan, but I didn't have a life vest or a life floaty and I was wearing a heavy fleece jacket and sweats (with only garments under them and I didn't want to rip the top layer off) While I was waiting for Nate to come to the rescue Lake Powell ATE my pot. :-( Some off the kids saw me fall into the water and I was screaming at them that I didn't have my life vest, hoping they would run and get it or get Nate, but they thought I was drowning and freaked out a little. After that and the wind ripping our tents out of the ground and snapping out tent poles we decided that since the weather wasn't suppose to get any better we would just head home. We packed up (which took forever) and headed back to the ramp. I drove a little on the way home. I found it completely terrifying and Nate whined at me the whole time because I wouldn't pass other cars. We ate Mexican food at a restaurant in Price. Seth ate all the maraschino cherries off the top of our fried ice cream before most of us even realized that it had maraschino cherries. Big Sel-fish!We made it home late and went to bed.

Emily collected hundreds of shells while we were there which the other kids love to break to make her cry. They are going to have to get lost on accident!

The crows at Lake Powell are highly organized crows. there is at least one to every camp spot and if you don't leave on a regular basis they come at start chirping at you. I found that when they did this if I gave them a goldfish cracker they would leave for a while. They are kind of scary when they start yelling at you to leave so they can ravish your site!

I'll post more pictures when I have time.