LAKE POWELL

With much anticipation, we finally made it to Lake Powell!

Our first time, ever.

Kind of sad when you are an Arizona native.

Justin and Stephanie invited us to go on their houseboat, how could we pass that up?!

Some of the other Goodman's came as well, and it was a grand time!

We had to come up a day late because of work.

Which we felt bad about.

I didn't realize the amount of WORK it took to get there,
 and to set up once getting there.

The prep work alone before leaving was insane!

You are basically camping on water.

Shopping for food, prepping the food, packing the boat,

packing bags... wowzers.

The boys rode up with Stephanie and Justin so they

could help get the house boat situated on the beach.

I loved this picture she took of them digging deep holes for the anchors.

We finally made it up with Lindi the next day.

By my choice, Della was not invited.

I went back and forth on the decision.

The second I got there I never regretted it!
She had a much better time with aunt Marcie!

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The water levels were record breaking low.
They kept wondering if the trip would get canceled because of it.

We had nothing to compare it to, besides the water lines on the rocks
where it normal is.
In fact, we hit a sand bar while Casey was surfing!

Came out of nowhere. 

Even with that, it lived up to its name.

SO much FUN.

There weren't enough hours in the day.

I think a boat was out every hour there was sun light with kids

itching for a turn.

My favorite was going out with only the adults after dinner each night.

I called it golden hour.

Sunsets at Lake Powell are unreal.

I feel like Lake Powell is just like a beach house.
Kids run around all day with cousins and hardly bug you for anything!
It's the best!!

Top deck with rows upon rows of kids sleeping on pads.
There were 3 rooms on the house boat.
We got one, but by room I mean a bed and 3 feet of walk space to move alongside of
the bed! You sleep in there, and that is it!

Justin took us on a tour of Powell.

We are in the Narrows.

So beautiful.
And sadly, you can see 2 different white water lines on the rock where it

normally is.
Crazy to think how deep it can be!

We stopped for ice cream at the Antelope marina. 

A bad snap of the house boat docked on the beach.
It was super cozy.
With only 2 bathrooms and around 30 people, it worked great!
Kids showered on the back of the boat in their swim suits, or not at all, lol.
Can't complain about the pebble ice machine it had, either!

Playing Big Booty on the deck.

The guys were working on our boat that was having issues. 
While they were doing that, the women whipped up breakfast for the masses!
Pancakes, eggs and bacon.

Our boat broke, wahhhh!!
V -drive busted.

We were dead in the water.
Luckily Stephanie was out and we called her over to tow us back to the house boat.

To make our boat lighter for the tow, we had all the kids get off onto her boat.
But then all H*!# broke lose.
We were getting pushed to a cement wall by the dock very quickly.
In the chaos, the tow rope slipped and the few grownups left on the boat had
 to use their hands to keep our boat
from getting slammed into the wall and getting wrecked up!
It was intense for a minute, but soon enough we were getting towed to safety, and unscathed!

And not long after that, the generator on the houseboat broke.

Talk about having all the issues happen to us!

It was too hot to not have the AC running, or have lights and what not.

So we had to pack up ALL of the things and move the boat back to the slip.

Here is Dan driving the houseboat back to the dock.

We were still able to stay and have fun our last 2 days.

In fact, I was grateful to experience Powell docked on the beach, and tucked in a slip.
Perks to both.

Fishing on the mini dock next to the boat.

Weirdly enough, I was nervous to go down the slide!

It was tall once you got up there.

More golden hour goodness.

Games late in to the night.

Packing up to go home was an experience in itself.
It was the weekend, so the dock was PACKED.

We had a houseboat dropping off people with ALL of our hoards of stuff,
kids everywhere with no adult supervision
 because they were either getting a trailer or driving a boat.

I guess keys to a boat got dropped in the water and started sinking.
Kristen took one for the team and jumped in fully clothed to save them!

 

We survived!

With great memories to boot!