Lake Powell

Last week we took a trip with my whole family to Lake Powell... so fun!

I think this picture was taken on the first morning we were there... everyone looking forward to a crazy tube ride! 

 It's funny that we had 7 kids out in the water at once. That's all of the grandkids except for Tayler and Lucy.

 Speaking of Lucy, she hated the life jacket! So sad because we couldn't take it off as long as she was in the boat, which was kind of a lot for the whole week.

 My favorite part of the trip was the wake-surfing. I had a goal to be able to surf behind the boat without a rope by the end of the week... I think my record was only 4 or 5 seconds of staying in the wake after letting go. At least I accomplished my goal!

 Russ got Sophie to surf with him and they did great! If I remember right they even stayed up for a little bit after letting go of the rope.

 Russ is a pro, he made the rest of us look bad! (Actually a few of the other guys were pretty good at it too.)

 Suzanne... always smiling, always holding a tight form... when she surfed AND when she knee-boarded, she looked just like a cheerleader.

 We took a LONG tour of the lake on Sunday... through Antelope Canyon, Dangling Rope, Rainbow Bridge, and a few other "landmarks" along the way.

 Sophie & Roxy... cute cousins.

At Dangling Rope - Tayler pretended to "almost drop" Sophie in to the fish a few times, but it wasn't so funny when Sophie thought it was a game and snuck up behind Tayler to give her a push - Tayler really did almost fall in (ewwww)!

 The family eating lunch & trying to cool down with root beer floats - it was a HOT day!

 Rainbow Bridge

 We had to hike a short distance to get closer to Rainbow Bridge. This was my view. Kaitlyn & Ellie pretended to be "sisters" this day with their matching swimsuits & ponytails.

 Kaitlyn & Noah gave up early so we are the only 4 from our family that made it for a picture. In case you notice my cute shoes, they are 10+ years old. And so ugly! I brought them in case we did any hiking or cliff jumping. Just to be clear, the only reason I had to actually wear them this day was because Noah didn't bring shoes and had to wear my flip flops. haha

 After the hot hike to Rainbow Bridge we took a little cool-down swimming break. It was so refreshing, even in nasty lake water!

 Roxy was in her own little world jumping off the side of the mountain into the water!

 Russ took me, Suzanne, and Auburn on a sisters ride (I think Alisse was back at the houseboat with Lucy). By the end of it my throat hurt from yelling and my hand hurt from holding on as tight as I could to the tube. But it was SO fun!

 Some of the kids tried surfing and got up...

Tayler:

 Jaxen:

 

 Kaitlyn:

 Riggs:

 We had to get Lucy out on the tube at least once... so Scott and Alisse joined her for a really slow (no wake!) ride.

 The Sue-Shae fam: Ellie, Suzanne, Me, & Noah

 Russ knee-boarded with Sophie. She screamed the whole time but at least stayed on.

 Noah on the other hand, he screamed even louder the whole time and jumped off before the ride even started.

 Everyone was laughing at him and he was mad, embarrassed, then sad. It was funny AND sad at the same time, so although I'm posting it... we're not bringing it up anymore!

 Russ got fancy on the knee-board once he had it all to himself:

 The Dads went fishing one morning... and made it back to the houseboat over 2 hours later than scheduled. Russ told me they traveled back from a really "far-away" canyon at 6 MPH - something had broken on the motor. (BOR-ING!)

Although we were there for 8 days I could have stayed one more. I love the lake! However... my own bed, a clean shower, and a normal routine was nice to come home to. Thanks to my parents for making this trip possible - our family LOVED it!