Lake Poo-Powell

Lake Powell was such a blast!

(I will explain the title of my post later on)

We go to Lake Powell every year.

By "we", I mean my family, Sandall family (aunt, uncle, cousins), and Perry family (close friends)

Well, this year was very different for me because Robert & Drake weren't there. Drake is mobile and too little so he wasn't allowed to come, not to mention that I didn't feel comfortable taking him since he'd have to be in a life jacket and watched at all times. Robert had to work and  had lots of meetings and things going on with his upcoming Aaronic Priesthood training camp so he wasn't able to come either. 

So, as selfish as it may be, I went BY MYSELF.

I know, I know....how nice of me to leave my working husband and little boy to take some time out for just ME, but I felt like it was an okay thing to do. And...I strongly encourage all you moms out there to do it too. It was wonderful!!! I missed my husband like crazy, even more than Drake actually. I knew that Rob was home knowing what he was missing out on, whereas Drake had no idea. Drake stayed with his wonderful G&G Hunsaker. He loves them and their house so I never worried once about him. They said he was a ball to have around!

So...(wow, that was a long introduction)....This is the story of my 

"Lindsay trip"!!!

We left last Thursday, June 16th, drove to Kanab and stayed in a hotel overnight, and then got on the boat Friday morning. We had several conflicts with the time-share houseboat that we have been going on for years. To make a long story short, it would have cost a fortune to go for an entire week on a rental, so we ended up getting a rental houseboat for a shorter amount of time (Thursday-Tuesday instead of Friday-Friday). With everything that happened, we were just so thankful to actually be going to Lake Powell this year, so it didn't even matter that it was a shorter trip. Not to mention that the boat was SO NICE!

Here's pictures of the main living area and kitchen, and of the top of the boat which included a hot tub!

Our campsite

This scene just brings complete serenity to me. This is Last Chance Canyon where we always go camp.

 Loved hanging out with my sister!!!

I'm so lucky to have such great cousins and to be so close to each of them!

Lake Powell is seriously the greatest vacation ever!

We did lots of tubing, skiing, cliff-jumping (not me this year- too scary!), boating, Modern Family watching, swimming, laying out, eating, lounging, vegging.....awww.....the best.

These guys are just CRAZY. Yes, they jumped from there.

And give it up for my sister Staci who was awesome and jumped from this other huge cliff with the guys! Thanks for representing the gals!!!

I loved laying out up top and reading a book. So good for me! And good for my husband! And good for Drake! Why? Because I came back such a happier wife and momma. I needed this.

The view from here-

SKIING PICS

Kelley (Mitch's wife) skiing. This is only her 2nd year of skiing and she's doing awesome.

My cousin Mitch skiing-professional

And yours truly skiing! SO MUCH FUN! 

NOW....let me explain the title of this post...

On this houseboat, any time you ran any water, whether it be the kitchen faucet, the bathrooms, the showers, or flushed the toilets, all the water went into the same tank in the bottom of the boat.

We got on the boat Friday morning. Sunday evening, a light came on that said "Tank Full". We didn't think it could possibly be full in a day and a half. We were very very wrong. That night, after some showers were taken, poo water started coming up out of the drain in the shower. I don't want to go into a lot of gruesome detail here, but just use your imagination and you can easily realize how horrible the smell on that boat was. We were laughing so hard because if we thought about it too much we just might cry! We hung out on the rocks that night.

These two amazing girls got a bunch of pots and pans and started transferring the 6-inch dark water from the shower and dumping it into the lake and it just kept coming up. They deserve a medal.

We quickly discovered that we could no longer let any water go into the tank.

We still had 2 days left on the boat so we considered all the options of what we could do. Taking the houseboat in to the dock to get the tank emptied would have taken an entire day. If we did that, we'd just go home because there wouldn't be a point in going back out. Kari called the houseboat office and they said that was really the only option. We thought about it and decided, we could "rough it" for a day and we'd send some guys in Monday morning to Walmart on a ski boat (which would only take 30 minutes) to buy a port-a-potty. We made some adjustments- washed dishes in the sink and dumped the water in the lake, brushed our teeth with water bottles, and I peed on my foot several times, but it was all worth it to stay the extra days. hahaha! Is that too much info?

Well, the guys headed in the next morning. Uncle Scott & my dad are truly awesome. They talked to the manager there and explained that there was just no way we could have used up a 400 gallon tank in 1 1/2 days and that it must not have been completely emptied when they gave it to us. The manager was so helpful and apologetic and didn't know why it had happened.

This story is getting long, so....Monday morning Uncle Scott comes barreling around the rock with this puppy!! 

We called it-

"THE POOPER BOAT"

It was awesome! Had a toilet and tons of room so we connected it to the back of the houseboat and we were good to go. Literally. 

We could have lots of people in it- around 20! We decided to take advantage of it and did some major exploring. A big bummer of the trip turned out to be the greatest thing that could have happened! We got this boat and the gas for free and had a blast with it. (Don't judge the swimsuit pictures. It's taking lots of courage for me to post them)

We went on an excursion to this beautiful cove my dad had discovered where water had fallen through and made a V in the rock-

My best buddy-

Then, we found these dinosaur tracks. Thousands of feet of rock formed over them, but then a piece of the rock fell off and dinosaur prints were discovered. Amazing!

We took the pooper boat to Dangling Rope and got delicious ICE CREAM.

 And, lastly, we took it to RAINBOW BRIDGE.

We haven't been here since I was very little so it was amazing to go back!

The guys helping a nice man from Italy along the trail-

After all the excursions, we did more skiing, tubing, eating, vegging, lounging, relaxing, etc, etc, etc.

LOVE Lake Powell and already looking forward to next year!

Thanks mom & dad! I realize how fortunate I am to get to go on these trips and not spend a penny. You guys are the greatest!

I found all well at home when I returned.

Drake did great and I am so grateful to have such amazing in-laws to watch him. Thank you so much!

And, that's the END of my "Lindsay trip"!

Now....go take one yourselves ladies!