Lake Powell- Day 7

We got up this morning and after breakfast packed up and cleaned up the houseboat.  Then we went for one last run on the lake with Jim on his boat.  Robin finally got the chance to slalom ski but couldn't get up.  It was fun to be out one last time.  I had showered the night before, so I didn't want to get in the water.  We unhooked the houseboat and were off. 

One last crazy thing happened.  Robin had asked Bill to get her keys so she could go get her car and trailer for her jet ski once she got to the marina so that she wouldn't have to wait for us on the houseboat.  Well, he couldn't find the keys and instead of asking for help, he just didn't do it.  So later, as we're travelling back to the marina on the houseboat, Captin and Saige Bingham come BACK to us to get the keys!  UGH!  We couldn't throw them to them because of the danger of them not catching the keys and ending up at the bottom of the lake.  So Ryan tells Saige to get off and swim over to get them... the houseboat was still MOVING, so she almost got run over by the houseboat and Ryan is screaming to her to swim away from the boat.  It was awful!!  We are finally able to get them the keys after Ryan turned the houseboat off and Captin put them in the glove box of the jet ski.  But this is just ANOTHER illustration of Bill being stupid!  Robin told me exactly where the keys were and I went right to them!  Bill couldn't find them so he just gave up.  These things are SO FRUSTRATING to me.  I can't even verbalize the angst I feel when he does stuff like this and it happens ALL the time, and too many other times...  I wish he would just LISTEN to the instructions and follow through.  I had to deal with the problem (that only became a problem because he didn't do something) and felt stupid and embarrassed in front of the Binghams, for something that wasn't even my fault!  Bill can't understand my feelings about these things and just blows it off like it's no big deal.  None of the other husbands were pulling this stuff the whole time during this trip.  I watched!  They all communicated things with their wives either in person or on the cell phone and they did what their wives asked them to.  I'm really struggling with this right now! 

We got back to the dock and it was really windy.  Ryan hit the back end of the boat pretty hard on the dock, but we made it and were able to park ok.  Right after we got parked and tied down, a HUGE storm like nothing I've EVER seen came up and our houseboat was hitting the houseboat next to us pretty hard!  Their were white caps in the water and it was super choppy.  I couldn't hardly even walk on the dock without almost being blown in the water!  I said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for helping us to dock before it all started and for protecting Robin's keys from going into the water earlier.  I was glad to be on terra firme!   It took the next couple of hours to pull all our gear off the houseboat and get it loaded onto our cars.  We had to use the quads with the containers to carry everything up the steep hill.  The cars were all at a parking lot at the very top.  By then, the storm was gone and it was just a hot, searing day and the sun was bearing down on us as we packed.  We said our goodbye's and were headed home.  Robin and I traveled together pulling the jet ski and Bill and Katelyn were in the Suburban pulling the boat.  We stopped in Flagstaff for gas and got dinner at Wendy's.  We had to go through the drive thru as dine in isn't opened yet.  We got home LATE!  It was almost 9:30pm by the time we got home.  Then we had the long process of unloading and putting everything away and unpacking.  I started a load of towels and got the laundry all sorted.  I put away all the leftover food and got unpacked.  I went to bed without even showering.  I was exhausted!!!!  Robin was a big help in getting everything put away.  Katelyn helped too!  My bed never felt so good except for the fact that I couldn't stop rocking!!! 

Lake Powell- Day 6

We got out on Nate's boat early this morning!  All the kids and teenagers took a turn wake surfing.  I went after they were all finished because the sun finally came out and it was warmer!  I love wake surfing!  Today I FINALLY got up without the rope!  I've let go before, but this was the longest I've been able to go without it!  It is so much fun!!! 

Later this afternoon everybody piled onto the boats and the teenagers tripled up on the jet skis and we went out to Labyrinth Canyon to go cliff jumping.  It is a GORGEOUS canyon!  We went back in as far as we could.  We found some cliffs that weren't too high.  Some jumped but most just got out to enjoy the cool water-- it had been a really hot afternoon!  Jamie got out her Princess Swan floatie and we enjoyed the cool water!  I think watching a guy jump off of a 100 foot cliff kind of dampened everyone's spirits about cliff jumping.  He was hurt pretty badly... Nate (a Dr.) went and checked him out.  He was going to be fine, but he told them they should take him in to get checked out.  Nate said it looked like they were drinking.  It took him a while to surface after he jumped and a friend that was close by had to go down in the water and get him... very scary!!!  It was a horrible thing to watch.  We all thought we were going to witness this guys death! 

We went back as far as the boats could go, but the teenagers on the jet skis wanted to go further in.  We let them, but they got the stupid idea (Jed's idea) to get off and hike up the canyon on foot.  This made the rest of us have to wait for them and wonder what happened to them... AND it was starting to get dark and a storm was coming in.  It started to rain and the wind was blowing sand everywhere!  We were so mad at them for getting off when we had just given them permission to go back in but stay IN the water with the jet skis.  I couldn't believe Jed was the ring leader of that stupid expedition!  All of them got chewed out by their parents... Katelyn was one of them.  I just kept quiet because I knew Bill would really give it to her.  We didn't get back to the houseboat until around 8:30 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet.  Needless to say the Moore's had to cook dinner fast and we ate really late.  It was such a yummy Italian dinner of  Nicole's family recipe for spaghetti (with 3 kinds of meat--chicken, beef and sausage) with a Caesar salad, garlic toast and cookies for dessert. 

The last picture is pointing to Labyrinth Canyon where we were just south of where we are camped at Gunsight Butte. 

We stayed up REALLY late AGAIN tonight because it was "our last night!"  We started a game of Code Names but then decided to teach everyone Double Hearts.  It was fun, but we were all falling asleep so we couldn't finish the game!  We decided to call it a night and go to bed!  Even the teenagers were calm and some already in bed!  It's been a fun trip but one with a lot of ups and downs.  Hopefully if we ever come back, we will be smarter and not make the mistakes we made this time around.  It was definitely a learning trip!  Next time we will have our boat and I will be able to go see Hole in the Rock and Rainbow Bridge!  It would be fun to take a day and go and see both sites.  I REALLY wanted to see them... but it just wasn't in the cards this time.  Still had a fun time, but I'm ready to go home! 

Lake Powell- Day 5

Another great day on Lake Powell!  The teenagers all fished this morning and Katelyn caught a cute little sunfish!  It's colors are so vibrant!  I love the orange belly and the turquoise by it's gills!  Jenell and I went out paddle boarding together.  That was a lot of fun...we went out pretty far!  We realized everyone was out on the boats having fun without us though!  Ruby got to wake surf with Nate!  He's such a good teacher and so good with the kids!  He taught and helped a lot of people learn how to wake sure and wake board this week!  Later on, after a fun day, Robin and I went out on a tube and just visited and dangled our feet in the water when we got warm!  We watched the teenagers play a game of KILL and enjoyed watching all the antics with that!  It was our turn to cook tonight and our Cafe Rio style salads were a hit!  Especially since we had the real deal from Cafe Rio for the dressing!  We decided not to cook the Ghiradelli brownies for dessert since Jenell had done brownies the night before, and just do s'mores on the beach for dessert.  It was a really warm night, so not as comfortable roasting marshmallows, but we had fun!  Ryan Bingham brought out some really cool lanterns that we lit and sent off into the night sky... that was super fun!  Jamie had glow sticks for all the kids and they played with those the entire night!  Someone found a frog and there was a plot to put it in Jamie's soda cup... but I warned her.  I knew she'd freak out and be upset.  She knew something was going on and was on high alert!  Somehow the frog got away and the crisis was averted.  I knew it would really upset Jamie, so I told her.  I think it made the person who's idea it was a little mad.  Bill was also all in with it and trying to get her cup when she wasn't looking, but it all ended well.  Bill was also mad at me for telling her.  Jamie was still upset when she found out there really was a malicious plan because all of her practical jokes don't hurt anyone and she just felt like it was super mean to do that to her and unfair because all of her jokes are harmless.  I would've been really upset too!  It was Jennifer Bingham's idea to do it, which really surprised me!  She's not as sweet as she comes across!!!  Later someone found a craw dad and dared Jed to put it on his nipple for $20!  Someone else doubled it...  He did it and got $40!!!!  I can't believe he did that!  I think Brody and Captin dared him (Jed is one of the bros now!) and Jamie offered the money.  Then the Moore's doubled the money!  I was on the beach the whole time so I didn't see it.  Jim had his guitar and was making up funny songs to entertain the kids around the campfire and I was too tired to go see what was going on!  Another late night with lots of loud music!!!