The Lake Powell Experience

Toward the end of July we packed up the girls and joined Cody's family in Lake Powell for a little R & R. They have a time share in a beautiful houseboat and it was time again for the annual family trip. We came down Wednesday morning, after my shift at work, with his sister Mallory, Aunt Kimber and her 3 kids.

And boy, once we got there, did Cody make our presence known with just the right amount of nudity. Woot! Woot!
The houseboat was parked in this beautiful little cove with lots of rocks to climb on and sea shells to find. Adam and Camarie were wonderful at helping with Mya, taking her on walks, discovering the water, fishing, and just keeping her entertained.
Camarie, Mya, Tate, Kim and Charlie having some fun in the sun.

Sadie spent most of the vacation on Nanna and Papa's bed under the fan. She was her usual happy self and was so easy to please. I love my little girl!

(Janie, Charlie, Tate, Mya and Maggie)

All the cute cousins had a great time watching movies in the afternoon on the little DVD player. Nemo was the Movie of choice this trip. It was so fun for Mya to have other kiddo's to follow around and socialize with, she thought Janie was pretty fantastic and of course little Jane just 'mothered' her the whole time. So cute!

I don't know why her 'muscles' face never gets old to me.
That night we slept out on top of the houseboat and it was heavenly. Even though the rain made us move under the covered porch in the middle of the night, the drop in temperature was so worth it. I love to lay out there at night and look at the stars; there are so many! Being able to see the milky way, finding constellations and just staring at the endless stars that dot the sky is one of my favorite things about these trips.

The next day we all piled into the speed boat and went for a tour.

There is a delightfully hypnotic effect that the bouncing of a speedboat has on little children and any time we climbed in to travel this is what quickly followed.

Blissful sleep!

Well, except for Maggie. She was more thrilled with the wind in her face.

And what a stinkin' cute face it is!

Cami and Adam catching some rays.

Sweet little Sadie was just happy to be along for the ride.

She hung out with Papa on the boat while the rest of us went in for a dip.

Mya and Sadie both having a little beverage break.

Mallory and Mags

Cody, taking his turn cliff jumping.

Janie made her maiden Lake Powell cliff jump as well.

Way to go Janie!!

Miss Mya having a little refreshment on the back of the boat. She wasn't so sure about the water, she liked to sit on the end of the houseboat and kick her feet in the water or wade along the shore but if you asked her if she wanted to get in with you and go swimming you got a very vehement 'NO!'

Charlie decided he wanted his own private movie viewing area. Doesn't his tiny little shelf look like a comfy viewing area? There was a full size mattress right below him that no one was using but really... how boring is that?

The day before we arrived sweet Mr. Tate began throwing up. We all thought he had a little sun stroke since it had been super hot the first couple days they had been there. But the poor little man just kept throwing up, over and over. He would keep something down and start to act more like himself and then the cycle would start all over again. He was so sweet and so pitiful. Just a little limp noodle of a boy but such a trooper. He was even sweet enough to let us give him piggy-tales one afternoon. But he was put out that we wouldn't share all the yummy food we were eating with him, despite his sweet 'pweeese! pweeese!'

His sweet momma was such a trooper as well, having a sick little one is hard but having a sick little one away from home is so much harder.

Our last evening was beautiful , cool and we spent it skipping rocks

Playing with Aunt Kenzie

And collecting Sea shells

Little did we know this was the calm before our storm...
We had just settled in and it felt like I had just fallen asleep when I sat bolt upright in bed... awakened by that jolting alarm clock that is the sound of vomit! Mya decided to join Tate-O in the sick ward. The poor little lady threw up violently about every 15 minutes all night long. I lost count at about 10 or 12 times.

I am so thankful to everyone who sprang right to action with me, Camarie and Aunt Kimber had her bed stripped down and cleaned off and made us a bed down on the back porch for easier clean up. You know your family truly loves you when they are willing to tolerate your kids vomit and help you clean it up. You guys are all the best!

She finally fell asleep right before dawn and when she woke up she looked down at herself and asked in the most pitiful voice, "Where jammies go?" Then she started to cry because she wanted a shower and some new jammies. Sweet little sicky, I felt so bad for her. Since people were dropping like flies around us; nanna and Kenzie were sick too. (Aunt Kimber decided that this year's theme song should be 'Another One Bites the Dust') Cody and I were really worried about Sadie getting the bug we lovingly dubbed 'the jaundice'. So we wimped out and headed for home a day early.

Despite this little adventure at the end we had a FANTASTIC time! We enjoyed beautiful weather, gorgeous scenery, great conversations and the best of company! Thanks again everyone for a great time! We love you!