How do I begin? Our Lake Powell Trip was so memorable and wonderful. To be perfectly honest the weeks leading up this vacation were not ideal. There is SO much preparation to be on a house boat for a week (all your food, bedding, clothes, bathroom stuff, etc...). Plus I wasn't feeling well and wondered how the bod would do in the heat on a house boat in a bathing suit no less. But, every minute of work was worth the fun the kids had and the memories we all made. There were about 25 of us on the boat - all family. The girls LOVED being around their cousins and getting to know them better. We had fun riding on the speed boats, tubing, skiing, cliff jumping, swimming, kayaking, watching movies, doing crafts, and eating!
Each family was assigned a different day to have a fun theme and make a nice dinner. We had a great 80's day complete with blue eyeshadow, hot pink lipstick and an 80's dance on the top of the house boat at night. We did a Pirate Day complete with a treasure hunt for the kids and matching pirate gear for all! The 4th of July was great with our freshly tie-dyed t-shirts and plenty of fireworks at our camp site.
The cousins watched lots of movies together, including our movie theater at night atop the boat with a large projector. The kids all stayed up super late every night and loved it! I don't think they ever realized how tired they were until the car ride home. The kids also enjoyed plenty of crafts and games like weaving bracelets, making sand art bottles, playing bingo, and participating in an auction for fun toys and prizes.
The adults got to catch up and talk, but mainly spent our time making sure kids were safe and organizing all the fun activities and meals.
Madison spent a lot of time with her cousin Madelaine, who lives in Idaho. She went on the tubes behind the boats lots of times, kayaked and did some cliff jumping. Bella played chocolate factory in the mud with her cousin Zack, went on the tubes and did some kayaking with her dad. Hadley enjoyed every minute she could find swimming and playing in the water with her cousin Kendall. She even got on the tubes behind the boat with her dad (when I bribed her with a treat). Nolan was so wonderful taking the girls to do all the things they wanted to do. He got to ski a little bit but mentioned his body took a beating with all the crashes on the tubes. I mostly stayed relaxed on the boat and got to read a little bit. I enjoyed going on the speed boats and watching the kids have a great time in all their activities. I actually think I felt better at Lake Powell than I had at home - I'm sure because I was so relaxed and didn't have a messy house and errands staring me down everyday.
All in all, a wonderful time and adventure! All that work is worth it - can't wait until next time...(probably in 2 or so years:)