Lake Powell (July 2016)

This is a really long post! I don't have a lot of pictures but I wanted to write down all the details of our first family Powell trip.

Near the end of July, Dan one day brought up the idea that it was time to take our first solo Lake Powell trip. I was skeptical - we've always had the luxury of Mark and Lorna taking care of all the details, meal-planning, cooking, etc. I felt overwhelmed with the idea of having to be in charge of that, all while I was pregnant, sick, and tired. We'd only have the little boat which meant less space and less convenience with keeping food cold and cooking and no fans or emergency A/C if it was too hot.

But Dan was set on it so I agreed to give it a try.

We decided to make it a quick weekend trip in case it was a disaster, but it was still a lot of work to get everything ready. It was like planning a camping trip and a boating trip in one - because that's essentially what it was, plus the added inconvenience of not knowing what foods I was going to be able to handle with my queasy stomach! But off we went on the last Friday of July.

We left in the early afternoon knowing it would be slow-going while towing the boat. (This meant that Olive wouldn't be getting a nap since she never ever sleeps in the car.) We got to Bullfrog and I suddenly realized that either I'd have to drive the boat while Dan parked the car and trailer or vice versa. Usually we're just at Utah Lake and it's easy for Dan to handle both, but here that wasn't an option. So Dan loaded up all the gear and the girls and took the boat while I drove around trying to find a parking spot. The parking lots were all mostly full so I didn't have the option of finding a big open spot to accommodate my horrible trailer driving skills - I was stressed out and sweating by the end, but I found a spot and only ran over a curb once so I consider it a success.

We set off down the lake realizing it was evening and we needed to find a camping spot before it got too dark to anchor the boat and set up the tent. We drove and drove and all the good spots were taken! We pulled into a little cove and actually found this great area:

Until Dan walked over the hill and saw a huge group of boy scouts right on the other side. We knew that would not be fun to listen to all night and day so we kept on driving down the lake.

I was so stressed out by this point because the sun was going down, we didn't have a place to sleep, and Olive was an overtired crazy mess. (But still loving it, as you can tell by her smile!)

Finally we found a little empty inlet and hurriedly pulled in and got all set up. The girls would be sleeping in the two-man tent on the beach (I'm glad they'd had all that practice being by themselves in our backyard), Dan and I would be on the two benches in the boat, and Olive had Beck's baby tent on the floor of the boat right next to me.

The girls were all too excited to sleep, plus it was pretty hot, so we took a little night swim to cool off (and re-teach the girls how to pee in the water) and then got ready for bed. Unfortunately Olive suddenly decided she didn't like the baby tent anymore and put up a huge fight about going to sleep. I was on the verge of tears by this point, but eventually we got everyone settled and down to sleep. Olive would only sleep in the baby tent if I left it unzipped, which meant I was worried all night that she was going to get up in the middle of the night and fall off the boat. There was no way that could really happen - I had the opening facing me and she would have had to walk right over me to get out. But I essentially did not sleep that night.

Despite all that, it was fabulous to wake up (extra early thanks to the girls) in such a beautiful spot! We wanted to get a better view of where we were on the lake so we hiked up the hill by our campsite and watched the sun rise.

The girls ran around finding shells and rocks to throw:

We ate breakfast and spent the morning swimming. The area right around the boat was a little weedy but it was easy to walk on the rocks over to the clear water:

The girls played with their sand toys on the beach and jumped in the water to swim whenever they got hot. Olive thought it was the greatest thing in the world that she could pee on the rocks whenever she wanted. Dan took a couple of dives to see what fish he could find in the water (which made Ellie a little nervous about swimming when she realized there were living things in the lake).

Dan also hiked up to get a better view for a picture of our campsite. It really turned out to be the perfect spot! We could anchor the boat, swim, explore the rocks, and have a good area for cooking and a place for the tent. (We ended up moving the tent closer to the boat the second night.)

 And from even higher:

After lunch the girls were begging to go tubing, so we left all the big stuff under our sun shade on the beach and got ready to go for a ride on the lake. When Dan tried to start the boat, it turned on for a few seconds and died. And after that, nothing. It's an old boat and we'd had plenty of little problems with it in the past but they were all easy fixes and nothing to worry about. But after probably two HOURS of Dan trying to figure out what was wrong, we realized we might be in trouble. We decided he should try to call Mark and see if he could figure out any solutions over the phone, but we got our phones out to find we didn't have reception. Dan fiddled around with the boat some more, then decided to hike as high as he could on the rocks to get a phone signal. He let his family know what was going on but came to the conclusion that it was the fuel injector (I think) and there was really nothing we could do for the boat.

While Dan was up on the rock talking, he noticed in the next inlet over a boat getting ready to go out. He hung up the phone, ran down the rock, jumped in the water, and swam way out to the boat. He completely startled the couple and their daughter when he popped out of the water right next to their boat; they could not figure out where he'd come from. But when he told them what was going on they let him climb on and motored over to us to see what they could do. It turned out the guy had lots of experience working on boats and had a few tricks to try to get it started. None of which worked. But he and his family were incredibly nice and told us they were leaving early the next morning and offered to tow us all the way back to the marina. We thanked them profusely and said goodbye until the morning.

The girls were a little antsy by this point since we'd been playing in the same spot all morning and then all afternoon while Dan was trying to fix the boat. They were disappointed we wouldn't be able to go tubing as well. So Dan blew up the tube and swam them around the water, then let them take turns with his mask and snorkel and helped them learn to breath through it and explore the water.

When we got everything out for dinner we found out we hadn't packed matches to light the camp stove. Dan came to the rescue once again and used his fishing knife, the boat battery, and jumper cables to make some sparks to start the stove. Crisis averted. We ate and then crowded around the iPad to watch Zootopia together and eat lots of gummy bears and red vines.

As it started getting dark we saw lots of storm clouds start rolling in. We moved the girls' tent closer to the boat so if they got scared at night we could hear them right away. It started lightning and getting windy, but there was no thunder or rain. I was impressed with how brave Alta and Ellie were to go to sleep by themselves in that tent! Olive fell asleep a little faster than the night before, and Dan and I just laid on the back of the boat watching the huge lightning storm all around us. I have to admit it was a little unnerving to be so isolated, in the middle of nowhere, with a boat that didn't work, and with the possibility of a huge storm coming in. We fell asleep only to be woken up a few hours later by rain. Dan put up the little sun shade, which did very little to cover us, but I was so tired from the night before that I just put a blanket over my head and slept in the rain all night.

We woke up early, ate, and packed everything up. Dan once again hiked/swam over to our boat neighbors to see how he could help. They needed to clean their bigger boat and get everything loaded and they knew towing us back was going to take a good couple of hours, so they decided it would be easiest of they all stayed there getting their big boat ready while Dan took their ski boat and started towing us back. We got our boat all hooked up and Dan, the girls and I all rode off in a complete stranger's boat by ourselves. They eventually caught up to us in their big boat and we all made it to the marina. We went our separate ways, but I will always remember that family and how they rescued us!

While Dan went to go get the car, I was left at a very crowded dock with a boat and not enough ropes. I had to stand there and hold it so it didn't smash anyone else's boat or the dock, while holding Olive who was whining and crying, and making sure Alta and Ellie didn't get too crazy and fall into the water. I had so many people come up to me and tell me I reminded them of themselves with their small kids 10 years earlier!

And when Dan came with the car, he somehow had to maneuver the non-working boat onto the trailer. Another family immediately came over to help. We finally made it out of the lake, into the car, and on to home!

The reason I wanted to write down so many details of this trip is because I never want to forget our first crazy adventure to Lake Powell. Despite all the major and minor mishaps, I wouldn't hesitate to go again. It was such a fun time bonding as a family and being together, literally stuck in one place with no where else to go. And throughout the whole thing we had so many prayers answered and I was incredibly impressed by the kindness of so many strangers around us.

And the final miracle of the trip was seeing Olive sound asleep in her car seat on the way home: