Boating and Backyard Campout

Our plans for the weekend changed seven times in the last week.  We were going to take the kids camping.  Then we decided to try a boating trip with my K-1 friends.  Then it was back to camping.  Then boating.  Then at the last minute our plans changed again when a nasty flu bug hit at Keri’s house.  The kids had been super flexible with our on-again/off-again plans, so we decided to reward them with a fun family day on Friday.  Nate took the day off and we headed out to Willard Bay for a day of boating.  Each of the kids had lots of turns to ride behind the boat.  Ben had a really great day.  He’s getting better and better on the kneeboard.  He was crossing back and forth over the wake like it was old hat and was almost able to ride out some monster bumps (instead he had a really cool wipeout).  The biggest news of the day was that he learned how to ski with the regular tow rope.  He wasn’t a big fan of that idea, but his feet are too big for the trainer skis so he didn’t really have a choice.  It took him four tries to get up and stay up.  He wanted to quit about eight seconds into the first try.  I was proud (and a little surprised) that he stuck with it.  The girls made good progress too.  Emily was able to get up on skis with the regular tow rope on her second try.  She was only up for about five seconds and she didn’t want to try again, but she got up.  Elise had her longest run ever on the skis, and Abby started learning how to turn on the kneeboard (not an easy task when you only weigh 35 pounds).  We spent some time at the beach and took turns practicing our rowing skills to paddle our way out to the buoy on the tube.  It was a fun day!  The only downside of the day was that Abby got a really bad sunburn on her bum.  But it was cute to hear her say, “My butt cheeks are sunburned.”

  

We headed home and set up the trailer in the backyard for a little campout.  We borrowed JD and Callie’s firepit again (and kind of broke it . . . but that’s another story).  We had dinner and played games and roasted red, white, and blue marshmallow stars.  It was fun and it gave us a chance to give the trailer a much needed cleaning and take inventory before we go on a real camping trip.  We decided that we should make it a yearly tradition.  Hopefully most years it will be in May instead of the last week of June.

Boating

Today was our first boating day of the summer.  The weather was beautiful and the water was nice and smooth.  The kids all tried out their new wetsuits.  They were a pain in the butt to get on, but they made the 68 degree water feel nice and comfy.  We had to get back for scouts and Activity Days, so we only had a few hours on the lake.  We were having so much fun that it was hard to leave.  The two big milestones of the day were Abby kneeboarding by herself and Elise skiing.  Abby’s part was pretty easy.  She is light enough that she can kneel on the board without it tipping over even when we aren’t moving.  Nate basically just strapped her in, hooked the rope onto the board, and pulled her in a straight line behind the boat.  It took absolutely no skill on her part, but at least she was brave enough to get out there by herself.  She was very proud of herself when her turn was over.  Elise skied for the first time last year, but she was only up for about 4 seconds before she wiped out.  She was really excited to try it out again.  She popped right up on the skis.  The look on her face was priceless.  She was completely shocked that she was doing it.  She was doing great until Nate turned the boat and the water was a bit bumpy.  She kept her balance over the first couple of bumps and then fell.  She was pretty mad at Nate . . . “Dad, I told you not to go over any bumps!”  Really it was my fault.  I told him to turn around so her face would be more in the sun so the pictures would look better.  Hopefully she will get over it and want to try again next time we go out.

Indian Trail Hike

We took the kids for a little hike on Saturday.  We passed 19 yard sales on the 8 mile drive to the trailhead.  The kids thought it was hilarious.  They declared June 9^th “National Yard Sale Day.”  It was overcast and 72 degrees . . . perfect weather for a morning hike.  We went far enough to get a good view of the waterfall and then went a little further so we could see up the canyon.  I have a cold and had to blow my nose 17 times and Abby fell (twice) and skinned her knee.  Other than that, we had a great time.

When we got home, we spent a couple of hours doing yard work.  We pulled up ¾ of our raspberries.  They were the varieties we didn’t love and they were being choked out a bit by some plants growing in from the neighbor’s side of the fence.  We decided we would just start fresh with some new plants.  The kids were good helpers.  They aren’t really strong enough to do much of the heavy labor, but they are great at doing grunt work. 

All in all it was a quality family day.  I’m glad we fought the urge to be lazy all day.

Red Rock Road Trip - Glen Canyon Dam

Sunday, June 3, 2012

We started our final day by taking pictures at an overlook by the Glen Canyon Dam.  Nate and I took a trip to Arizona before we got married and took a picture in the same spot.  Things have sure changed for us in the last 14 years.

We took a quality tour of the dam.  There was only one other couple in our group.  It was nice to have our own (almost) private tour.  We had the shortest tour guide of all time.  The kids thought it was amazing that he was a grown up but was only as tall as Ben.  They were also impressed with the awesome wolf howl he did in the tunnel leading back to the visitor center.  We learned lots about how they constructed the dam and about hydroelectric power.  Pretty fascinating stuff.  Plus, we got to see the grass that grows at the base of the dam and cool little bats that live in the gaps between the cement railing at the top of the dam.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the whole trip was running out of gas on the way home.  The computer in our van said that we had 89 miles to go until we were empty when we were in Page.  Our GPS said it was only 63 miles to Kanab, so we figured we would be fine to wait until we got to Kanab to fill up.  Really it was 74 miles to Kanab . . . plus we made a couple of little detours that added about 10 more miles.  We should have figured in a bigger margin of error.  The distance to empty number started dropping faster than normal when we were about halfway to Kanab.  We turned off the AC and started praying.  Fortunately, we went an extra 22 miles after it said we were down to zero.  Being 1½ miles out of town was infinitely better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere.  We stopped right in front of a road maintenance building for the Department of Transportation.  It was Sunday, so no one was working.  Nate was contemplating jumping the fence to make sure no one was in the building (never mind the no trespassing sign), when an employee pulled up with his wife and son.  He lived about 20 minutes away and was just stopping by to pick up some papers that he needed for work the next day.  We had only been there for about three minutes.  It was positively providential.  He grabbed a gas can from the building, drove Nate to town, and was back in about 10 minutes.  The whole ordeal took less than 20 minutes before we were on the road again.  That is lots better than it could have been!  Next time we'll err on the side of caution.  The kids thought it was awesome.  I'm sure they wouldn't have if it had taken 2 hours, but the way it turned out, it was one of the highlights of the trip for them.  While Nate was off getting the gas, we had a nice discussion about how sometimes God answers our prayers in unexpected ways.  It was a good lesson for all of us.

Ironically, the only other time Nate on I have ever run out of gas was on another trip to Arizona (the one we took in 1998).  That was more on purpose.  Nate already had gas in the tank in his car and he wanted to play Cosmo Kramer and see how far below the line the needle would get before it ran out.  We found out. :)

Other than the gas incident, our drive home was pretty uneventful.  We figured we had seen enough of I-15, so we took Highway 89 instead.  It was fun to see all of the small towns along the way.

Red Rock Road Trip - Grand Canyon, Lake Powell

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Our first stop on Saturday was the South Rim Visitor Center to watch a movie about the canyon.  Then we headed up to the Yavapai Observation Station to get another view of the canyon.  Abby didn’t lose her enthusiasm about riding the shuttle.  She would hold up her fingers each time to let us know how many shuttle trips we had made.

By about 11:30 we felt like we had seen all that the Grand Canyon had to offer, so we headed out.  We stopped at Navajo Bridge.  It was 108 degrees outside and we didn't really want to get out of the car, but we did.  It was cool to walk out on the bridge and look down over the river gorge. 

We checked in at our hotel in Page, changed, and headed out to the beach.  We never go boating on Saturdays because the beach is always super crowded.  Somehow when I was making up our vacation schedule, it didn't occur to me that Lake Powell beaches would be super crowded on Saturdays too.  Oops.  After a little delay at the entry booth, we managed to find our own little spot of sand on the beach and had fun playing with the kids on the beach for a few hours.  They built sand castles, swam out to the buoys with Nate, and played with the frisbee and water football.  There was a Navajo family next to us on the beach and Ben said “I think that’s the family that sold us the frybread!”  Nope Ben, that was 80 miles away.

When we got back to the hotel, the kids wanted to check out the pool.  It was tiny and the water was freezing cold, but they didn't want to pass up the opportunity to swim in a hotel pool.  Nate was a good dad and took them swimming.  I just wanted to hang out in the room and watch some cable TV.  Unfortunately, we stayed on a night when their cable was out and wifi was down so I couldn't even stream something on the laptop.  It was not my favorite, but Nate did get them to knock $25 off our bill because of it.