One of Dustan's best friends, who he grew up with, married an awesome girl a couple years ago. Her family owns a house boat on Lake Powell, and they invited us to spend a week with them on the Lake last August! It was such a blast to spend a few days on the water and relax and play with Blake and Melissa. Apparently, each kid in her family is able to invite one or two friends each year, and we were the lucky recipients!
Funnily enough, I moved straight from one vacation to the next. I got back on a Tuesday from my big west coast road trip from my family, and we left early on Wednesday and drove up to Lake Powell, to the marina in Page, Arizona. What a busy month!
The drive took about six hours and Eloise did so well. We got there around noon, and the Holtons (Melissa's family) and our friends came to pick us up in their boat at the marina. Oh man, I always forget how much I LOVE being on boats until I'm on them again. We drove for about 15 minutes (if I remember correctly) to one of the little fingers of the humongous Lake Powell where the family had their house boat docked. Though boats went in and out occasionally, no one else was camped out there and it almost felt like a private cove. It was beautiful.
Neither Dustan nor I had ever been on a house boat before, so we had no idea what to expect. It was really neat though. There was the main indoor area, which was mostly all one floor and had four "bedrooms", two bathrooms, a kitchen area, a dining table, and a living area. Everything was small (the bedrooms were basically a curtain in front of a bed), but I seriously couldn't believe I was on a boat! It was like a little hotel on the water. On each short end was a sort of covered boat porch with stairs leading up to the top deck. There were some tables and chairs up there, as well as the top of a slide into the water. Half the deck was covered and the other half was not. Everyone actually slept on the top deck underneath the stars overnight. We kept Lou below in our empty room and opened the window so we could hear when she woke up in the morning. It was hot trying to fall asleep, but it felt great once it started to cool down around 2 to 4 am.
The Holtons had these amazing and delicious breakfasts and dinners planned for each day and a list of fun activities to do and all the games and equipment we could want. We kayaked, paddle boarded, swam, jet skiied, and went boating during the day. In the evenings, we watched movies and played so many fun games and stayed up chatting.
Our first half day there, we just hung around the cove. Immediately after arriving, we had our swimsuits on and jumped in the water. It was sooo refreshing, a little chilly, and just perfect. We did some jet skiing, paddle boarding and kayaking. Of course, Dustan and Blake had to swim over and hike up to one of the tallest cliffs there and jumped off. Eloise loved playing in the sand and throwing rocks in the water. And like I said, the Holtons had amazing dinners and breakfasts planned. I can't remember exactly what we ate and when, but we had dinners of grilled Hawaiian chicken, grilled burgers, and tacos with great sides and desserts. For breakfasts we had homemade scones with homemade caramel sauce and breakfast tacos with the works.
The next day, our first full day, we spent a lot of the morning and early afternoon out on the boat. Even though I didn't participate (pregnant), everyone else got out and wake surfed. I'm sure I would have just embarrassed myself anyway, since I was the only one who had never done it before haha. It sure was fun to watch though! We had the music pumped loud and ate snacks. Eloise loved being on the boat and was all smiles (contrary to how she looks in these pictures, haha).
And most shockingly of all, she fell asleep with Dustan holding her. That never happens! And she was wearing her life jacket. Even crazier! And she slept the whole ride back to the house boat, and stayed asleep while Dustan laid her on the couch and she slept there for a while! It blew our minds and of course we had to take a picture. She had never done anything like that before, and probably never will again.
This day was also a little bit crazy because there were some major problems with the generator and the AC, so there were some workers coming and going to try and get it fixed. And to help keep the generator running, the Holtons actually ran the AC the majority of the day (which they didn't normally do much at all). This led for some nice afternoon gaming inside the boat while Lou napped. That evening, we took some fun group and individual pics before we lost all the light. People did some short cliff jumping and went off the slide a bunch too.
The next day was more of the same, and we loved it all. Dustan and I did a lot of jet skiing, which is one of my favorite things to do on the water ever. Usually we ride alone, because it's east to go over little wave jumps and go fast when you don't have someone on the back--and we both prefer driving, haha. But we did go together to explore this little slot canyon. The walls got so skinny on all sides of us and the jet ski barely fit. But after a couple tight turns, it opened up enough to get slowly turned around. That place was cool! Unfortunately, as we tried to turn around, we got going too slow and a wave hit us just right on the side and seriously rocked the jet ski. To avoid tipping the whole thing over (that would have been bad!), we both immediately bailed and jumped into the water haha. It was a bit of a challenge to climb back on (especially for me and my 6 month belly), but we made it, got totally turned around, and got back out of the skinny canyon with no other problems haha. And side note, Lou also loved the jet ski! She's gonna be a water lover like her mama, I just know it :)
We did do a little more boating this day too, right before dinner. And I was soooo sad when Lou's cute hat flew off and was never seen again...
That night (our last night on the house boat), we stayed up late playing Hearts until the stars came out. Then we hiked up onto the ridge behind our boat to try and get some astro-pics of the boat and surrounding rocks. We think they turned out pretty good!
Then Saturday came and it was time to go! We spent a couple hours that morning cleaning up the house boat for the next tenants and packing up our loads of stuff. It was so sad to say goodbye again to Blake and Melissa who lived in Utah, but it was such a fun week!! We are so grateful they invited us and tolerated us, even though we had a crazy toddler to work around a bit.
On the way back home, we made a quick stop to see the famous Horseshoe Bend. And there is definitely a reason it is famous, the view was incredible! We were dumb though, and because the hike up to the viewpoint was so short, we decided to not bring any water... Bad choice. It was very hot and dry and we were all pink faced very quickly. Eloise was especially struggling, so Dustan took her back down to the cool car while I followed more slowly at a pace acceptable to my tired and sore pregnant body, haha.
The drive home was chill, though we got home a bit late. What a wonderful week!!
