A few weeks back we were invited by our friends the Gormans (gormanadventurers.blogspot.com) to join them on their houseboat at Lake Powell for a few days. This of course sounded like a ton of fun and we said yes! I love going places, but I really wish that traveling to and from the destination was avoidable. We left at 4:30 am on Friday morning and drove to Cortez, CO where we then missed our turn to Monticello, Utah and went the opposite way towards Arizona. We realized our mistake about 20 miles down the road and turned around, thus we were 40 miles in wrong direction travel. We finally got headed the right way and started winding our way through Monticello and Blanding, UT and then to scenic route 95. Once we hit 95 I told Jason that we had to turn off 95 onto another road to head towards Halls Crossing Marina, there would be a sign where the turn was. Well, as soon as the words were out of my mouth I dozed off. Getting up at 3:30 am makes a body tired. I dozed on and off for about 40 minutes and during one of my snooze spells Jason went right by the sign and turn that was clearly marked Halls Crossing Marina and Ferry. About 20 miles past this sign Jason woke me up to ask where we were supposed to turn. Yeah. After I yelled at him for going right past the turn, we got the car back in the right direction and finally after another 20 miles in backwards travel we made it to the final road to lead us to the marina where we were to meet the Gormans and the Ellis's, the other family on the trip with us. So a 5 hour trip turn into an almost 6 & 1/2 hour trip, what with 2 potty stops and gas stop, never do we need gas and a potty at the same time....
The return trip had no wrong turns as I drove most of the way and already knew where we were going. But of course we can never have a smooth trip of any kind. So the trip home was filled with kids puking and diarrhea. Katie either got a stomach bug or was seasick, but she threw up twice on the boat (and ME- both times) and once in the car. Evie was the one with the diarrhea, but we stuck her in a Pull-Up and thus avoided most of the problems that come with 4 year olds and upset tummys. I cannot wait till my kids travel a bit more smoothly!
So what did we do at Lake Powell you ask? We hung out on the boat. We went on the jet ski. We kayaked. We ate and ate and ate of really good food. We slept, or tried to. We played in the sand under the hot sun and we played in the freezing water. We went on a hike. I learned how to play Canasta, now I am addicted. We enjoyed out time away from civilization and computers, phones and TV's. Here are some pictures of our trip! (I will try later for video, it isn't working right now.)
Katie and Evie all ready for the sun!
The beautiful scenery!
Time in the sand!
Evie & Caden
Mmmm, yummy sand!
2 of the 3 mom's getting ready to float on the lake for Mother's Day!
(Sherry Gorman & Barbara Ellis)
On our hike on Mother's Day.
Noah & Katie
Our home away from home!
Liam taking a nap on the way out to the camping spot. We hadn't set up the pack 'n play yet, so he snoozed amongst all our stuff!
Sleeping quarters. We had all 14 people- 6 adults and 8 kids sleeping up here!
Isn't he cute when he first gets up?! Look at that hair!
Last day there, all ready to go home. Evie did NOT want to leave.
