lake powell

we took our vacation this year to lake powell, and stayed on the shore with the houseboat just across the way. it is the best of both worlds. you can camp on the shore, and see stars like you will never encounter in the city. but you also have the comforts of having a stove and microwave, electricity, and a toilet (though you are supposed to pee in the lake, so the hold only has to be emptied once!!). we got to play in the sand, wade and swim in the water, and just relax. the more adventurous of us went water skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing. even colby went cliff jumping, which is amazing!! he didn't want to at first, but daddy called him a pansy enough that he just walked off the edge. and loved it!! go figure..
nathan got to drive the speedboat several times. it was second nature to him, and he thoroughly enjoyed sitting high in the seat with the wind blowing past him. i think he looks pretty happy in this picture!!




rebekah absolutely loved anything that was scary or dangerous. what a nut. she is not a daughter after me, but just like nathan!!
and here is travis, he is the coach at kris's kids school, meridian. we needed another man to help anchor the houseboat, and do all the other manly jobs. he graciously agreed to come on vacation with us. who could pass up a week on a houseboat??
there were many interesting experiences, but the one that keeps coming to mind is in the middle of week, when we needed to move the houseboat. nathan, josh, collin, rachel and i took the speedboat out to scout a good spot to bring the houseboat to. we went up and down the coves, dissappointed in what we were finding. we went down one, around twists and turns not seeing another soul the whole time. before we left, dave told nathan there was half a tank of gas, so we didn't really pay attention to the gage. we reached the end of the cove, and turned around to come back out. the boat sputtered, and stopped. we were out of gas completely!! we hadn't passed another person, and were way out of cell phone reception zones, and had no radio on the boat. we were completely at the mercy of the water, and had no way to help ourselves. josh and nathan got out the trusty oars, thinking we could paddle back by morning. the current and the wind made that impossible as well. we just went in a circle. i guess i didn't really understand the dire situation, or i knew something would happen to help us. either way, the others were getting a little nervous, when around the corner came a boat!! and not only another person, but a person with 3 containers filled with gas strapped to the front of the boat!! it was the answer to our unspoken prayers. the man wouldn't accept payment, and just told us to help another if the chance arose. we were so grateful!! now we didn't have to suffer through the night with rachel screaming, and being hungry and thirsty. we zoomed out of there as quickly as the boat would go. we have never been so grateful to see our families and houseboat in our lives!! nor do i think we ever will again.
other than this little experience, we had a wonderful vacation!! we celebrated caleb's 4th birthday, and rachel built sandcastles. it was great.

crazy painful days

ok, so i don't have pictures, i was too frazzled to get any!! we have had a very fun and enjoyable couple weeks. nathan's brothers and sisters and their families were here, minus 2 hubbys and a son. it was a little crazy at night trying to put 17 kids to sleep in the living room, but i think they all had a blast and made some good memories. everyone had gone home by sunday, except for aaron and his family. we decided we would each get a night out without the kiddos by trading. we stayed home with them on monday night, and they stayed home with ours on tuesday night. everything was going well, with no major injuries so far. until around 530 tues night. that is when we got a phone call from aj asking if we were on our way home yet. we were, so she told us we would need to take rachel in to get stitches. the story was unclear then, but since, we have figured it out. rebekah carries rachel around like a little dolly, and this time, she put her down on the air mattress in the living room. rachel walked across it, and lost her footing, flying headfirst into the corner of the fireplace. so she had a 2 inch long gash that bled a lot, as all head wounds do. it didn't stop her or even slow her down though. after giving her some tylenol, we took her to the er. she ran up and down the hallways, into other rooms, and basically made a nuisance of herself very well. finally, the doctors came in and gave her an iv line to administer concious sedation to do the procedure. if you can imagine our little tiny girl fighting with all she was worth, and 4 of us trying to hold her down enough to get the iv needle in without blowing a vein. it was a little crazy. finally, the doctor came in and did the actual procedure while she was staring at the wall off in lala land. she ended up with 2 sets of stitches, one at the base of the gash, which was a half inch wide, and the other at the top to close it. then steri strips over that, and gauze and a bandaid over that. all because she fell while playing with rebekah!
then, she had been whiney and irritable, but who could blame her after that. the next day, she woke up with a goopy eye and runny nose. i didn't know if it was because of the injury, or something else entirely. i took her to see her doctor yesterday, and he found that she had ear and sinus infections, on top of an eye infection!! no wonder she hasn't been her normal happy self!! so now she is on antibiotics, pain meds, eye drops and cold meds. poor girl. here's to a normal, non-injury, 4th of july weekend!!