Lake Powell 2011!!!

Family Vacation... July 2011...Lake Powell!

I {HEART}Lake Powell!  No secret there.  I look forward to this vacation all year long!  It never can come soon enough and it never last long enough.  I could stay easily for 10-12 days.  7 days isn't enough!  It goes by way too fast.  Especially considering our 15 hour driving time to get there.

The drive....I looked at the map of Cali, Nevada & Utah.  Last time we followed the GPS route and went down the 5, up to Vegas and over to Lake Powell.  Well I hate that drive because you almost drive a "U."  I wanted a more direct route.  So the best route I could see goes through Yosemite Park and across Nevada through no where land, down to Mesquite and then up to St George where we were staying the night.  We hit a little slow down before Yosemite...following all the travelers there.  And then we drove through the park ($20 fee).  Eric fell asleep right away.  The first half of the park was totally burned from a fire.  Their flyer said they need to burn the trees in order for them to reproduce.  Well that didn't make for breathtaking views. So I drove and Eric slept.  There was a couple of nice views but nothing worth the drive through again.  There was a lake that was beautiful and then it was cool to see people rock climbing up the cliffs...but besides that...it was a waste.  I think it would be different if we were going to camp and hike to the waterfalls.  Then it would be worth it.  Not worth the drive through, though.

But then we hit the fun part...I called it the Rollarcoaster Road.  It was on Hwy 120 in California.  It was totally wavy, felt like you were on a ride at an amusement park and it was FREE!  It was crazy at times. I totally had to slow down.  The wheels of the car left the road a couple of times and I knew I had to slow down.  There were scary times though that made me yell in excitement...you would go up a steep hill and immediately go down but you couldn't see where you were going until you got to the top and then immediately started to go down. Eric even thought it was crazy.  I was totally yelling and freaking out..it was crazy scary fun! Then for the next 200 miles we were in "no where" land. We stopped at the one city for lunch and gas.  Good thing Cooper is the best baby in the world in the car!  The road was crazy straight...I clocked one of the straight stretches and it was 15 miles long...it was one straight away after another.  Eric had fun driving them as well...I think our car may be capable of  reaching 140mph!  Not saying we went that fast...I just think it probably could reach it!  We made it to St. George after 13.5 hours in the car.



Sample view


















Sunday we finished the drive to Powell. It was only 2.5 hrs..easy drive!

We finally made it and had a great week on the lake.  The weather was perfect...90's all except for one day in the low 80's.  (Normally it's in the 100's)  We had a great time eating, visiting, playing games, swimming, relaxing, wakeboarding, knee boarding, lots of tubing and napping.  The best vacation in the world!
  


Cooper wasn't a big fan of his life jacket but he tolerated it.

  


Sleeping baby on the boat



Monday Night Dance!  We had over 300 glowsticks and had a great time dancing. 

And to top it off... the houseboat across from us set off huge, beautiful fireworks. It was perfect!







Brooklyn learned how to make cupcakes in Utah so she made some with Grandma.



Cooper fell asleep on Daddy...his first time doing this.  Eric loved it!





Daddy doing tricks.  He almost had this one.

Brooklyn and Grandma cross-stitched this bib for Cooper.  Cute and lots of work for a baby to spit up food on!



Cooper had fruit loops for the first time (thanks to daddy).  He loved them so much that he would eat them right from my mouth. It was cute. My first kisses from Cooper.




He got it!

Lake Powell is my HAPPY place! I LOVE IT and already can't wait for next year!
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The drive home...all in one shot!  Mapquest said it would be 15 hrs of driving time.  So we figured it would be 18 with Cooper.  Again we went the discovery route and went through Nevada again but a different way.  We went through Ely, NV and then up to Reno and then over.  It took us 15 hours but that is stopping 3 times with Cooper and once was for an hour or more for dinner.  So we saved time and miles! I was happy.

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My one mistake...leaving my nice camera home this year.  Normally I take it..which is always a risk while boating, but it is SOOO worth the photos.  My handheld camera this year was a disappointment and I didn't even care to take pictures because most were over exposed because it was so bright and the camera wouldn't let me fix it and they were blurry.  I honestly didn't take it because I knew that Cooper was going to need more attention on the boat so I didn't want to worry about my camera as well. I SOOOO missed it though. Next year I will take it for sure! I took so many more pictures of the kids tubing and having fun but the pictures just look too bad to post!