Lake Powell Trip Over Memorial Day

Nathan and I were invited to go to Lake Powell over Memorial Day Weekend with our neighbors, the Bauers. Their youngest son, Kole, is a lot younger than their other kids, and he needed a bud. I was invited to accompany him, and to fill the role of 'family sherpa,' which means I could earn my keep by carrying stuff and performing other menial tasks as my limited nautical skills permitted.

Most of the Bauer family had gone down earlier, but Nathan, Kole, Stacy, Julee and I were slow getting started, so we didn't leave Rexburg until around 5:00 Thursday. We took turns and drove most of the night, and made it as far as Kanab before we decided to stop for a few hours' rest. Friday morning dawned rainy, and we were stranded briefly while provisioning in Paige due to flash floods across the roads from a pretty impressive storm. All of the rain had lots of desert wildflowers blooming.The Bauers have this really nice houseboat and the really nice ski boat pictured here.We finally got to the lake, though, and the weather improved. We had a fun time playing in the water, wakeboarding, and just relaxing. Here's one of the guys, C.J., surfing.I walked up the hill one morning to take some pictures, and saw more than I wanted to. This guy obviously didn't see me up there, and I couldn't resist snapping his photo on the sly as he took a whizz off the back of his boat. I also couldn't resist posting it here. Think: "You might be a redneck if..." Of course, it's hard to say which is more "redneck," him for doing it, or me for taking his picture doing it.One day we took an interesting hike to see these old Indian ruins. This circular stack of rocks probably had a wooden roof on it at one time. There was a little fireplace in one end where you could still see the soot from their fires.Here, it appears the Indians had stacked rocks to make a small dam in the wash that runs through the area. (Or, maybe they just didn't have anything better to do than stack rocks up in a straight line.)We saw this very large lizard sunning itself on top of this outcropping. When we tried to approach, it took off running. We couldn't believe how fast that sucker could go. He ran down the hill, and just kept going. I would bet he ran a good quarter mile, and was still going when we lost sight of him!We also saw this desert hare; he had very little fear of humans. Sort of an ugly creature, really.Here's Nathan jumping the wake while wakeboarding. He's a natural!Dude! I got like three feet of air that time!Here's one of Stacy's daughters, Holly, captured in mid-wipe out. She really did get like three feet of air that time!I thought this was a cool photo Nathan took. Doesn't the water look cool coming up over the board? I've played with the colors a little bit to enhance it. Ignore the constipated look on my face (if you can).A gorgeous Lake Powell sunset!Thanks to Stacy and Julee for inviting us to come along! We had a wonderful time playing at Lake Powell and getting to know their awesome family better. We made some really good memories with them and we're already hoping for another trip with them soon. They are so much fun!Even if Julee won't let me take her picture.