This is a VERY VERY LONG POST - you DO NOT have to read it.
I know its been quite a while since I went to Lake Powell, but getting all the pictures together I wanted and then finding the time to do it....yeah it taken quite a while. It was a very fun trip. WAY better than last year. The only bad thing about the trip was leaving Mady. She was only 4 months and I didn't think bringing her would be a good idea....it just scared me every time I thought about it. So for that whole week, she stayed with my parents. I think I cried every night. Thank goodness I had service so I could call my mom and get updates on how she was doing. Next year we will be bringing her. I can't wait....even though I know I will be stressing the whole time.
This year we had a surprise waiting for us. Ray and I hitched a ride with Jemma and Jacob. The rest of the family went in the suburban and got there before us because Jacob decided to work for 4 hours that morning. So we showed up about 4+ hours after them. They had already found a camping spot and was setting up. So we had to wait for a while until they were able to come get us. After an hour or so Mom and Naketa (Joey's wife) came and got us. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until we were slowing down heading towards a houseboat that was not the Last Resort (our old houseboat). As we got closer, the rest of the family jumped out of the boat and surprised us. We had upgraded! I wish I had a picture of the Last Resort to show you how much we had upgraded. But I don't. I also wish I had gotten pictures of the entire houseboat to show you how cool it was. But you'll just have to picture it.
This is what we drove up to (minus the flotation device - otherwise it would've been a dead giveaway)
This is the inside - look how wide it is - and Naketa flaunting her stuff. Woot Woot.
And on the top - a steering wheel! Yep you can drive on top. Pretty spiffy if you ask me. 
Some new features that we love:* It has 4 queen size beds
* It has 2 bathrooms
* It has 2 more fold out full size beds
* It has a ice maker that doesn't taste like icky fish poop water
* It has a generator that is quiet!
* It has a dungeon (basement) where two of the queen beds are
* It has a dungeon of dungeons...but we never went in there...it was scary.
* It has an upstairs bedroom complete with a closet and queen bed
* It has stairs and a ladder to get to the top deck
* It has a very wide living room/kitchen area (that everyone can fit in without feeling claustrophobic.
* And the best of all - it fits our family perfectly!
With how big our family is growing (with babies and another wifey in the distant future) we needed the upgrade. The only thing we need now is another boat and some jet skiis. But I think us kids are going to have to supply that. Mom and Dad aren't going to budge on that.
Now, onto the good stuff - Since I wasn't sick with pregnancy crap, I got to participate in all the fun stuff, such as hiking. Each year, the family goes on a hike to Chester's grave and to the arch. Now who is Chester? Its a dog. And no he's not our dog. He's just some random person's dog. Mom and Dad just happened to find his grave while hiking long ago and decided to make a tradition out of it. Mom brought a journal and left it at the grave for other people who find Chester's grave to write in it. And each year we read the entries and take pictures. This is Chester's Grave
This is the journal that people have written in. 
Aren't we so coordinated - we can jump at all the same time - just don't ask how long it took us. 
Here's a picture of Mom reading the journal. 
After Chester's grave, we all hiked up to the arch and the water pocket folds. It wasn't that long of a hike; probably like a mile, if that. Now, I've always wondered how you find the arch since all the scenery looked the same to me. But then I was told about Mt. Crumpet (for those of you who have seen The Grinch, you'll know what I'm talking about). Here's a picture of Mt. Crumpet in the background. Can you see it?
We finally made it to the arch!
Now we headed up to the water pocket folds. 
These pools are filled with tadpols and other creatures (yuck!) It would be so cool to see these pool in the off season, as long as you were high up that is.
Can you tell how out of shape I am? I look like a tomatoe!
The next hike we went on was in Forgotten Canyon - I think. It was the most gorgeous and grossest hike ever. For all you non-believers I will tell you why. The hike started out as a very innocent looking hike. We bush wacked a little bit at the beginning, but it wasn't too bad. 
After a while we got through the bushes and onto some more gorgeous scenery.
Cute picture of the fam eh? Yeah I think it'll be our Christmas Card.
But see it seems like just a gorgeous hike right? Yeah and then we got to this:
Let me be the first to say that you do NOT want to know what was in that water. Oh it just makes me cringe just thinking about it. Now when we first got to it, I thought, "Ok, yeah I can do this. It'll only get to my knees. No big deal." Well little did I know how deep it would be....
As you can see I wasn't too happy about it. Not to mention I had taken off my shoes...yeah definitely shouldn't have done that. There was a lot of sharp things in that water.
Needless to say I didn't make it to the end. I heard someone saying that we'd have to swim and I turned right back around. Ray and I both were dehydrated anyways so we headed back with Jemma and Jacob. But we didn't want to go their speed so we just went ahead without them. Now after all my whining and complaining, I'll give you some pictures that make it look amazing. 
It was a fun hike. Hopefully next time I'll man up and just do it....but then again I can't really do it with Mady can I ;).The last hike (if you can really call it a hike) was to the eye. It's this place where - when the water is high enough - Halls hooks to Bullfrog. It was gorgeous up there. The whole way up Dad was taking pictures. One time he made us spread out evenly, telling each person to move 3 ft this way or 5 ft back. It was pretty funny. See how evenly spaced we are?
This could also be a Christmas card. We'll just photo shop Mady in - flying over us.
We also got some pretty good pictures of us kids being crazy.
Then we decided to try our jumping skills again....yeah I won't bore you with all of those. But here are some select few. 
Ok when I meant select few I meant only one. But I have to post this next one only because I think out of all my jumping poses, this one tops all. Also note how only two of us are jumping? Yeah I guess we don't jump after three...its ON three.
Check out my awesome in-laws. I love love love this picture. Almost as much as the butt grabbing one. But I thought it was a little inappropriate. haha....ha...yeah...
I must also brag about how amazing my husband is. This picture pretty much sums it up.
Now as stupid as this picture may look...it was actually pretty fun. You should try running down a hill in zig-zags acting like a plane.
While at Lake Powell, we really don't do a lot of wakeboarding, slolmn, skiing, or any of that. Its probably because if we want to go, Dad makes us get up early while the water is "glass" or during the evening after a long tiring day. And maybe because you can't really do a lot unless your really good. Otherwise its just boring. But maybe if we got a tube....*hint hint* :)Well I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty sure I have the coolest father-in-law. Even at 52 he still wakeboards, slolmn, runs triathalons, marathons, and get this: a 50 miler race. Yeah don't know how he does it, but he's pretty amazing. And look I even got it on camera. 
My husband is the best wakeboarder out of the family. He is quite reckless at times. And I don't let him do his front or back flip or whatever it is. Last time he did it, he got a concussion. And I would like him around in the future. So he can only do jumps now lol. 
So now you must be thinking, "Wow Shay is probably so good at all those water activities with all the hookups she has!" Yeah.....No. I actually just got up on skiis for the first time last year. I still have yet to get up on wakeboarding. And don't even mention the slolmn. Nope won't try it. But I do have some noteworthy photo's that show my success. Don't I look pro in this picture? Yeah I thought so too.
So this is me 'almost' getting up. Maybe next year I'll have it.
Ray throwing me the skiis.
Right before I attempt to get up on the skiis. Let me say that I had only done it once before a year ago. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it again.
But I guess its like riding a bike. I was pretty proud of myself.
While we were there, we got rained on pretty hard. It came out of nowhere! It was awesome. I wish I had more pictures but these will suffice. This is the storm blowing in. You can see where its raining and where its not.
This is the storm on top of us. The raindrops where huge! It didn't last too long. But man it hurt.
You can see the storm in the distance...along with that hot man on the boat. 
We had a lot of fun on our adventures going up the many canyons on the boat. Can you believe we fit 10 people on our little boat?!
It was fun to swim up the canyons. We did this canyon last year..but this year because of the rain showers we kept having, the end of the canyon was filled with gross weeds and stuff. We had to go chunky dunkin to get all that crap out of our swimming suits. 
We also found a great cliff jumping place. 
At this one place we stopped at to play, Ray and I spelled out something with the rocks. Can you tell what it says?
The rest of the time we'd just play on the rocks and swim.
I loved just boating through the canyons and see the different formations..the only problem is you get sunburn pretty quickly.
We had a lot of fun playing at the houseboat. We got all the blow up mattresses and played around with those. Man we were crazy at times. I'm surprised we didn't pop them. I love this picture mostly because of Mom. Her and Dad go swim and make sure their seen by the boaters. The balloons worked pretty good I thought.
We played ALOT of games too. The best part about it was if you won, you'd get thrown in the lake. As you can see...I never won. Haha.
Now I want you to notice the background not these two weirdos. See all the tamer-ask? 
Yes, well Naketa, Joey, and Ray decided that since we weren't moving to a different spot, they would make a beach for us. Now with tamer-ask, there's no pulling them out like a weed. Oh no. They are quite difficult plants. You have to dig them out. And even then it takes awhile. It took them 3 hours to clear just 10 feet. But it was worth it! It made a great place for me and Ray to play some volleyball.
It also made a great place for our dance off. Each year Mom brings glow in the dark sticks and we dance to some songs. 
I wish I could get a recording of our dance and show you. But this clip shows it pretty good. We do the same dance they do to this song...we just do it better. We also caught fish! We only had two people who could fish. Jemma and Mom. According to Dad, you can't fish unless you have a fishing license. One of these times. I'm going to take a fishing pole and go out where he can't see me. Jemma caught some pretty big fish. Here's some pictures. 
The boys did a lot of gaming. And you'd think you could get away from it when you at Lake Powell....its a lie. 
I must show you this cute picture of Ray painting Mom's toes. He painted mine too. Who knew he knew how to do toes. He did pretty good if I do say so myself.
This picture Ray made me put up to prove a point. When we sleep at night I think Ray only cuddles with me until he knows I'm asleep then pushes me away. Well in this picture, it clearly proves I am wrong. Honey, did you hear that? It takes like vingar coming out of my mouth but I said it. 
Check out my hubby making some yummy dessert. Adda boy!
And of course can't forget our retard pictures!
So I think there is a Lake Powell curse for me. Last year, I was deathly sick...ok maybe not but I definetly felt like it because of the pregnancy. Well this year, I thought there was no way I could get sick this year....yeah well Mom came sick and somehow she gave it to me. I wasn't even around her as much as other people. I think I have a shoty immune system. So here's my sick picture.
Here are some amazing picture of the sun rise that my Dad took. 
This picture is one that Dad took while on one of his runs. Can you see our houseboat in the distance? 
Overall it was a great trip! Ray and I had such a wonderful time spending a week with his family. We can't wait for next year.
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