Lake Powell
It was a great week, but getting there was a little rough. Emily, Luke, Matt and I finished making our dinner for Wed. night, cleaning the house and packing the van and after a few errands got on the road headed to Page. We popped our front tire trying to head off the highway so Luke could go to the bathroom. We pulled off the road and could hear the tire quickly deflating. After calling Chris, he got in touch with our insurance company who arranged a tow truck and was able to find us a small tire shop in a tiny town outside of Page.
Chris headed our direction and arrived just after the tow truck had our van up and on top. I hopped in Chris’ car and the kids jumped in the back of the tow truck and followed us. Minutes later there was a change in the sound of the road. Are you kidding me? We quickly pulled over, as did the tow truck behind us, to find we had blown a tire… AGAIN! Change of plans — I jumped in the tow truck with Emily and Luke and we headed to the small tire shop and watched as our new tire was put on. Meanwhile, Chris and Matt called insurance and got the tow truck approved. He headed back to pick them up and dropped the car off at Big O Tires closer to the marina.
By the time we got our stuff driven down to the houseboat the rest of the Johnson clan was organizing things in the boat.
DAY ONE - 7:30am Chris and I headed back to Page and got four tires put on the car - which was badly needed. Since the houseboat was already launched, Rob and Tyler picked us up in the boat and we enjoyed several hours together talking while we headed up Padre Canyon. This year John arranged for a company to put water sacs up, instead of anchors that need to be tightened every day, and it was so nice! The rest of the day we enjoyed a surf session with the older kids and then back to the houseboat for honey lime chicken tacos for dinner.
DAY TWO - I stayed home in the morning with Chris, Tyler, Spencer, Luke, Grandma, Kayla. We started out laughing about Tyler and Spencer’s black and white ninja hats (cut off sleeves), which led to some fight scenes on the mat and ended up with Chris directing a movie complete with multiple fighting scenes and a fun plot. It was a blast! After lunch on the top deck, Chris, Em and I played two games of Azul #2 while Luke spent several hours editing the ninja movie. He did the best job!! Chris and I spent the afternoon out on the boat with John, Nikole, Tyler, Spencer, Luke and Emily. Lots of wake surfing and so fun to see everyone gettin better. Nikole was in charge of dinner: Ziti pasta and garlic bread. As the sun set we showed everyone our ‘Sandcastle’ ninja movie and had everyone laughing. Late night movie on the second floor - THE FALL GUY.
DAY THREE - Chris and I stayed on the houseboat all day. Morning clean up. Played Castles of Tuscany with Nikole and Ash. Lunch. Floating out in the lake with Nikole, Ash, and Shelley. We tied ourselves together and floated aimlessly. Then Azul 3 up on the top deck with Twizzlers and Chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Ashlyn made Chicken Pile-up for dinner while the group had their traditional Johnson talk about movies and best actors and actresses. New this year was Karaoke on the second deck - thanks Lindsey and Rob! So fun. Our family did Chicago’s ‘You’re My Inspiration’, and I got all the girls up to sing Phil Collin’s FALL GUY karaoke song called ‘Against All Odds’. The kids loved it!
DAY FOUR - Breakfast on the second deck. Chris and I went on the wave runner and then I took Luke and he drove for the first time. It was fun. He was just laughing the whole time. Lunch and then hanging out on the lake and then a few games of Architects - we even got Rob to play. Actually you can’t just GET Rob to play but sometimes he surprises you by just sitting down ready to play. Shocking, really. We played Azul 2 with Tyler and Brigette while the Grahams made a Baked Potato Bar for dinner. Our late night surfing session with John Nikole, Spencer, Kayla, Luke, Matt, Ashlyn, Derek and Haylee was one of the best runs of the week. So fun!
The traditional Night Glow-in-the-dark Swim. Always fun to get all lit up! Ended the night with warm showers and two games of Castles of Tuscany with Chris and Ashlyn.
DAY FIVE - Half the group headed out to surf. Chris and I and the boys stayed back and played some Dominion. After lunch we piled in the boat and enjoyed a lake swim party with the whole family. Lots of fun cliff jumping! Just fun to experience it all together. I swam for a while, jumped off the cliff with Chris and then spent some time in the boat to take a few pictures.
Rapid fire jumping off the front of the boat. Everyone loved climbing up the rocks and taking turns jumping. Lots of high jumps and backflips for Luke and Matt. They are pretty impressive!
Then a long nap for me. Then we played ‘Movie, Song, Book’ Charades with everyone.
MONDAY - Slept in. Breakfast upstairs while we talked to Megan (and Cassie) for a minute. Surf run with John, Tyler, Spencer, Kayla, Derek, Em, Luke and Matt. Everyone got a lot of time on the board and had fun practicing their 360’s. Tyler did two perfectly and then almost was able to do a second.
Matt is getting close with his surf 360. So fun to watch him surfing!
Lunch upstairs. A bunch of people headed out on a second surf run with the middle and little kids. While they were gone, Chris took several of the big kids over by wave runner to a nearby cliff for some jumping. Leftover Dinner. A couple of Azul 3 games with Ashlyn and Nikole. Paper plate awards from Emily, Haylee and Kayla (with help from Luke and Matt) This was our first paper plate awards on the Johnson side and it was a hit. The kids loved it! Such a fun Powell week!
