Lake Powell Camping Edition

 Another Lake Powell trip in the books!  This year we threw caution to the wind and decided to go camping.  Yes, we're crazy.  I had vowed I would never do it again, and then decided to just go for it.  We don't have any littles right now and our kids are all old enough to help out.  It was now or never!  The kids all got to invite a friend.  Unfortunately, Zack's friend got Covid 2 days before we left.  Kate brought Cade and Sage brought cousin Sam.  I was a little nervous for anyone else to come because LP exposes the good, bad, and ugly of our family.  But they came and still talk to us so we'll call it a win!

I knew the first day would be the trickiest, and it didn't disappoint.  As we pulled up I realized I forgot the toilet.  This is a problem because you can get huge fines camping without one.  We again threw caution to the wind and continued on.  Kate drove her car so we got the boat in the water and waited for her and Jake to park.   We waited and waited.  Then Jake came.  Without Kate.  He didn't know where she was.  All of this is made difficult because there's no cell service.  It's easy to hate cell phones until you need them.  Anyway, to make a really long story shorter, I think it took us almost two hours to finally get everyone on the boat.  Already stressful and we hadn't even gotten to the part I KNEW would be stressful.  

We headed off to search for a camping spot.  Of course it was super windy while we were doing this, which makes everything sooo much harder on a boat.  Now that we have a nice boat we don't just beach it when we camp.  So we have to set an anchor in the water and on the sand to hold the boat in place when we're at the beach.  This isn't easy to do, and it wasn't easy this time.  It took a while.  And was stressful.  But we persisted and got it done.  Poor Sam was like, "Do we have to do this every time we come back with the boat?"  He was happy to hear that it was a one and done situation.  

Now for the easy part.  Setting up camp.  Except it wasn't easy, of course.  It was so, so windy that we couldn't get our tent to stay up at all.  Like not one bit.  I may have considered going home at this point.  Gratefully the tent that Cade brought held up better in the wind.  So we ended up with one tent that 4 of us slept in, and the rest on the boat.  With the bats.  

After all of this fun you're probably wondering why we keep going to LP.  Well, I'm happy to say that our trip was amazing once we got through the first days.  We had early morning slalom sessions, all day on the boat, and nights by the fire under a million stars.  Sometimes my favorite part of boating is when we stop doing anything and just float and eat lunch.  This is especially amazing in beautiful LP.  There was also a decent amount of fishing done on this trip.  Jake and Sam were determined to catch a big fish.  I told them our last night there we were having fish tacos, so they had a couple days to catch enough fish to feed us.  They came through and we got to eat some delicious, fresh fish tacos!  

Anyway, all in all a great trip.  Anyone who goes to LP knows there will be times when things go wrong.  But it's all worth it when you look around at how beautiful it is.  

I think she only smiles this big in Lake Powell

Jake's happy place

We always go to this perfect alcove for lunch.  It's so nice to float out of the sun.  If only I could eat lunch here every day.

Zack was driving.  I was so terrified I finally jumped off.

We did some sunset/night surfing one night.  It was amazing.

Jake and Sage killing it with their fashion choices.

Beautiful North Carolina

 Our trip to North Carolina deserves a post of its own.  This was another builder group trip.  Jake and I have been to North and South Carolina before.  They were fine, but nothing too great.  We were expecting much of the same this trip, but we were pleasantly surprised.

First though, I'll back up to our adventure getting there.  Our flight was delayed over and over again.  But of course the first delay didn't happen until we were at the airport.  We had a layover in Atlanta.  By the time we got there it was 10:30pm.  We had of course missed our connecting flight.  Along with a lot of other people.  We went to get in line to try to get a hotel for the night.  We finally got to the hotel after midnight.  Beyond exhausted.  We had to get up early to catch our flight the next morning.  Got to the airport and, you guessed it, delayed flight.  Clear until the afternoon!  We were not happy.  We did some finagling and managed to get a flight out to a smaller airport a little further from our destination.  We were very grateful when we finally arrived, 24 hours later than we were supposed to.  But I'm glad we didn't give up because we loved it!

We stayed at a hotel right on the beach.  Wrightsville Beach.  It was a little early in the year to be able to fully enjoy the beach, but it was still beautiful.  And being there in the off season meant there were no crowds, which was nice.  Anyway, we loved everything about the area.  The food was amazing.  Like all of it.  I don't think we had one bad meal.  The people were extra nice and there were lots of families.  Also lots of churches everywhere.  We walked around some old historical homes one day.  Spent a lot of time walking/running on the beach.  Jake had to be in meetings on Sunday, so I went to sacrament meeting.  Then I decided this might be my one chance to go to a southern baptist church.  It was such a great experience.  When I walked in the people were so welcoming.  They had a band on stage for the first bit.  Then the preacher came out and gave a lively sermon.  All from the Bible, about Jesus.  It was really neat to experience another religion and feel their love for the Savior.  And I learned what it really looks like to make visitors feel welcome!  I've been trying to up my game with this since then.

This is the first builder group location that we both loved so much that we want to go back.  And hopefully take our kids next time.  Such a great trip!

Our last meal on the way to the airport.  So good.

We ate dinner here one night.  I could handle living here.

Maybe the highlight of my trip.  I went to a deli for lunch and they brought out fries with this white stuff.  I had no idea what it was.  Frosting!  It was frosting!  Genius.  It was delicious.  I would go back just for this...

Waiting for church to start.  A little different from what I'm used to, but still great.

We went and walked around some beautiful gardens.

This tree has been growing since the 1500s.  Pretty sure it's the oldest living thing I've ever seen.

One of the old mansions downtown.  Built in the early 1800s.

The view from our hotel room.

Spring Catch Up

 I'm never going to stay on top of this blog.  Oh well.  We had a fun, busy spring.  There was a lot of lacrosse.  It was fun to learn about a new sport, and kind of fun to watch Sage do something that we knew nothing about.  Her team improved so much from the beginning of the season to the end.  Oh to be young again.  Sage enjoyed being part of a team, not having her parents be coaches, and making lots of new friends.

We went to St George for most of spring break.  Did the usual biking and hiking.  It's been fun this year to be able to visit Kate when we go south.  While we were there I got to go through the temple with Kate.  This is something she's been thinking about doing for a while.  She did a lot more to prepare than I ever did.  It was good to be there with her.

Jake and Zack took a trip to St George to bring Kate home for the summer.  Zack got a last second permit to hike angel's landing at Zions.  This is my all time favorite hike.  I've told everyone that's what we're doing for my birthday.  They had great weather and loved it.  Zack is our family hiker.  He really loves it and can go forever.  

Kate's now home for the summer.  I'm proud of her for how well she did her first year of college.  Lots of big changes and she handled it like a champ.  She got a summer job working at the Deer Valley kids camp.  We're learning that DV does indeed take good care of their employees.  She gets to go on all kinds of fun field trips every week.  Her job didn't start until June, so she worked for Jake in May.  He worked her hard.  I think she's very grateful to start at DV.

Sage made it through her sophomore year.  I love watching her.  She doesn't take 'no' for an answer.  Which can be exhausting and is also great.  She loves to be busy and involved in all the things.  This summer she's doing both mountain biking and lacrosse.  Yes, my part time job is driving her everywhere.  We'll all be happy when she gets her license.  She went to prom, looked beautiful, and had fun with her group.  

Zack is up in Logan for good it seems.  He stopped going to school and has been working full-time this year.  He got a job as a mechanic at an equipment rental place.  It seems to be a good company and I think he's mostly enjoying it.  He keeps working on his car (pretty amazing what he's done) and is hoping to learn more about all things mechanical at his job.  It's been weird not having him home this summer.  But I'm proud of him for finding a job and figuring out this adulting thing.

Hmm.  Maybe I should have split this up.  Oh well.  Jake and I just stumble around trying to figure out how to parent adults.  And an emotional teenage girl.  Pretty sure all of our kids would be quick to tell you that we're not succeeding.  Oh well, that's what therapy's for!

Mothers Day hike to Stewart Falls

For Mothers Day I asked/told everyone that we were having a work party.  We had dead trees along our property line that have needed to be cut down for years.  We brought our dump trailer, the neighbors brought their big family, and we had it done in 3 hours.  Zack was even nice enough to drive down from Logan.  I feel like this is our new Mothers Day tradition.

The boys got haircuts.  I was grateful.

Beautiful Sage for prom

Jake came home one night to find Sage roasting marshmallows.  

We met up with cousins in St George to climb the stairs.

Beautiful Kate going through the temple.

One of the many dresses Sage tried on for prom.  She looked good in all of them.

Braces off!  She finally shows her teeth when she smiles!