Lake Powell is the new awesome

I have been a little absent on the blog again, but it is because I was out of internet reach! Last week I headed out to Vegas and convinced a few high rollers to join my family and a few others on Lake Powell for what should offically be known as the Best Vacation Ever.

The way you really do Lake Powell is to round up about 30 of your favorite people, get a few speed boats and some inflatable things, and go sit on a houseboat in the middle of a lake on the border of Arizona and Utah during the driest and hottest time of the year. The crowded houseboat is what really makes the experience. Since these things are sort of the water equivalent of mobile homes, people try to hide their trashy potential by naming their houseboats regal and sophisticated sounding things like "Pure Enchantment" or "Emerald Sunrise."

Of course, there are some people that are not in that much denial, and name their boats something that one might expect from the aquatic version of trailer trash.

To add to the Clampett-style feel of the trip, everyone bunks down on the roof since there are not even close to enough beds for us all to sleep in.

Since there were so many of us, we all were given one plastic cup and told to write our names on them. Jared, Keith and I took creative liberties decorating our cups:



And of course, my mom opted to get really creative and write her entire name on her cup, even though there were no other Merleens to be seen on our houseboat, Lake Powell, or probably anywhere in the state of Arizona.

Jared tried a number of different floaty combinations to match the size of his shorts.


When he finally found one that fit, we let him into our new jetski gang, Jet Lag for Judie.


The great thing about Lake Powell is that you get to do all the fun water activities that you would on any lake, but you get to do them with the most amazing red canyon backdrop. All week long there was plenty of wakeboarding...

...falling off of big, inflatable bananas...

...death defying leaps off of really high places...


...some serious tubing...

There is also plenty to see at Lake Powell. This is the crew at Rainbow Bridge, one of the largest natural arches in the world that used to take days and days to hike to, but now is pretty easily accessible since they filled the canyon in with water and you can just boat to it.

There is nowhere like one of the natural wonders of the world to practice your cheerleading moves in front of.

And we hiked some narrows too.

(Though some might say that you can take out the word "hiked" and insert "swam" instead)

After a few days on the lake, when it turned out that even the 2 year olds were skiing like pros ...
(This is Asher, water skiing for the first time like he doesn't even know he is only 2 years old)

we decided that we were going to have to pull out something a little different. A surfboard.

we got pretty good at surfing behind jetskis, believe it or not.

And when that got old, we figured out how to surf on the wake behind the boat, without even needing to hold onto the rope. You have to see it to believe it - go check out a video of Graham surfing behind the boat here.

The surfing was kind of indicative of what happens when people get bored with the conventional, which I think you see a lot in the world of water sports, since there are always new crazy toys available to try getting dragged behind a boat. This year, the prize for the silliest blow-up toy ever: a Wayne Coyne-esque hamster ball to walk on water with.

At least this one hasn't killed anyone yet.