The Tradition

My parents have owned a House Boat in Lake Powell for 16ish years. In those 16ish years I have had the opportunity to visit good 'ol Powell almost every one of them. This year was no exception. Well to be completely honest it almost was, but as bad luck and fate would have it we got a last minute invite :)

This trip promised to be one of a kind. With the absence of my oldest brother and sister/husband this was already shaping up to be a small group. Losing another family days before didn't particularly help either. Luckily the remaining family was successful in bribing two of their kids; so our Rocking party topped out at: 9 Adults, 1 teen and a child.

As a couple Grant and I aren't big on large group activities, so we were just fine with the arrangements, not only did we get all our food to fit in one cooler and a box, I got my own seat and head phones!!!

SKIPPING OVER ENJOYABLE SPY KID, SLEEP FILED, 8 YEAR OLD CONTROLLED, FREAKING COLD CAR RIDE

The Lake.
Now as a little kid I always had to sit back and watched the Adults do their thing, thinking quietly in my head: I can't wait until I can help, WOW look at that shell! this is so NEAT!
Being an Adult I now get the pleasure of helping, and I find myself thinking: WOW look at that shell! maybe i can both watch the boat AND look at lake shells..

Just kidding..

No really I like helping it makes me feel really good that my parents trust my awesome adultness.

Keeping with tradition upon arriving at the Ship we discover we're locked out of the House Boat. Easily enough fixed, we pry open a window and threw the smallest person through. Another funny quirk our House Boat has, is its ability to not work properly in some form ie: Kangaroo Mouse hide-out, hole in septic tank, wrench replacing steering wheel. You know normal stuff. So first things first we check the log book to see what the people before us had to say:

1. Had Fantastic time only thing we couldn't get out drives to start, Stayed on buoy whole trip

Sad :( and also a lie! Now we aren't normally distrusting people, especially when it comes to the House Boat, aptly called: the Job Site. It was just to much to ignore the out drives starting first try. We figured these people were probably just idiots, which was further proven when we discovered the gas tanks were extremely low and they hadn't emptied the septic tanks. Stayed on the buoy? I think NOT!

Moving on to the trip:
We have a spot that we love. Its up Lost Canyon, for those of you who don't know, Lost Canyons extremely small, especially for Lake Powell standards, its often over looked. Could explain its name.

Why we love it:
1.camping spots are extremely limited, meaning no annoying neighbors, meaning free reign of entire canyon
2. you can't get lost (funnily enough) and if you DO it takes a whole 15 mins to adventure the whole place so, I don't think that constitutes being lost.
3. Its size is deceiving, one wouldn't think a House Boat of Job Sites proportions could navigate the Canyon. One would be wrong.

So we're parked and having a grand 'ol time. Nick has discovered the swarms of fish off the rock banks we are tied up to, and they have him thoroughly intrigued. We are parked such that we only will get 5 hours of sun, which encourage naps for those not entertained via books, jet skiing or dry ice in water bottles... Did you know if you trap dry ice in a water bottle and throw in at your designed target it will explode? You learn something new every day and Grant learned this. He effectively used up our entire stock. It was actually pretty entertaining he had one that he threw in the water soar oVEr the House Boat.

So remember when I said that in our camping spot we only got 5 hours of sun? That is due to the large over hang we parked under. This spot had been debated on for a long time before we parked because it was supposed to rain and the older generation of our group have witnessed waterfalls from like over hangs and have had a HUGE rock fall 20-50 yards away from their boat before. Some how the parents were over ruled and we stayed, to all the younger generations peril. It rained.. it POURED.. it Soaked our bedding. It was pretty sudden and we all had to run and save our stuff, it felt very much like 2.5 years ago when we were caught in a flash flood.. not fun and i was scared the rest of the night. However nothing worse then soggy pillows, and a scrapped knee followed the night and the rain was gone :)

Fishing was a popular day activity, many of the House Boat occupants tried their hand at the sport. None however were as expert as Nick. See I made a chart!

Adults vs Fish = 0
Fish vs Adults = 2

Teen vs Fish = 2
Fish vs Teen = 0

Nick vs Fish = 8
Fish vs Nick = 1

There were also many boating adventures none of which Grant or I went on. Why? easily answer... well not so easy, I'll try to make it short. I was diagnosed with H-Pylori (again) before we left. That is a nasty stomach bacteria that causes ulcers and is the leading case in stomach cancer! Luckily I just have the bacteria, no ulcers. I was put on medication for 2 two weeks that i had to take twice daily. They didn't cause the havoc they once had when I was in high school but they did make me very nauseous and... sick. So really it was an act of mercy that I didn't go with everyone.

I can't pretend it didn't suck but as Grant said "Its not like you haven't seen it 20 times before" True but I still wanted to go. Though if we had Grant and I would have never discovered a neat little alcove that is only accessible by jet ski, rock climbing and trudging threw red mud. It was SO neat I wanted to go back and bring Grants camera up but since no boat can get back far enough and he wasn't going to take the camera on the jet ski we didn't get any proof, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Now the compromise the other family made with there kids is that they would leave Monday, when the vacation officially ended Tuesday. So the Hill-Biesingers were left to their own devices on Monday evening and Tuesday. No one should leave devices up to Kimberly and I they'll get stuff like:
Blaring The Pussy Cat Dolls: When I grow-up and Dancing about the ship
3 hours rousing game of Boggle, commandeering Nicolas' blow-up jet ski, torturing fish, WAY to much food, Nicolas driving the jet ski and pulling me behind him!! My Dad dropping a ski and loosing it, Grant breaking the tubs toe rope, and to my moms displeasure and my delight at an unsuccessful search for fresh water jelly fish.

To say the least it was a very fun and eventful trip and I can't wait for the next one. Hopefully Allysen Joey and Jake will be able to come too.