Vacation to Lake Powell

Well, Thanks to Hannah I have decided to start blogging with all my free time. Which I 'll have more of if I stop cleaning my house, cooking meals, reading books, sleeping, (I'm NOT stopping eating because I'm Italian and well we love food!) and playing video games so I can keep my familia that is far far away from my sparkling personality on top of what my family is up to. And you know I couldn't tell you all that we are up to because some of these smart boys have things up their sleeves! So onto Lake Powell...
In the third week of September, Cameron and Kimball went off track (they are doing really well in school by the way) so we have previously decided to do a big family vacation down to Lake Powell. I had never been there-there are actually a lot of places I haven't been in Utah--so we drove the nine hours and brought a boat. Shawn says you can't go to Lake Powell without a boat...and after having been there I would definitely agree. Thank goodness for portable DVD players on the way down and back. We camped out in a tent and boated every day. What was really nice about the lake was you could boat around and then find a beach and just hang out for as long as you wanted to-swimming or sunbathing or holding hands with your almost two year old hoping that he doesn't poop in the water (we had to take off Sam's diaper because it was super absorbent) or drown even through he had a life vest on, or finding seashells, etc. We also pulled Cameron and Kimball in tubes behind the boat. Cameron was of course gung-ho and wanted to go full speed ahead as fast as possible. And Kimball true to his character was quite a bit more cautious. Trenton liked to swim around but wasn't brave enough to float by himself so he was passed over on the tubing. Samuel wanted to get in the water and was practically hurling himself over until I lowered him into Shawn's arms and Sam felt the temperature of the water was not quite the same as bath water and promptly wanted to get out. Then when asked if he wanted to get back in,,he would say "Uh-UH!" It was really cute. We also brought our new german shepherd dog Kia. At first we couldn't get her in the boat, and the we couldn't get her out of the boat. She did well though and loved running around the beach. She even braved the water a little when I did (she has a tendency to be my shadow)...but she had a look on her face of 'please-don't-go-any-further-I-don't-like-the-water-but-I-have-to-follow-you'. And I even tried water skiing! True to form, Shawn is a great teacher. He had great advice and know how and his method seemed to work. Then I hit the water. Again and again and again. But I almost got up and it's not as hard as I thought it would be. I do have to mention that Shawn wanted to try and ski because it's been awhile since he has and sheesh! He is AMAZING! He just got right up even with a novice boat driver and went this way and that way---he made it look like walking on water. I have to also admit that that made me want to just rev the boat up and dump him over because he just looked way too graceful. I'm sure I'll have to repent of my jealousy but dang he was great! Cameron also tried once but got scared when he hit the water and decided to stick with tubing. All in all, it turned out to be a really relaxing vacation. I loved tenting it (I know I'm crazy) and sitting around a fire telling ghosts stories about a "Alvin" (I made him up). So I could definitely get a boat and hang around Lake Powell for years. Who wants to go to freezing Yellowstone when you can go to perfect weather, no bugs, beachy Lake Powell?
So now that we are home..the two oldest are back in school, Trent and Sam are home, and we are back into a regular routine. And I'm starting to blog so hopefully I'll be able to share what we are doing on a more regular basis with you! Until later.