Lake Takes

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Lake Powell 5/21-24/09

This trip to Lake Powell was a work trip basically. Dustin and Jen went with us to help install a new stereo, speakers and ice maker. We also rewired the tv and speakers. It was a very productive trip.

We started to install the speakers and found that the new round ones fit into the old square speakers holes and covered perfectly. That started the trip off nicely. By the first night we had most of the speakers hooked up and the stereo playing music. As we took the old stereo out, we found an amp hooked up to it. We ended up using the amp for the new stereo and it works great. The old speakers had a switch on each one that enabled it to be turned off. We changed this system to one that allowed us to put switches at the dash for each zone. After the install, it looks clean and sounds incredible. A 100% difference.

The ice maker wasn't quite as simple. We got in down into the hold, but once there we couldn't find the water line. There used to be an ice maker there, but it never worked. Maybe because it never had water??? Anyway, we got to know Page Lumber very well. They had all the parts we needed.

On the way to Page to get parts, we drove through one of the worst rain storms I have ever seen there. The whole weekend was filled with rain. As we crossed the bridge across the dam, we witnessed one of the most scenic water falls I have ever seen. This video must have been shot at about the exact time we were there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=580HhfKenws You really can't appreciate the magnitude of the storm without being there. After crossing the bridge traffic was stopped dead. It took about 25 minutes before we made it to the turn into Page. At the turn, a truck pulling a fifth wheel trailer had been buried in about 2' of mud. It had washed out from the golf course and just covered the truck and trailer. They were using a front end loader and a grader to clear the road. Every dry stream bed was raging with water. It was a beautiful sight. From the cab of the truck at least.

On Saturday we had all of our work done and the sun was out a little bit. We played on the water and explored Navajo Canyon. We took a fork that we had never been into. It was very cool.

On the drive home we blew a tire on the trailer. Dustin and I got it fixed in just a few minutes and we were on the way again.

The boat took 4 days of being open in the driveway for it to dry out. Every inch of the boat was wet.

The boys got to sleep in the master bedroom

Chaz and his muscles at the pool

JT flexing

Stacia's cheezer grin

Body builder Brody

Navajo Canyon

Navajo again

Brody in Navajo

JT had been in a fishing clinic all spring and he made his first Lake Powell catch off the back of the houseboat. It was a huge carp. Good thing we got this picture because that is as close as we got the the fish.

This one got away and JT learned the importance of a good knot.

Utah Lake 5/18/09

Chaz, the electronics kid, checking out how the speaker vibrates with the music

JT on his first trip to the other side of the wake

Colbie in the water. "You're having fun"

Erin and Colbie

Chelsea's first run of the year

Trisha

After summerizing the boat by myself, I wanted to test it. We went to Utah Lake with Erin and Chelsea. We went to American Fork Harbor and the weather was great. The air was in the mid 90's and the water was low 70's. Little did we know that that was as nice of day as we would see in the next month. We headed south east out of the marina and found some great water. The boat ran great and the weather was great.

Trisha skied and wakeboarded. She did great! We saw "fins". JT finally crossed both wakes on the wakeboard. This was a first for him. He usually gets outside the wake before it forms and then doesn't cross.

It was a perfect all around night.

Lake Powell 10/15-19/08

We went to Lake Powell for UEA with Erin and Chelsea and Dustin and Jen. October has turned out to be one of my favorite times of the year at Lake Powell. The water and air temperature is pleasant and the lake isn't crowded. This trip was nice. We had Warm Creek almost to ourselves. It was awesome! We played until we couldn't play on the lake anymore. Then we relaxed in the hot tub at the resort. That was a nice amenity to have in the fall when we leave the boat in the slip.

Trisha was skiing amazing after just having a baby. I can't imagine how difficult that would physically be. You women are unbelievable.

The weather was so nice and the trip so enjoyable that we ended up staying an extra day and coming home on Sunday. Chelsea was alright with this because it meant that we would stay for her birthday. We went into Page for dinner because Bene's Pizza was already closed for the season. We ended up at Strombolli's Pizza for dinner. Dinner on the patio was a very pleasant was to end the trip.

Jen wakeboarding

My boys

Erin rocking it

Me wearing a wetsuit that I found on the boat. It ended up being a little too tight and too short. The warm top worked just fine for the rest of the trip.

Working on the butter slide

Trisha looking good getting ready

Erin

JT on one of his never ending kneeboarding runs

Dustin and Stacia

Jen cutting glass

Trisha ripping it up

We had to wait for the coyote to cross the Castle Rock Cut

Dustin mid flight

Cousins have to help each other

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Utah Lake 9/15/08

We made another Utah Lake run with Erin. Trisha got to get behind the boat for the first time all year. We had to talk her into it. She did great. Colbie did great on the boat as well.

Erin and Brody surfing

Boat buddies

Learning to wakeskate

Utah Lake 8/23/08

We had to take a little break from boating because Colbie was born into our family. As soon as I could talk Trisha into going, we went to Utah Lake with Erin, Chelsea, Mark and the Hammonds. We also took a new wakeskate with us. It was fun and awesome to have a new baby on the boat.

Colbie's first boat ride

She even woke up for the occasion

First ride on the new wakeskate

Colbie getting ready to go

Jeff Hammond and Kate

Erin helping Luke wakeboard

Jeff Hammond trying the Air Chair

The cousins

Lake Powell 7/13-17/2008

We went to Lake Powell with Mark and Carolyn, and Erin and Chelsea. The trip started off kind of rocky. On Saturday night I got a call from one of the owners on the houseboat that was leaving. She told me a few things and then called back about half an hour later. She then told me that another owner was planning on coming down the next day as well. It turns out that the owner that we had traded weeks with had then traded his week again. To make a long story short, by Sunday mid morning we had arranged to stay on another boat at Antelope Point Marina.

This was trip of firsts. Mark had bought an Air Chair and it was the first time most of us had been on one. There was a wakeskate on the houseboat and we played on it. We had a great time enjoying all the different things. Another first was that the best water we found the whole trip was in the narrows between the dam and Antelope Point. It was a benefit of having the Castle Rock Cut open. We played for hours in what used to be some of the roughest water on the lake.

We also spent time exploring Navajo and Antelope Canyons. They are beautiful parts of Lake Powell that we had never been to before. At the end of Navajo canyon was an amazing spot that we floated in for a long time. We named the end of the canyon "Echo Canyon". It had the most amazing echo I have ever heard. You could yell complete sentences and you could hear the whole thing echoed back to you.

The boat we ended up staying on was named the Otiose. It was a pretty incredible triple decker boat. The slide came off the top deck and was a pretty good drop to the water. We had fun swimming in the marina. We also experienced Antelope Point for the first time. We were coming back from the store and there was a winch set up in the marina. We were able to see a professional Air Chair rider perform for a camera crew. He put on a good show that came a little too close one time. He tried a late back flip and ended up hitting the dock with his fin. He took a pretty good chunk out of the trex dock.

We all took turns learning to Air Chair and Wakeskate. It was fun learning new things to do on the water. The worst part of having so many options is that you never feel like you get a chance to get really good at one thing because you are always limiting your time to try the other things.

Building the Air Chair