We went to Deer Creek for the first time in a long time. Erin and Chelsea went with us and we met up with Chelsea's boss and his brothers in their new boat. We decided to go to Deer Creek because Tyler wanted to learn to surf. The weather was kind of strange all night. When we got there it was really crowded with tubers. As the night went on, the water calmed down. After going to Lake Powell and finding out that our fat sack pump was broken, it was great to be on a deep lake with the fat sacks full again. The wave on the port side was awesome!! Tyler and his brothers had bought a longer surf board than we have. It was fun to ride a different board. The long board rides totally different from the short one. We all had a great time riding.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Lake Powell 6/27-7/3/10
We took Dustin and Jen and their family and Erin and Chelsea to Lake Powell with us this trip. We camped the first night at the mouth of West Canyon. We got anchored just in time to see the most beautiful sunset of the week. Monday morning it was off to scout for a better site for the week. We ended up on the Dry Creek fork of Rock Creek Canyon. The site was very nice. We had an entire cove to ourselves on the 4th of July week! We were able to play up and down the main fork of Dry Creek and had great water every day.
This trip was a much needed relaxing vacation. We had such a busy, hectic schedule. Of the preceding 9 Saturdays, I was only home for 2 of them. We enjoyed a peaceful relaxing trip. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the canyons between West Canyon and Rainbow Bridge. Every one of them brings new surprises at every bend. It is so much fun to wind up in a canyon and go through narrow, tight passes, only to see them open up and go much further.
All of the kids loved the water time. All 3 boys wakeboarded, skied, surfed and tubed. Colbie and Stacia also surfed. We enjoyed swimming all around our cove.
We camped near Dangling Rope Marina. On the day we did most of our exploring we stopped in for ice cream. Bad news, the machine was broken. This makes 2 trips in a row that we have stopped at Dangling Rope and not gotten ice cream. They don't even sell packaged ice cream in the store. After a long, hot day there is nothing better than the ice cream and we have been skunked twice in a row!
The trip back to the marina was a fast one and we were able to pump out, gas up and clean up in record time. After we were done, we enjoyed Trisha's new favorite tradition of swimming in the resort pool before going home.
Sunset at the mouth of West Canyon
Posted by Jeff at 1:10 PM 0 comments
Utah Lake 6/19/2010
Can you believe it's the middle of June and it's our first time out on the lake? Erin and Chelsea went with us to Utah Lake for the evening. The water was rough and the wind came up a bit. As we were sitting in the harbor, we saw Christa Ostler in her boat. Overall, it was fun for the boys to get the first ride of the season in.
Erin and Colbie
Posted by Jeff at 12:28 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 18, 2010
Utah Lake 9/25/09
We ended our season a little earlier than usual this year. We finally got a good evening at Utah Lake. We met Erin and Chelsea at the American Fork Harbor and enjoyed some great water. All of us played in the beautiful water. We stayed until dark. We were the last trailer in the parking lot. As we pulled out we were immediately attacked by the ferocious mosquitoes!! That was the worst I had seen them in a long time. I have never seen a group clean up and wipe down the boat so fast!
Good ending
Posted by Jeff at 9:32 AM 0 comments
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Utah Lake 9/19/09
We had been trying all summer to get out more, but I was in school so that hampered our efforts. We finally had a free Saturday morning and went to Utah Lake with Erin. Every other morning of the week had been gorgeous with no wind. Of course when we go to Utah Lake it was breezy. We drove all over the lake looking for good water. I got out on the wakeboard and the water was a little better than it looked from the boat. It was good enough that Trisha wakeboarded also.
Brody was the only brave one of the boys. He put his wetsuit on and tried to wakeboard, waterski and surf with Erin.
I don't know how many times we will try to surf at Utah Lake. The lake just isn't deep enough to get a good swell. It sure doesn't stop us from trying though.
Brody waterskiing
Brody in the classic wetsuit
Posted by Jeff at 12:50 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Lake Powell 8/23-29/2009
This trip was supposed to be the Cutrer family, but it turned out to be just us and Dustin and Jen's family. It was the smallest group we have taken out on the houseboat for a week. It was a little different than our last trip this summer. The boat seemed empty. We got down on Sunday afternoon and had to wait until Skipperliner came and filled the steering fluid up on Monday before we could leave. After that we were on our way. We drove up to Padre Bay and ended up staying in a beautiful hidden canyon that we had found by accident last year when we stayed in Kane Wash.
We had Dustin and Jen take the Grasshopper and check a few canyons before we decided to head over to where we stayed. Dustin checked it and radioed us to come in. We pulled the boat into a rock pile and anchored it tightly. The boat was already in the shade by about 1 pm. As we ate lunch a guy in a boat came into the canyon and started looking at the other side of the rock pile. The pile was only about 50 yards wide and was the only place to anchor in the canyon. Dustin got out and spoke with him. He was scouting for his houseboat and wanted to park it there!! Those of you who have been with me at Lake Powell know that I value my privacy. Dustin told him that we had another boat coming. He asked him when, because this was their "favorite" campsite on the lake and they had a boat on the way. The guy reluctantly left. When we asked Dustin what the other side of the rock pile looked like, he sheepishly told us it was very nice. I hiked over to look at it and it had a nice sandy landing point and up a small hill was a fire pit. After lunch we moved the boat over to the nice side of the rock pile.
The first night we were on the boat was so dark. The moon was not out and you literally could not see your hand in front of your face. The stars were so beautiful.
The next morning we got up to go play. We were in the shade when we left at about 10 am. We went to play behind Cookie Jar and the water was so nice. There were only a couple of houseboats in there and nobody was on the water. We played until about 1 pm. When we got back to Dock Potato, the slide was just barely coming into the sun. At about 4 pm the bow of the boat started to be in the shade again. That kept the boat so nice and cool.
All the kids did so well on this trip. JT and Chaz tried slalom skiing. Chaz and Brody double skied. All 3 boys wakeboarded as well. JT and Chaz also kneeboarded. Chaz tried surfing too. I was so proud. It was fun to see them progress and get better than I thought they would. One highlight of the trip was being able to wakeboard double with JT, Chaz and Trisha. It was fun. We hadn't done that before. The water was so nice and we had so much time and good weather that we could just play and do things we hadn't done before. I was able to surf as long as I wanted to.
We went to explore the canyons around us. We explored Labyrinth and Face canyons. They were very cool canyons. While we were in Labyrinth Trisha spotted an owl just watching us. I had never seen an owl in real life. It was very cool. As we left the canyon and headed back into the channel we decided to start skiing. The water was glass. As we skied past a beach, we saw a coyote digging. We were only able to get one picture, but it was so cool to see animals we hadn't seen before. The sun was starting to go down as we crossed the channel. It was the first time we had seen the sunset. We didn't get to see it from the houseboat because of the canyon walls. The sunset had the most amazing colors!! The pictures don't do it justice.
We got up early on Saturday morning and made our way back to the marina. It was a smooth experience getting packed up and cleaned up. We packed up everything on the way to Wahweap and loaded it into the Grasshopper while we pumped the boat out. Once we got back to the slip it didn't take long to clean everything. After the traditional dip in the pool we were headed home again.
The girls in the afternoon sun

Brody completing his first 360 of the top of the houseboat
I was helping JT tie a hook onto the end of his pole when I felt a tug on the line. Colbie had climbed under the table and was fishing!
5 year old Brody wakeboarding.
Riding double with Trisha
JT's sweet ollie
Double with JT
Double with Chaz
The girls turn in the swingball tournament
Sunset over Padre Bay
Moonrise looking into Labyrinth Canyon
Colbie
Scenery
Jen is giving her shadow a high 5
I was able to take Colbie surfing with me
Brody learned to get up on waterskis all by himself. Notice no hands from Dustin.
Dustin
Jeff
Jen
Dustin was killing it on his kneeboard
Trisha getting brave
Standing on a rock in the middle of the bay
Chaz slaloms
Brody skiing
Chaz
Trisha, JT and Dustin swam back into this little canyon at the end of Face Canyon. It got shallow and dropped straight off on the backside. The water was dark so Trisha made JT go first.
Dustin got the hang of surfing
Hanging 10???
Stacia
Colbie, Trisha and Chaz in the bow
Chaz on 2 skis
Chillin with my girl
Posted by Jeff at 4:14 PM 0 comments
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