"Pal"

This is what happens when two important members of the family are missing on the most anticipated vacation of the year:

• The sun makes only a few appearances, preferring to hide behind clouds
• Pre-rain wind storms crop up so badly the anchors have to be redone
• The generator goes out on the houseboat
• The batteries lose so much life that the TOILETS stop flushing before the backup generator arrives
• The seawater pump on Branch Office (my father-in-law's boat) starts leaking, rendering the main boat essentially unuseable
• The friend coming down halfway through the week accidentally brings the wrong replacement part
• The local boat shop that said they would overnight the new pump in for us somehow fails to get it before we have to leave
• Something goes wrong with the OTHER boat (my brother-in-law's) and he has to pull it out and grease..... something or other.... I'm not really a boat person, ok?

Lake Powell missed you, Ryan and Heather!!

This is the end of the post as far as they are concerned.

Actually, the week was pretty amazing. It's hard not to be. It was exceptionally weird, especially the weather, and it made me smile a few times and really think "Aw, Lake Powell is sad cos Ryan and Heather aren't here!"

My parents were there for the first half of the week, and it was cool and cloudy until they left. The day they left, the sun came out and stayed out. Which turned out to be very convenient, since my mom doesn't handle the heat very well, and that's what she was most nervous about. (I actually wore PANTS one day! That's craziness!)

Branch Office wasn't ACTUALLY unuseable. We were afraid it would be, but then we started using it anyway, and even though we couldn't take any big day trips, we went out plenty of times as a family (minus 3) to hike Split Rock, wakeboard, tube, and sit in the boat and read like lazybums while the babies slept. Honestly, boat rides are the BEST nap-inducer in the world.

Toward the end of the week, our canyon became the Grand Central Station of passing boats. It was nuts. SO MANY people came buzzing through, including a Super Cool speedboat full of bikini girls and guys with stylish hair jumping off cliffs and shooting videos for VooRay. Meanwhile, the entire family sat in adirondack chairs on the beach under an Easy-Up shade watching the kiddos play in the water, with bowls of chips and salsa and binoculars to better watch and mock the people across the lake. It was a bonding experience. Look for videos of our awesomeness to appear on VooRay.com any day now.

I went tubing twice... Gary really knows how to manipulate the boat for maximum pain. I caught air several times. I went wakeboarding a few times, and managed to get outside the wake behind Branch Office on my last run the morning we left. (Trust me, that's an accomplishment. I suck at wakeboarding, and Branch Office has a scary big wake (actually I just suck at wakeboarding)).

I had so much fun. And honestly, my favorite part is hanging out with family. I have the most awesome in-laws. I can't wait for next year!