Two weeks ago, Jake I got to go to Lake Powell. And oh was it amazing.
Monday night, the night before we left, we took Max to Brynne & Blake's house in Orem. My mom was in Iowa and Jake's parents were in South Dakota, so Brynne offered to take him. I was SO grateful, because I was so worried about finding a place for him to go. We took them to Brick Oven for dinner that night to thank them for watching Max, then came home and packed.
Tuesday, Jake drove me to work and then went home and got all the last minute things ready. He loaded the car and then picked me up at 2 and we set off! We drove to Provo and picked up Andrew & Keeshia from their house, since they were driving down with us. We stopped at Maverik, got some snacks and hit the road. We only had to stop for gas once, which of course included a bathroom break for me & Keeshia since we both have little baby girls in our tummies, and then kept going. Jake drove to Beaver, where we stopped for gas and I drove the rest of the way. We made it to Page, AZ around 8-9 that night and had dinner at Denny's. Worst customer service ever. Keeshia found a little bug in her salad after she was done eating it. Totally reaffirmed why Jake doesn't like eating there, but oh did I want an omelet so we went there. Never again haha.
We stopped at Wal Mart and got a few last minute things we had forgot and then drove to the marina where one of the boats was dry docked. That boat is US Synthetic's time share and was called the Desert Sun. We walked around the boat and saw what it looked like, since I had never seen a house boat before, and then decided to go to the other boat, since more people would be coming super late that night and we didn't want to take the bedrooms on that boat when we could go to the other boat. Jake & I got a bedroom and Andrew & Keeshia got a room because we are expecting. Awesome perk of being preggers :)
We drove to Antelope Point Marina and unloaded our gear into the rhino trailer, then headed down to our slip to get on the other boat. That one is Eric's time share {one of the VP's at US Synthetic} and was called For Shore. We got all our stuff unloaded onto the boat and went to walk inside to see what the inside of THIS house boat looked like and we all felt like we hit a brick wall - it was SOOOOO hot inside the boat. Like the thermostat was set for 95 degrees. It was an OVEN in there! We opened all the windows and cranked the A/C and spent the next little while outside the boat on the decks, since it was so hot. A few hours later, more people joined us on the boat and we played Uno until around 1 in the morning, when we all decided to crash.
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| The houseboat we stayed on - For Shore |
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| The other house boat - Desert Sun |
Wednesday morning, we woke up with the sun. Which was like 6 AM. Seriously, I didn't know the sun could come up so early this late in the year! Jake & I got dressed and joined everybody else in the kitchen of the boat, where we discussed what we should do for breakfast. All the meals for the trip were catered, but the caterers were on the other boat and we weren't launching for another 2 or 3 hours. We decided to walk to the restaurant on the marina and just eat there. We got there and were all disappointed to see they don't open until 11. Lame sauce! Everybody on the boat decided we should go to the dry dock where Desert Oasis was and get McDonald's for breakfast on the way, since it was about a 20 minute drive and we would drive through town. That meant we got to walk up the dock that we had been able to drive down the night before on the rhino. It was INSANELY steep.
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| Seriously, this picture doesn't do justice to how steep it was. It was INSANE! |
We got to the other boat and they had a light breakfast of bagels with greek yogurt and fruit set out, so we ate there instead of McDonalds. YAY! I forgot how much I like greek yogurt, especially when there is fruit in it. We all figured out which person would be sleeping and leaving their gear on which boat and drove back to the marina. We got everyone loaded on, untied and set out for our "spot".
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| The sky was insanely blue - so pretty |
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| Not sure why he wasn't smiling haha. We were both SOOO happy to be there! |
We left the dock and waited at the end of the harbor for a bit for the other house boat, the 3 wakeboard boats and the 3 jet ski's to catch up so we could ride out together. The other house boat took a little while to get ready and launched in the water, so while we waited we were just rockin' back and forth in the water. Which translated to me getting sick VERY fast. I decided to go try to sleep through the movement and went back to our room. Jake came and took a picture of me. This is also the only picture we have of our room. I seriously dropped the ball on taking pictures!
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| I woke up just before he took the picture so that's why I'm smiling. I don't smile in my sleep normally haha |
Jake woke me up when we reached our destination and had tied the boat down. We immediately stopped rocking, which I was so grateful for. And it was gorgeous. Oh my gosh. The red rock everywhere in Southern Utah is gorgeous, but next to the water with the insanely blue sky was just amazing. I felt like we were in paradise.
We had lunch of sandwiches and potato salad with fruit and then the toys all got busted out. A whole bunch of people headed out to go wake surfing, while everyone else stayed and watched Flyboarding. If you don't know what flyboarding is, YouTube it. Or watch the video of Jake doing it {I'll post it as soon as he gets it all edited}. It reminds me of Iron Man. And it looks INSANELY fun. Andrew, Keeshia's husband, was the first person to try it.
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| Putting the board on his feet - the tube is like a firehose and was 50 feet long |
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| Skimming across the water to a deeper spot |
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| The entire set up - Eric driving Andrew out |
Andrew did super good and had a lot of fun. Jake watched quite a few people do it, so he could hear all the tips and tricks and then he went out. I recorded it on the GoPro and took a few pictures with our camera.
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| Getting ready to go out on the Fly Board |
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| Putting the board on |
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| All ready to go |
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| He's flying! |
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| He did so good! |
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| All done. The last time I saw this look on his face was right after he drove the Lamborghini in Vegas. This is his "holy smokes did I really just do that?" face |
He did AWESOME. I was really impressed with how well he did, since so many people were having a hard time getting the hang of it. He had an absolute blast though and was immediately talking about how bad he wanted to do it again.
After drying off and watching a few other people, we decided to go out on the kayak. Jake apparently hadn't done it before, because his paddling kept spinning us in circles. I told him to just relax and I would paddle. He was shocked that I knew so much about how to do it, but I had just paddled and stuff at girls camp so I'm apparently a pro haha. It was super fun and nice to do something on the water together that was Kaycee approved.
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| After we were done on the kayak |
That night we had steak and shrimp cocktail with homemade bread, salads & other side dishes for dinner. And these steaks were MASSIVE. Tri tip steaks I think is what they were called. It smelled amazing, so I ended up eating one. Well part of one. Kaycee must be a red meat eater like her dad, because I NEVER want steak and I NEVER think steak smells good. It was an absolutely delicious dinner though! After dinner, we were absolutely exhausted and went to bed. Before dessert. Which was cheesecake with fresh peaches and raspberry drizzle on it. DROOLING MUCH?! Don't worry, I got some the next day.
Thursday morning, we woke up INSANELY early hearing helicopter blades going overhead. Apparently a house boat near us has a helicopter pad on it's roof and the person was coming to their boat at the absolute crack of dawn. After the helicopter shut off we went back to sleep for another hour or so. Jake got up before me and came back in the room to tell me breakfast was served. Kneaders French Toast with caramel or buttermilk syrup, with raspberries, strawberries & peaches with whipped cream and bacon on the side with OJ & milk. DELICIOUS!!! Seriously, the food was amazing this trip. Plus we had every junk food Costco sells on each boat, so we were all snacking all day long on Swedish Fish, Mike & Ike's, Cashews, Almonds, Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts, Sun Chips, Trail Mix, Red Vines, Rice Krispies, etc. PLUS coolers and coolers and endless coolers full of water and every soda every known to man kind. We had SOO much food the whole trip!
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| The houseboat with the helicopter on it |
After breakfast, we went out on Ken's boat {one of the employee's} and went for a wakeboarding run. Andrew went first and he is SUPER good at wakeboarding. He wanted to land a front roll and got insanely close multiple times before he decided to take a breather and let someone else go. A few other people went too, and then Jake decided to go try. He had some really bad crashes while trying to get up and inhaled a little too much lake water. I'm sure that tasted AWESOME. He decided to come back in the boat and try again later, but ended up not wanting to go back out. Can't say I blame him. Some of the wakeboarding hits looked NASTY and painful and that water can't feel good going up your nose at 30 MPH. I'm super proud of Jake for trying, because pregnant or not I wouldn't have tried!
We got back to the boat and Jake went to help a few people set up the zipline. I stayed and talked to people and watched the flyboard. After Jake got back, we had lunch - sandwiches with pasta & potato salads with fruit & chips. The sandwich fixings were awesome - they had flavored Mayo's. I might have to invest in those at the grocery store haha. And the pasta salad was delicious! We watched a few more people flyboard and then Jake went out and did it again. This time, I recorded it & took pictures from his phone.
When I recorded Wednesday with the GoPro, a boat came in mid recording. When I recorded Thursday with his phone, a boat came in mid recording. Awesome - people you're interrupting my pictures haha! He had so much fun though, and really was happy he got to ride the flyboard again. After he was done, we jumped on the jet ski and went for a ride around the lake. It felt SOO good to ride around - the weather was absolutely perfect while we were there. We were trying to go see the zipline, which was up a canyon, but we were worried we'd get lost so we turned around. I spent the rest of the night relaxing on the boat deck watching people ride the flyboard, while Jake went for a hike with Andrew & Keeshia and a few other people. I didn't go because I didn't feel up to hiking... Well turns out Jake & Keeshia didn't hike either! I shoulda gone!! Oh well - it was fun to stay back and talk to people and get to know them better. I also got the chance to wash my hair while they were gone - it felt amazing to get the oil cleaned out of my hair. Lathered it with shampoo 3 different times to get it clean haha.
Before we went to eat dinner, as we were relaxing, Jake took some amazing pictures of the scenery around us.
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| View of the two house boats side by side |
Dinner was enchilada's with Texas Caviar {Jake was SUPER excited haha} with black beans, cilantro rice & knock off Café Rio dressing. Seriously, UH mazing. Dessert was Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars, but we both crashed before they had dessert. Again. Being in the sun was draining both of us haha!
Friday morning, after waking up, we headed to the other boat for breakfast. We could smells eggs & peppers from our boat, so we knew to have high expectations. And we weren't disappointed. Pancakes with all the fruit fixings {peaches & raspberries} with caramel or buttermilk syrup, plus egg casserole with peppers and bacon in it. I could have eaten a tray of that casserole by myself. I absolutely LOVE eggs and this was to die for.
After eating, we headed out of the boat and watched a few people wake surf. It looks SOOO dang hard! I don't know how the heck anyone can stay up! The CEO went first, and he was seriously a pro haha. Everyone kept saying to YouTube it and see what professionals look like, which I still haven't done, but I was so impressed either way with how people were doing! Someone went next who hadn't been able to get up the day before, and he was able to get up and surf! It took a few tries, which meant we were constantly spinning the boat around and rocking in the water while he prepped to go again. Which, yep you guessed it, led to me getting sick. I came SOOO close to throwing up, but was able to hold it back and as soon as we got back to our room I took a nap to try to sleep it off. I woke up in time for lunch - sandwiches again with pasta & potato salad again. Didn't get old though - they had different breads we could have it on each day. Croissants one day, bagels one day, rolls one day, always with the option of wheat or white bread. It was so nice having so many sandwich options!
After lunch, we relaxed and spent most of the remainder of the night just enjoying the weather. At one point, we went for a swim next to the boats and I washed my hair again. Jake got a SUPER bad bloody nose randomly and it scared the heck out of me {good thing we weren't in the ocean or I would have been a panicked FOOL!} but he stayed calm and got it under control. After swimming for a while, Jake decided to flyboard AGAIN. 3rd time! I was SOO happy he got to do it so many times, since he was SO looking forward to that being there. That time, I didn't record or take pictures and guess what - no boats came. Lol I could have recorded without any interruptions! Oh well - he had so much fun and didn't get another bloody nose, which I was relieved about.
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| End of the day on Friday |
Dinner on Friday was salmon and chicken that absolutely melted in your mouth it was so tender with amazing homemade bread, corn on the cob, insanely amazing salad & baked potatoes with all the trimmings. Dessert that night was apple turnovers. Yep, you guessed it - I fell asleep before dessert was served. That night, Jake stayed up a little longer than me and watched people play games and spent some time reading and playing on his phone while sitting on the back deck of the boat looking out at the water. Sounds insanely peaceful - wish I'd stayed awake to enjoy that.
Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to come home. Bitter sweet for sure - I missed my puppy & my shower, but I did NOT want to come home and leave this amazing paradise place. We had a "quick" breakfast of every single bread that Kneaders offers - pumpkin, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, banana bread, walnut bread, etc. with fruit and greek yogurts. And leftover cheesecake. I am TOTALLY ok with leftover cheesecake for breakfast haha! We loaded the boats back up and set out for the dock. Which means I went in our room and went to sleep so that I wouldn't get motion sick. Jake took a few pictures while I slept of the view as we pulled back in to the marina.
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| Right as we loaded the boat up to go back to the marina |
We got back to the marina, unloaded the gear from the boat and waited for the trailer rhino's to come help us haul our gear back to the top. There wasn't enough room for everyone to ride, so Jake & Andrew ended up walking back to the top. So Jake made that awesome hike TWICE. I was so grateful I didn't have to do it the 2nd time - it was insanely steep haha. I got the car while Jake & Andrew finished climbing and had the car pulled up in front so we could throw the gear right in. We helped everyone else load their stuff into their cars & boats for about half hour before we took off for home. The drive home was super uneventful - just lots of talking. It was a SUPER fun trip though - made 6 hour car rides go by super fast when you talk the whole time!
My mom had got home from Iowa earlier that day, so Max was now at her house instead of Brynne & Blake's, which made it super convenient for us to go get him. It was very apparent how much he got played with - he slept for nearly 2 days haha!
I don't know if there is anything I would change about the trip. I loved getting to finally go to Lake Powell. I loved getting to see Jake try new things. I loved getting to know people at his work better. And I absolutely loved how his company treated us. I fell in love with Jake's work all over again. They really are the absolute BEST company to work for. They have an entirely different mentality when it comes to how they treat their employees - and it shows. Employees all have nothing but great things to say about the company they work for. I'm so grateful for the chance we had to go to Lake Powell, especially with them - what an AWESOME first experience at Lake Powell!
