Lake Powell 2009: The Frost Curse Strikes Again

Day 1:

A slight miscalculation by Captain Ron lead to the entire group being ferried out to the houseboat before anything was unloaded from the cars. Lucky for him, Mike and I were left behind. This meant that everyone's stuff from the 3 vehicles was taken down the long, hot boat-ramp onto the dock by Mike and myself (but mostly Mike, poor Mike).

Once we finally made it onto the houseboat we had to sit in the harbor tied up to our buoy while Captain Ron tried to fix one of the broken engines. He was told that it would be a simple solution and would just take a minute to fix it.

Hazel and Henry entertained themselves by watching Baby Einstein.

Dan and Mike passed the time by looking like fools while trying to help with the engine.

and the three amigos kept themselves busy by helping out as much as possible...

The "easy fix" wasn't so easy and actually never even got fixed. Captain Ron decided after a couple hours at the buoy that the best idea was to limp along on our one engine to the closest beach.

We found a great beach and immediately began to play with high hopes that nothing else would go wrong (oh did I mention that Mike and my mom both were sick with a cold)...

Unfortunately, Kim's happy face wasn't a foreshadowing of things to come. In addition to getting up with her kids three times that night, she was also trying to avoid puking over the side of the boat.

Day 2:

Megan greeted us with a morning "quack" and we all decided it was going to be a great day...

until about 2 minutes later when I tore my leg open on the offending hinge in the bottom right of the picture.

No big deal, a little skin wound wasn't going to stop us from having fun.

Dad even kept his cool when shortly after this picture was taken he had to come rescue me on the waverunner. I was having a hard time making it back to the beach with a broken steering mechanism. It was nice to know that one of the screws had come loose and that I didn't actually break it.

And we all kept our cool when Captain Ron announced that there was a leak in our septic tank and that we'd been swimming in our own crap all day. So with our septic tank emptied out, we packed up and headed off to another beach with the instructions that we could no longer use the houseboat toilet but to instead use the port-a-potty from my dad's boat. The good man even told us that he would empty it himself when it got full.

We treated ourselves to s'mores that night at our new beach.

Day 3:

We had a nice, relaxing morning. We read,

We played cards,

and then we all packed into the boat and headed for Rainbow Bridge.

Despite Captain Ron almost tipping the boat, the bazillion degree walk over a dusty path to get to the bridge, Megan's disillusionment with rainbow bridges, pots of gold, and magic, the 3 hour boat ride, and the two baby meltdowns on the way back to the houseboat, it was still a great time.

and I think this picture proves it (taken shortly after the total meltdown).

However, it wasn't quite enough fun for one of our crew members. We lost Logan's friend to a case of homesickness. Lucky for him, his parents drove all the way down to Lake Powell to pick him up.

Even after all the hulabaloo, and despite the refrigerators that had decided to stop working, we still had enough energy to throw a Mexican fiesta, ole!

Day 4:

The wound was healing up nicely and things seemed to be calming down

We went out for the morning run

and then played in the water while Captain Ron went to buy a new battery for the other waverunner that was now dead on the shore.

The good news: He got a new battery and the waverunner is working

The bad news: shitter's full

With a new battery and a clean toilet, it's finally time for dinner

a little relaxation,

and chocolate facials!

We wound down the day by spilling the garbage,

and watching the sunset.

Day 5:

We made sure the babes got their naps.

before we headed off to the sand dunes.we made it back to the houseboat right in time for our Hawaiian luau...

and a giant storm.

So instead of eating our Hawaiian dinner we listened to hawaiian music while eating Cheez-Its and watched the houseboat slam into the rocks

Henry and Kim both thoroughly enjoyed the wind

and the girls practiced their hula dancing.

Things finally got settled down. We re-tied the houseboat and ate our dinner, then it was time for the show. Cute Baileigh and Megan set up their "audience" (aka stage) and put on a performance for us.

(oh yeah, I forgot to mention the broken nose that I received that day. Ok, I'm not totally sure it's broken, but it's still bruised and tender to the touch.)

Day 6:

Our trip was cut short due to the faulty septic tank, so we packed up and headed home. I failed to take a picture of the houseboat in "dry dock" up on the wood pilings, or us exiting the houseboat via a 15 foot ladder, but I'm sure you get the idea.

The cherry on top of the whole trip happened when we were loading up to go home:

• My dad's boat started to smoke and overheat and is now in the repair shop.
• My parents received a phone call from the car dealership saying that they'd missed out on the car they've been waiting months for because he couldn't get a hold of them.
• Shortly after the disappointing phone call my dad jumped into the lake to check on the waverunners and forgot he still had my mom's cell phone in his pocket.
• And by the time we made it back to Layton the truck was leaking transmission fluid
  

As you can see, it's always an adventure with the Frost crew but no matter what happens it always ends up being a fun, memorable trip.

And now I'm sure that nobody has a doubt in their mind as to the reality of the Frost Curse.

So, until next year....