LAKE POWELL

My family was generous enough to invite us to come to Lake Powell for a couple days with them in June and we gladly accepted. Still extremely sore from RAGNAR, we put the boat in the water on Monday and set out with high spirits to find a campsite. Due to the rainy weather, the water level of the lake had risen 20 feet wiping out some of the best campsites and making it really difficult for us to find anywhere to pitch 5 tents. We soon felt the effects of low blood sugar, being in too much sun, too close together for too long as we continued to drive all bickering and feeling quite grumpy. We finally settled on a pretty lame campsite and enjoyed a quick dip in the water. More bad news came when we found out that our family who was going to meet us at the Marina that night was having serious car troubles and weren't sure if they would make it before dark. We decided to gather together and say a prayer to help the Barfuss family make it safely and to help us find a better place to camp. From that point things started to look up and it seemed like we might be able to have a fun family vacation after all. The Barfuss family finally made it just in time, and we found a better campsite that was more suited to our needs and got everything set up just as the sun was going down. Isaac and I only stayed for three days, but we had such a great time in those three days together with family.

We tubed until our arms were sore and we couldn't pull ourselves back up after taking a spill, told stories around the dinner table and laughed at Josh's endless puns, we went exploring in old brown (the boat) up some slot canyons and all got a good scare when Steve jumped into one of the mukey pools of water, laughed about our adventures to the toilet in the bushes, ate soft-serve ice-cream at the marina every day, got seriously burned despite putting on endless amounts of sunscreen, went water-skiing and wakeboarding on nice glassy water (For Isaac's first time, he did AMAZING), burned up in the tent every-morning once the sun came up, went cliff-jumping and laughed when it gave Isaac a bloody nose, enjoyed looking at absolutely nothing while snorkling, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset together at the end of every day.

There is something about being away from the world, all out together in nature that is able to strengthen family bonds, and provide opportunities to discuss things as a family including the gospel. I loved just being able to sit around and talk and laugh together without the disruption of cell phones, when we all have messy hair and no make-up but can just love each other for who we are.

This has given Isaac a wonderful opportunity to get to know my family even better, and whether that is good or bad he told me on the way home that he finally understood what his Grandpa meant when he told him that "you are not just marrying the girl, but her whole family."