Officially kissing summer goodbye

We decided to attempt one last go for the summer by going to Lake Powell with my parents this week. It was a little different to watch the temperature go down as we came home, instead of trying to beat the heat, but it was a good change. We're hoping to make this an annual trip.

It was a long drive down. Because I'm not very organized, we didn't get started until late Sunday morning. I still feel bad that we didn't leave until around 11:00 for a six hour drive. I'm also very grateful for our portable DVD player and the stack of movies that kept Mason entertained. He was a huge help by talking to Claire. She slept the rest of the time. Alan and I took a book we have called "The Book of Questions" and pondered some really odd topics, such as: if you were asked to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling the wings off it, would you do it to get a weeklong all-expenses-paid vacation to a destination of your choice? The followup question asked if you would step on a cockroach for the same deal. Hmm. My question was who came up with that question and who would offer a vacation for such an arbitrary thing.

The next two days, Mason was itching to get out on the water. The weather was mostly fine, at times a little windy, and we got out both afternoons for some boating. Mason and Alan jumped out and went for a swim both days. The second day, Alan did some water skiing and suggested I give it a try. A little introduction is required: I'm a chicken. When I was a kid, it was all my dad could do to get me on the boat; never mind getting me into the water. Alan was very surprised that I took him up on it. Jumping in was a little cold. The lifejacket popped up weird and hit me in the throat. That was the worst part. But I couldn't ever get up; and after Alan had to come out and help me put the skis on, only to be smacked in the face with a ski for his effort, I only made a couple of attempts at it. I've been assured that hardly anyone gets up on their first several tries and so even though Alan made it look effortless (the only reason he didn't attempt to slalom was a miscommunication), I'm not a complete idiot. I'll try again next year.

Our camp got raided by coyotes. The next night, we could hear them and decided (I was tagging along with the boys, obviously) to go looking for them. They were only about 50 yards or so away. One held his ground but our flashlights scared the other three back. Needless to say, we remembered to throw our garbage away that night.

Mason was, of course, a huge fan of the whole thing. My dad brought an army shovel for him so he could dig in the dirt. Mason is not accustomed to camping in paved, groomed campgrounds (for example, the camp host rakes the sand into a feng-shui pattern), so it took a little more work to entertain him. This was accomplished with walks around the loop we were camped on. We were also near the dry dock for the damaged rental boats. He liked to ride his bike down there for my "surprise"; he would then ride his bike under the houseboats that were up on blocks like they were his tunnels. He also had fun drawing letters in the sand.

Claire benefitted greatly from having two grandparents around to cuddle with her all the time. She likes her bouncy chair for small periods of time, but it's nothing compared to singing with grandma or taking a nature walk with grandpa. My mom commented to me last night that she already missed rocking Claire to sleep; I think Claire missed it, too. She loved cuddling close and looking around with wide eyes, whether we were on the boat or in the camp ground. She also doesn't seem convinced that I'm transitioning her to solid foods quickly enough; whenever she sees food, she sticks out a long, long tongue; maybe we should have named her Jean Simmons...

From feeding ducks in the launch area (they love Cheetos and the winning duck raced away with the others trailing behind him closely) to feeding the ravens after we left, we had so much fun. Mason loved all rocks, the sand, the water. He did not love his dad water skiing and cried the whole time that daddy should get back in the boat. We ate well, we played hard, and now we need to recover from our vacation. Thanks for giving us your time and energy, guys! We couldn't have gone and had so much fun without you.