The week we spent on a houseboat in Lake Powell

Chris' cousin, Troy, rented a houseboat for a week last August.
He invited our family to join them.
It was our first time at Lake Powell.
I enjoyed parts of the experience, and other parts not so much.

 Inside the boat

 Lindy wakeboarding

 Brandon

Lindy

 Brandon on the anchor line

 The red sand of Lake Powell

 Kyle sliding down

Tate swimmin'

Kyle & Tate jumpin' off the 2nd story of the houseboat!

 Lindy thinking about jumping.
Sometimes she would think up there for a long time,

before FINALLY making the jump!

Chris jumping!

I jumped too, but no one got a picture of that!

Another houseboat -

look at the size of the house boat compared to the canyon.

A cool stunt guy jumping.

His boat was next to ours,

and he did some tricks for us.

Kyle wakeboarding

 Chris wakeboarding

 Chris trying to be cool like the stunt guy.
Oops!

This photo looks cool though, too.

 Teaching Brandon and Sadie how to get up on waterskis.

Chris pulled the rope in front on the beach to get them out of the water.

Brandon hot tubbin' on the top level of the boat at night.

Tate doing a handstand on a paddle board in the middle of the Lake.

Here is everyone we were on the boat with for a week.

Our family, Troy's family, and family friends of Troy.

We also did some jumping off the rocks.

Here is Tate taking the plunge!

I love this shot of Kyle wake boarding!

Things I loved about the experience:

The scenery, sunsets, early morning calm waters, watching kids have fun.

Things I didn't like about the experience:

The relentless 100 + HEAT and no shade, leaving the houseboat in one place for the whole week - not enough exploring, wearing a swimsuit for a week, it was camping - even though we had a houseboat, it was crowded with all the people sharing 2 small bathrooms,

sunscreening everyone night and day over and over.

Things I would do differently:

Brought a lot more stuff to read for me and the kids. 

Magazines, books, etc.

Make sure to have 2 boats for everyone to take turns

getting off the houseboat during the day.

Advice for anyone considering doing a Lake Powell Houseboat:

Bring along someone who has done it before -

you need someone with experience running, driving a houseboat.

Consider going in Sept. or Oct. where heat is less of an issue.

Park your houseboat in the shade of a canyon-

But everyone knows this, so the best spots are competitive to get.

Not a good trip to do with toddlers, they need to wear a life jacket constantly,

you worry all the time about littles accidentally falling into the Lake, anytime day or night.

You need to really LOVE the water and boating, because you do it all day everyday.

All in all it was a good trip, and I'm grateful we had the experience.

As someone put it, why visit the Grand Canyon, when you can houseboat in Lake Powell.