Eatin' and Floatin'

LAKE POWELL

2009

Some of my earliest and most cherished memories are from Lake Powell. I remember getting up double skiing with my dad (I think he held me, the rope and managed to get up), going to dangling rope, cliff jumping with my big/cool cousins, sleeping in my swimming suit and swimming out to the tires in the Wahweap Marina. Lake Powell is definitely more work now that I am considered an "adult" and I wouldn't say that it is the most relaxing vacation but well worth the effort. In this blog I want to tell you 10 things about our Powell adventure.

ZERO

Zero is the number of sunburns that anyone received while down at Lake Powell. I attribute this to all the sunscreen my redheaded mother brought and that fact that we are all over 18, know how to put sunscreen on and have been fried one to many times.

ONE
One houseboat is what you need at Lake Powell. I will never be able to camp at Lake Powell because I enjoy the luxuries of the houseboat too much-namely running water, flush toilets and air conditioning.

TWO

Two motor boats are needed to make everyone happy. 1 for slalom skiing and 1 for the wake boarders. Thanks dad for pleasing everyone!

THREE

Three is the number of people who ended up with the "lake powell" rash. Myself, Colin and Carter. I attribute this rash to a mixture of HEAT RASH (A heat rash is a rash that develops on the skin due to friction from clothing and heat. The combination of the two with some other factors causes a skin irritation know as heat rash), SUN RASH (A sun rash is seen as small, reddish blisters or small or large spots in areas that have been exposed to sunlight. This rash usually appears after minutes' or hours' exposure to the sun and can be extremely itchy), a sensitivity to SUNSCREEN (One of the few possible side effects of sunscreens is a rash from the SPF chemicals) and dirty water.

FOUR

We only had four girls on this vacation. My mom, sister Bria, sister-in-law Katie and myself. You will note that I am wearing a hat in many pictures and that is because I got that rash right in my hairline and it BURNED in any sunlight. I think we are pretty good looking boat babes.

FIVE

We had at least 5 people reading each others books. My dads idea of a vacation is reading. Some of the books that were being read were, Liberty and Tyranny, The Wall Strip Edge, Becoming Jane, The 10 Big Lies About America, Mere Christianity, Fighting for Your Marriage, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Happy reading.

SIX

Six little moneys hanging on a tree. For one of our adventures we drove up West Canyon, hiked up the end of the canyon, saw 2 beavers, ate lunch and climbed on this huge tree in the middle of the canyon.

SEVEN

Seven is the number of 6:00 AM ski trips that my dad, Bart and I went on. We had a few others come with us once in a while but we are the die hards. Fabulous water and it was 82 degrees!

EIGHT

We have eight happy Craigo's, smiling at the bottom of the sand hill. Mom, Dad, Bria, Kaile, Carter, Colin, Canessa and Bart. It is a tradition to climb to the top of the sand hill each Lake Powell trip. It is a steep, long hill...I promise the pictures don't do it justice. We are at least getting smarter and going in the evening when it is cooler and in the shade.

NINE

Pirate dice, hot dice, hearts, spades, thumper, monopoly, speed, I got mine, big booty. Nine games that we played almost everyday and sometimes multiple times a day. It's fun to sit around the houseboat and play games together.

TEN

I give this vacation a 10!!!

MAD COW DISEASE

Welcome to my dam work!

For the last few months - much to the chagrin of my lovely wife - I have spent weekdays as the resident engineer for the rehabilitation of a dam and reservoir on the Ute Indian reservation north of Roosevelt, Utah (northeastern region of the state). I have to deal with lots of dam stuff; dam equipment, dam plans, dam weather, dam people, and even dam cattle (they are in our construction zone, so I feel like they have earned this prestigious title)!

Well, in an effort to lose the last of my extra cruise weight (yes, the cruise was in January - and I am still feeling the affects of the all you can eat fish and chips), I began my sojourn in the foothills of the Uintah mountains with the goal of running around the drained reservoir each night. The two and a half miles seemed like twenty the first time, and each subsequent time it seemed to get a little longer. After faithfully running each night for about a week and a half the relief I had been looking for came in the form of a yearling bull. Twice my weight and size, a black bull decided he didn't like that I was running on his road. I figured a rock or two, or perhaps a mean human holler might remove him from my path - alas, he became even more upset with me. He pounded the ground with his hoof thingy's, threw his head around - bull snot flying all around - and came closer to me.

I thought that "mad cow disease" had something to do with a virus or bacteria or something, but this bull clearly had a serious case of "mad cow disease". I am a little crazy - but not completely crazy. I figured this was a good excuse to abandon my lofty running goal, and carefully return to my trailer.

Needless to say, I haven't got any more exercising done at the dam and I haven't lost the last of the cruise pounds. But I guess I didn't really want to run around the lake anyway, say the dam bull made for a good excuse.

Tah tah for now - stay tuned for our next episode "DAM WORK FOR DUMMIES"