I'm Grateful for Plumbing

Happyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappy!

Yep. That's me. Happy.

Hurting, but happy. I just got back from an epic week at Lake Powell with my extended family. It is most likely the best thing I have ever allowed myself to be talked into.

I won't bore you with all of the details of the trip. Most of the time, stories of trips are most interesting when you're actually in them, although you can slide by with in-person retellings sometimes because tone, expression, and gestures help a lot. But here? Not so much.

Since it was so hot, we all slept on the deck

So here's the skinny on what you should know about my trip:

I did in fact get a little skinnier. I was too busy playing to eat a ton of food. Plus, you try getting food when 6 teenage boys crowd you out at every meal and inhale all the food before you get to it. :)

My cousin Josh Anderson is a Tube Wars BEAST. He did things that, according to the laws of physics, probably shouldn't be possible. I'll have to show you pictures sometime, once I find a way to glean them from my aunt's camera.

We survived a pretty vicious windstorm and almost lost Josh Wille between two boats, but he miraculously did not get squished in half. We're grateful for that. The boats were all saved, if unanchored to the shore, and nobody got hurt. So we chalked it up to a really intense experience.

This is me with "The Joshes." Josh-on-the-right is my cousin. Josh-on-the-left is my cousin's cousin. They're both pretty awesome.

I kneeboarded for the first time. I really like it.

Unfortunately, my grip sucks. I get these shooting pains through my hands and wrists when I try to do it more than once in the space of several hours. Two-ish years of scooping ice cream and a hereditary tendency toward carpal tunnel syndrome (I think) seems to be the main problem. I'm sad, because otherwise I could definitely keep going. The rest of me is strong enough.

Why yes, I did take this picture. :)

I tanned gently and wonderfully all week, then of course forgot to apply sunscreen this morning, so my knees are roasted after sitting on a boat for a bunch of hours. My roommates are making fun of me because I'm "waddling like a duck," to use their description. It's just... they hurt so bad! On the bright side, it happened at the end of the trip, so I'm back in air conditioning with buckets of aloe, advil, and ice packs to comfort me. :)

But it was SO worth it! I loved being cut off from technology and surrounded by the rocking waves and soaring cliffs. We woke up with the sun, went to bed with the sun, and nobody cared what time it was (we checked sometimes, just out of curiosity, but time was so irrelevant down there). It was heaven on earth.

Okay, minus the plumbing. I really did miss that. :)