Lake Powell

Every year, Ryan's family does a big family vacation to Lake Powell. It is a blast! This is the first year I have been able to go on the house boat too so that was really fun! We really missed Brendi and Brian's family this year and wish they could have been there! Lake Powell is so beautiful! I'm so happy to be able to go with my in-laws. We had a great time!

This place is seriously GORGEOUS.

On the house boat. Nothing better than nakey baby cousins. I hope these two will become good friends! 

OK I know these pictures look pretty much exactly the same but Riley just looks so cute and happy! Riley did so good on the boat! We were so glad she liked it. She had her moments, but for the most part she slept pretty much the whole time on the boat and when she wasn't sleeping she was pretty much always happy and good!

Riley looked so cute in that life jacket! I know it's so uncomfortable but I seriously think babies look so cute/funny in them!

Mom VW said that the lifejacket was like a push up bra for Riley's cheeks! haha :) I'd have to agree.

K this is hilarious! Izzy's lifejacket gave her a MAJOR wedgie! We all laughed so hard over it.

Ryan on the surfboard. I got to surf for my first time too. It was fun! I'm not too good at it yet though... 

Jen is the queen of the surfboard! She could stay out on that thing all day! 

I wish we lived closer to this little gal. Every time we see her I feel like she's grown so much! Every time we see her she has more and more personality! She's so adorable.

Thanks to this man right here for driving the boat and giving all of us so many fun turns to do water sports!

Dad VW is a great water skiier! Apparently it runs in VW blood! Grandma and Grandpa Van were awesome water skiiers too!

About to hike up Kristy's Crack--basically climb up the side of a cliff to a slot canyon, Before we left the houseboat I asked Ryan if it was something I could take Riley on. Ryan was like, "Umm...probably not." Now that I've done it I'm thinking, PROBABLY not Ryan?! haha It was freakin SCARY! How about DEFINITELY not. Maybe when she's 25. Maybe.

Starting to hike up

See. You hike all the way to the top of that and then walk through the crack. It's really cool when you get inside because there are just walls on each side that shoot up real tall. It's quite pretty. I'm very claustrophobic but it wasn't too narrow so that part didn't freak me out at all. The hike up was what scared me because you are right on the edge of the cliff!

After we hiked up and went through the slot canyon thing we came back down and jumped off of this cliff into the water. Maybe for you this doesn't look too big. But for me? It may as well have been the empire state building. I was SCARED! I didn't realize I was afraid of heights. Well, maybe I definitely am. I was super scared to jump off! Ryan held my hand and we jumped off together. It made me think of "The Bachelor" and all of those adventure dates they go on and how the girl is always afraid but then they jump together and the girl says how, "love is like jumping off a cliff" and all those cheesy analogies :) I'm always happy to have Ryan by my side. He helps me be brave. 

I could get used to this. 

I love this picture of Jen and Justin. This is out on the back of the houseboat watching one of the CRAZIEST storms I have ever seen. We were all so glad that we decided to stay in the slip! What a huge blessing. It was a complete downpour out there and lightning lighting up all over the sky!

Buncha hotties right here. That includes half of Jen and her sandwich.

Karli helping to drive the boat :)

Me wakeboarding. I love to wakeboard! I can stay up and carve all over the place but other than that I really don't do anything. I just hang out back there. But the Van Wagoners are all amazing! They all get so much air! It's so fun to watch!

Ryan is so hot when he wakeboards.

He always gets good air and can clear the wake.

Uh huh. That's my HUSBAND.

When Ryan wakeboards I just wanna make out with him.

Back at the house boat we would play games or watch movies. We played the game "Dumb Shmuck". It was so much fun!
We also watched The Giver and Jumanji and cuddled/fell asleep sometimes :)

Izzy checking in on baby Riley. 

Nana and the babies! (PS it looks like Izzy's holding a shotgun...)

Our happy girl

Nana is masterful at holding two babies! :) And they love her!

Jen and I (or whoever was holding the baby at the time) were pretty much always in this corner so we could have the babies in the shade. Not gonna get too tan with a newborn :)

The last day, heading back out to the car. Riley looks so cute in her little sunglasses!

We had such a blast at Lake Powell! We are so grateful to Ryan's parents for putting this together and having us out on the house boat and out on the ski boat playing all day! We absolutely loved it!