A rainy, windy weekend at Lake Powell.

We haven't been to Lake Powell since Miss-D was about 6 months old. This weekend, we finally bit the bullet and took the kids to Lake Powell. We bought a big, HUGE, tent (really, the thing has three rooms!). Grampa Larry came along in his motor home. Our friends Kerry and Scott and their three kids (Ian, Emma, and Nora) came too with their popup camper. It was quite a crew!

We left early Friday morning and arrived in time for a lovely evening at our designated camp site. We stayed at the Stanton Creek primitive campground near Bullfrog Marina. Daddy-J and Grampa Larry launched the boat and found a campsite where we could have the boat, the RV, the popup trailer, and the tent, with plenty of space for everyone.

We had a good dinner and some of us went for an evening cruise. We lit a campfire and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. (For the record, all three of my kids informed us that they do not like s'mores. Who ever heard of such a creature?!).

Then we all went to bed Friday night and it started getting windy. Let's just say that our big, HUGE, tent is not well-equipped for wind. Poor K-Wiggles woke up in the middle of the night with what could only be described as a night terror. For at least 45 minutes she just screamed bloody murder and could not be comforted. She hit me, kicked me, punched me, and all but bit me. And then she was done and she just melted into my arms and went back to sleep. Poor baby. Nobody got a lot of sleep Friday night.

Saturday morning was cool and breezy, but at least not raining. The kids had an awesome time digging in the red dirt that was everywhere. Daddy-J made a boatload of pancakes for breakfast and the kids chowed down!

By lunchtime, though, the sprinkles were getting heavier and none of us were up for staying in the tent/camper all day. So we loaded everyone into the cars and took a tour of Bullfrog Marina. We stopped at the Lodge and had a nice lunch.

Saturday was Baby-Nora's 2nd birthday (I'm affriad the poor child will be "baby Nora" -- or Baby Dora, as K-Wiggles still calls her -- on her wedding day!). After a short fishing cruise for Kerry, Daddy-J, Emma, and Grampa Larry, we had a good dinner and sat by the campfire some more. The kids went to bed pretty easily -- the bigs watched a movie on a sheet that Scott and Kerry brought for their projector. Mama-V went to bed early (and apparently was talked about for it ;-)

Then it started really raining. It rained on and off, heavy and light, pretty much all night. As unequipped as our tent is for wind, it's even worse in rain. Let's just say that all of our camping pads were "floating" by morning. Luckily, most of our sleeping bags were dry and we all slept relatively well, all things considered.

But by Sunday morning, we'd had enough. Daddy-J, Scott and Grampa Larry went fishing while Kerry and I made breakfast for the kids and grumbled about the weather. When the guys got back at noon, Kerry and Scott packed up and headed out.

Of course, the minute they left, the clouds broke and the sun started shining. By then, our camp was half packed up and we just couldn't decide what to do. So we took the kids out on the boat for a swim and some more fishing. We had a lazy afternoon, then decided to make a break for home.

Daddy-J took the kids home and Grampa Larry and I pulled the boat home with the motor home. It was a long night, but we made it home and spent today unpacking and cleaning red dirt out of everything.

While this doesn't sound like the greatest camping trip ever, it was actually a lot of fun. It was good to know that we actually can go camping and have fun, the kids will sleep, and they're big enough now that we don't have to watch them every second to make sure they're not going to kill themselves! They were pretty much self-entertaining, and there were very few disputes to referee.

I had a great time, but I'm totally exhausted. We took not one single picture -- dead battery, rain, you name it, but pictures was not what I was thinking about. You can see a couple of shots of where we camped and some pretty Lake Powell red sandstone canyon walls on Kerry's blog.

All in all, we'll definitely be doing this again, just hopefully without the rain!