Canyoneering

I forgot that the husband took these photos while we were exploring a canyon during our trip to Boulder, Utah last month. These pictures are particularly notable because there are few pictures of me in general and almost none of me with Lachlan. I'm the one who is usually taking the pictures, which means there are a ton of Lachlan and plenty of the husband with Lachlan, but I'm mostly MIA.







And yeah, the scenery really is THIS AWESOME. Really truly.

A few days away...

Last Thursday the husband and I packed up the kid and the dog and drove about 5 hours west to the most awesome teeny tiny town ever. Boulder, Utah. You may have heard about it before if you read this post from two years ago. Otherwise I'm willing to bet you've never heard of it before. But put it on your map, because it has one of THE BEST restaurants this side of the Mississippi.

The thought of that long of a drive with a 10-month-old didn't totally appeal to me, but I had a (rather significant) birthday this past Saturday and the restaurant is soooo good, and I figured that I've been working hard enough lately that I deserved a break, so I figured we could manage. :)

We stayed at the Boulder Mountain Lodge again, and we ate every single meal at Hell's Backbone Grill. I ate the pork tenderloin chop twice. I screwed up on the third night and had their chicken. I'm still dreaming about that pork chop... There's a reason it's been written up in the New York Times, is loved by Sunset magazine, has appeared numerous times in Bon Appetit and is Zagat rated. It. Is. Amazing.

We did a tiny bit of hiking, but mostly we just hung out with Lachlan and enjoyed a few sunsets.

And today? Well, today it's back to business as usual!

Friendship cove (and the trip that almost didn't happen)

How appropriate that I spent most of my Lake Powell vacation with my friends in an area known as Friendship Cove. It was the most amazing, private spot. It was a little tricky to get our houseboat  in and out of there, but it was well worth it. (Yes, that is our enormous boat! We were late getting our reservation in, and all the smaller boats were already reserved. Let's just say that the five of us had plenty of elbow room on that sucker!)











What vacation would be complete without a horror story about how the trip almost didn't happen? Here's ours. We were in Bluff, Utah (which is equivalent to the middle of nowhere), about 3 hours from home and about 3 hours from the Lake Powell marina where our reservation was. We were in our truck, and as we headed out of the tiny town of Bluff, we felt a wobble-wobble on the right side of the truck. Thinking it was a flat tire, we pulled over and checked them. Both tires on the right side were fully inflated. Thinking it must have just been a weird spot in the road, we climbed back in and started down the road again. Wobble-wobble, wobble-wobble. Fortunately, Tony stuck his head out the window as we were driving. He looked back at the rear tire. Fine. He looked up at the front tire, turned back to the husband with a white face and yelled, "Right front! Pull over!"

To make a long story a little shorter, there are 8 bolts that hold the tire onto the truck. All but two of the bolts broke off inside the wheel. That wobble-wobble was the right front tire about to come completely off the truck!



And the bolts didn't just get loose and come unscrewed. They BROKE, down inside the wheel, so it was impossible for us to fix. A few more yards down the road and the last two bolts probably would have broke, too. I still get sick thinking of what would have happened if our tire had flown off at 65 mph!



Fortunately, we were near a very popular boat launch on the river, so our friends caught a ride back into Bluff and scored the last room at the local hotel. The husband and Sadie and I waited a few hours for the tow truck to arrive to haul us about 1.5 hours back toward home to the nearest area that could repair the truck. But this was Friday night, and we were supposed to pick up the boat on Saturday morning and we couldn't change our reservations. So the husband's wonderful and totally awesome uncle brought my car to us on Saturday morning. It was tricky to fit four people, a dog, and all of our gear and food into my tiny Rav-4 for the rest of the drive to the marina, but we were highly motivated! The timing worked out just right, and we were able to pick up a repaired truck on our way home.

The conclusion of almost everyone who has heard about this is that the bolts were probably over-tightened when we recently had new tires put on the truck. The moral of the story is that if you ever have to change a tire or get new tires, make sure the bolts aren't over-tightened because the stress that places on the bolts causes those suckers to snap in half!

Rules of houseboating

There are some things that you should do on a houseboat and some things that you probably shouldn't. I suspect this might fall into the latter category.



Thank goodness Sadie was there to save the day!

Inner peace, Sadie Bug style

I think Sadie enjoyed this little vacation as much, if not more, than the rest of us.

She had her fill of fun on the beach, from chasing the frisbee



to hunting lizards in the brush and fish in the shallow water (quite unsuccessfully).



She also did her part as lookout,



from watching for hidden rocks and sand bars just below the surface







to helping the captain guide the ship.



But this dog can teach us a thing or two about the joy of letting the breeze blow through your hair (or ears)



and how to properly relax...

Inner peace

The husband said that I've been working too hard and that I need to relax. Said something about how I need to find my inner peace.

So I found my inner peace. And you can, too. All you need is four days with friends on a houseboat in Lake Powell.

Lockhart Basin: Part 3

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

The final installment of this photo series of our camping trip in Utah is dedicated to the member of the family that covered the most miles during our trip. Sadie had an absolute blast! The lizard population kept her very busy and ensured that she slept quite soundly every night.

Fortunately, the area where we were has very little animal life other than birds and lizards, so snakes are few and far between. But every time she stuck her nose under a rock or bush looking for a lizard reminded me that I need to get her rattlesnake booster vaccine, because we do have rattlesnakes around home and it's just a matter of time until one bites her on her little snout!

Lockhart Basin: Part 2

The stars were perfectly aligned for our trip to Lockhart Basin last weekend. If we had been one week earlier or one week later, we probably would have missed this stunning display of desert wildflowers. From miniature lupine to centuries-old cliff rose, pretty much everything was in bloom.