Lake Powell Family Reunion!!!

This past weekend was our yearly Weston Family Reunion!! Although it happens every year, this was perhaps the first true reunion in a while for the fact that EVERYONE (aside from our two missionaries) was in attendance at least most of the time! This year was also special because Grandpa turned 70 in May, so extra celebration ensued.



LeAdelle rented a 64ft. houseboat for the occasion which turned out to be the most perfect and amazing thing ever!! This houseboat was the Ritz Carlton of all houseboats!! It had 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a huge kitchen complete with island, large dining room table/bed, a full refrigerator/freezer combo and a smaller freezer in the pantry; a living room with couch/bed, 2 each 48" flat screen TVs--one inside and one outside on the top level--both equipped with with satellite and each having their own DVD player, a sitting area and small kitchenette with small refrigerator on the top level, a slide off the back, and a hot tub in the center of the top level. It was absolutely amazing!! We had everything we needed for everyone to feel comfortable and do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted!!






Because it was our family celebration for Grandpa's birthday I made a cake. It was really awesome! It was vanilla cake with pineapple buttercream and pineapple filling. It was covered in fondant for the design's sake (I'm not really a huge fondant fan...), but if it hadn't been for the fondant the cake never would have survived the speedboat trip from the dock to the houseboat (let alone the 7 hour drive from my house to the dock). It was decorated to look like a simple game show spinner that read "Grandpa is older than..." All of the triangles said different things-- "the dinosaurs", "the pyramids", "sliced bread", "time", "you!", "the universe", "the wheel", and "dirt". Grandpa loved it, but pretended to be very offended. =] The grandkids were HUGE fans. Every time they walked past it they had to spin the spinner. It was cool.



Delivery by speedboat has landed itself at the very bottom of my preferred cake delivery methods. I knew that it wasn't going to be a great way to get my cake to the houseboat to begin with because the houseboat was so far away from shore, but I wasn't completely counting on the wind, waves and winding path we had to take. The cake made it safely...and still looked like a cake when we arrived, although a little bulgy in places. The only real damage to the design was the fact that "time" was erased on the bumpy ride over. I decided however, that it was better that I hold onto the cake and sacrifice "time" rather than letting go of the cake entirely and feeding the fish.

To keep all of the kids entertained we had a bunch of craft projects and such they could work on--painting wooden cars and trains, making dreamcatchers and tie-dying t-shirts just to name a few. The younger kids really liked painting the cars and then climbing the rocks by the houseboat to find "garages" for their cars and driving them all over the place. It was a bit stressful for them when we were out tubing and the adults decided to move the houseboat without advanced warning...

"Did you get my car?!"
"Are you sure?!"
"Did you check all of the garages?!"

We had to make sure they were all present and accounted for before we could be calm again. =] The dreamcatchers were slightly more time consuming and most of them weren't completely finished by the time we left, all of the kids loved it. Brett had the most patience for it, and quite a knack for making them. He completed two of them before we left and they looked AWESOME! I loved making the shirts. Everyone got to make their own shirts and it really ended up being an awesomely messy activity! =]





Now, a little about the water activities. I don't ski...but I tried. I failed. But I tried, =] It was awesome. Also, technically I was wake boarding, not skiing. However, none of the adults could get up on it, so I don't feel too bad. My aunt thinks it was too small to support the weight of everyone except the teenagers and younger. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but it made us all feel better. =] The tubing was AWESOME!! Squishing people is pretty cool... My favorite ride was with Jessica. She is a screamer (whether you hit a huge wave or not), it kept the ride pretty exciting. We had a lot of fun with the slide at the back of the houseboat as well.










Overall this trip was pretty much amazing and ended WAY too soon. I really can't wait for whatever we plan for next summer!!