My Name is Rindi: July 19, 2017

All through the night... Greg is braving the storm.

The storm came blowing in furiously in the night. We jumped up and grabbed our stuff, trying to pull it down into the houseboat before we all blew away. It was scary and a few of the kids were crying. We tried to make beds and get kids situated the best we could in the dark. And then the adults held a vigil through the night. Stalee and Clint watched the front of the boat; Greg and I watched the back. We worried about the way the boat had shifted positions and how loudly it was crashing into the rocky shore. We worried about the ski boat bobbing wildly in the water. We worried as our anchor rock kept grinding to powder little by little. Then a stiff rain came pelting into us from the side. For the first time at Lake Powell, I actually felt cold. The kids were all trying to sleep, but the adults gathered on the front of the boat and I said a prayer. I prayed for calm hearts so that we might be able to withstand the storms. Somehow, we rode it out and by early morning, we all were able to lie down and fall asleep. With the blinds shut and the A/C on, we all slept in well past sunrise.

Now we were a bit battle weary and faint hearted. We had reached enormous stress levels, but we had all stayed patient and kind and calm. We had even laughed and talked through the night. We had learned that it was much less stressful to just sit together and watch over things than to try to sleep through it. As Greg and I sat shoulder to shoulder through that long night, we laughed and talked and enjoyed this rare moment in time. Eventually Greg went to bed and Stalee and I sat up talking and watching over things. When it all calmed down to just a healthy case of the Holy Rollers, we decided to sleep, having faith that everything would hold tight.

Rindi and Stalee -- 3 a.m. shenanigans

As usual, another beautiful day dawned before us. It almost felt like a trick that such a beautiful, calm morning was awaiting us. But we decided to take full advantage of it.

We took all the kids out skiing, kneeboarding, surfing, and our afternoon tubing session. We had a beautiful, fun day. When Miles pulled off his 360 on the kneeboard, he came onto the houseboat and sighed, saying, "I'm still in shock!" It was so cute. And the way Owen would just scream and squeal on the tube. When I accidentally dumped Owen, I was so worried he'd be upset. But as I pulled back up to him, he was screaming, "That was awesome!!" I started getting pretty wild with the kids on the tube. They never wanted to end. I always had to cut them off.

Yesterday, Greg and Clint took the older three girls into Dangling Rope to dump the trash and get some ice as well as fill up with gas. While there, Clint kicked a cleat on the dock. We thought nothing of it other than it was bruised, but by today it was getting really swollen. We got many good laughs throughout the trip as we watched his foot turn all sorts of gruesome shades. It was sad.

Clint's fat foot (it got much worse than this!)

The kids spent many hours playing cards and eating treats. We also played Rummikub and Dominoes. Miles had his magnetics and those were a hit most of the trip.

The girls rubbed on tanning oil and laid out for quite a few hours on rafts and started to get really tan. Stalee and Julia got pretty sunburned on their chests, but mostly everyone is getting brown.

The night felt calm as we got ready for bed. We could only hope...