Our one and only summer camping trip

So our church was having a campout the next week after we got back from Lake Powell.
Yuki was complaining how we never did go on a camp trip all summer.
So we figured it'd be easy to do a one nighter with some people from church.
So we pulled the trigger.

 Kids set up their hammocks. Pretty cool right?

 We all look alike in this picture don't we? Love these guys.

 Yuki caught Dru in a picture with this face. It's pretty funny man cause he looks disgusted hahahaha

 She then took my phone and produced these pics.

 She needs to stop being so beautiful.

While going up there we started a car cricket game. We finished it on the way back. Dru won.
When the kids can't watch a movie in the car cause it's too curvy on the road, we play car cricket. It's an awesome game we used to play as kids, back in the old days before we had DVD players.
My kids love it. It's pretty fun.

So we had fun hanging out with everyone and had some dinner and shared some with friends. We took up curry and rice.
We also brought up ice cream to share with everyone.
Everyone loved out set up on the car and stuff. So that was fun.
We chilled and talked with everyone and hung out, then it started to rain............ and rain and rain.
Here's some video's

This is just one that Yuki took that I had no idea about hahahaha

Masaru set the phone up so it did a timelapse. You can see all the lightning. We sat up in the rooftop tent and watched and played jokers and marbles.
Dru spent some time getting everything water tight for us to sleep in. He's the man for sure.

There was another man in the morning that said he just let his wife get wet cause he wasn't gonna get out in the rain and fix it.
It made me grateful for Dru. He sacrifices himself all the time for his and our comfort. He's very selfless.
Eventually the kids went to sleep and Dru and I got up, in between rainstorms, and put the fire out. After this huge storm the fire was still going. I couldn't believe it.
It gave me new perspective about fire and how much water it much truly take to extinguish it.

In the morning we got up and had breakfast. All our hammocks and everything was wet. It kept raining all morning, on and off and so everyone just packed up and headed out.
It was a pity man, cause it could've been a really good time.
We got to know a couple of new people, which was really nice.

I'm glad we went, it was a good time. Pity about the rain keeping us from chilling but I'd do it again knowing about the rain.
When we got back, it turns out Boise got ZERO RAIN. Unbelievable mate. I couldn't even understand.
40 mins up the road, POURING, then down here ZILTCH. So weird.

Dru's 41st birthday and the end of Lake powell

So here are three video's of Lake Powell. They're the only ones I have, but I think it's ok. The last one is done by Tess and is pretty awesome right?

Pretty cool right? I wish I knew how she did it. I guess I'll ask next time. For now it's easier to just copy it from her.

So after we left the boat we stopped to get burgers at the local burger shack. Masaru got himself a couple of t-shirts and Dru got himself a shake as his birthday gift.

I feel bad for Dru cause the day was full from morning to night of travel, packing, unpacking etc.
Pretty much it was the suckiest bday he could ask for.
But he handled it like a champ. He didn't even care. I couldn't believe it. He hasn't said anything about it, moaned once, nothing.
How could someone not care about their birthday?
So I got him a 60 min massage and a new phone cover that Masaru helped me find. He loves it and it was the perfect gift for him. It's Landcruiser related. I didn't know if it was cool but Masaru reassured me it was, so I pulled the trigger. Sure enough Dru was super stoked about it.
I'll have to try and find a pic of it and put it up here.

So it's every front of a Landcruiser since they were first invented till this year. So I figured that was pretty cool. Turns out I was right and didn't even use his brother to verify, which is risky business mate. I've been burned many times by getting Dru gifts that didn't work out.
It's a fine line man.
So I'm glad this one worked out.
Dru turned 41 and it came and went like it was nothing.
But Dru is far from nothing and anyone who has anything to do with him, feels the same way.
Being Dru's friend and having his loyalties is where you wanna be in life.
I can't believe, sometimes, I have his heart, and am very grateful for that.
The kids are lucky he's their father and I'm pretty sure they know it.

 This was the view coming back from Lake Powell. It was so beautiful I tried to capture it with my phone in a moving car. It's the best I could do.
Our world is so beautiful, all parts of it too, deserts, forests, oceans and mountains. Sometimes you just have to stop and stare and remember.

 I loved this saying.

 The next morning we packed up, went to Pugs place for a bit and headed back to Boise. We stopped for dinner and Takeshi found this sweet rig he wanted to get his picture in front of.
I bet that wasn't cheap.

 I did a bunch of knitting while I was in Lake powell. I already sent a hat and mittens to my 'Magic with Susan' knitting mate. I hope she likes it. It was her birthday yesterday.

Emiko wrote about Lake Powell in her journal and spelled assets wrong. Pretty funny right?
Enough said.

Lake Powell 2019

So we didn't think we'd be going to Lake Powell cause we'd be in Aussie. But turns out, that wasn't the case, and so here we are, getting to go on another lake powell trip.
Lucky us.
Like I said, we spent all of Saturday doing the shopping. It's a big deal, and always is. Everyone who's around, helps.
Grandma looked out for the kids, which was great as it was Takeshi's real birthday, and took them to the movies.
Sunday morning around 8am we took off and got to the boat later that afternoon, unpacked and set off.
The boat, as usual, had issues and so poor Mas and Ryan have to try to figure them out. Thank goodness for those guys being so awesome so we can have a wonderful trip.

 Top of the boat.

 Just a cool shot the kids took that I liked.

Beautiful.
It takes a good three or more hours to embark on where we're going to find a spot.
Dru was out with the kids on the boat that whole time, searching for a place for us to put our big houseboat, while also pulling the kids on the tubes.
What a champ.
We finally found a sweet spot. It wasn't as good as this spot down the way, but good enough alright. It's all about the shade and so we'd found a place with good shade.

 We had more than you could see, fun toys to play with and sight see with.

Kids loved going on adventures.

 There was this thing called a lillypad that was on the boat. It was a total hit. We looked up how much it costs..................wanna guess? Almost $700. WHAT A RIP. But I'm so glad someone purchased it for us to happily use.

Love this shot of Emiko.

 Lillypad fun.

King of the mountain stuff.

 They tried to make a cave outt've it.

 We found this cute towel.

 Everyone tried to sink it. It didn't work.

 We took plenty of boat trips and did wakeboarding and skiing and tubing.

 Cuzzies, Zeke and Takeshi.

Cuzzies Myles and Emiko.

Yuki and Audrey on the tubes.

 A lot of this happening.

 Fun on the tubes.

 Kids going wakeboarding.
They did great.

Masaru's henna tattoo.

I have video's as well of the trip.
I think I'll do those in a separate blog post as it's all a little much.
This is still about half of the pictures I have for this post.
I'm trying to do a blog a day, but with a post this big, it might take me a couple of days.
At least I've started it. Plus my phone's being weird, so that doesn't help.

 Masaru with Tate. He loves his twin cuzzies.

 We all decided to go out on an adventure to the ruins. Pic's will be later on. It was a great adventure.

 We also celebrated birthdays of Ella, Takeshi and Dru. I made cupcakes that didn't work out. It was great.

Getting ourselves ready for the adventure.

 Masaru wakeboarding. This was right before he crashed. But it looked good thanks to Les taking the pic's.

 My weird cupcakes.

Sometimes you gotta just chill. Enough sun and enough water and do that to you.
Luckily we had a DVD player for the few times the kids needed to chill.

 Takeshi trying to go big, right before he crashed.

Fun, fun.

 Kids jumping off the rocks. Super fun.

 Dru still skiing.

 Looking all good.

Masaru gave it a go and did wonderful.

 These handsome guys.

Thanks to Kristin for taking these sweet shots of the kids.

 Then Kristin and I decided to go on an adventure to this awesome spot.

 Pretty cool right?

 Love it. It's so beautiful.

Then we played our traditional watermelon polo game together.

 Look at that save.........

And another..............
Kristin was MVP for sure.

 Here's what we found on our adventure. This is the forgotten ruins of the indians. It was pretty awesome.

 Another sweet save from Kristin.

 So beautiful right?

Here's our houseboat. Pretty cool right?

That's all the pictures I have.
It was a wonderful week, that always goes past too fast.
We fell in love with a new card game called "Cover your assets" You should look it up and get it.
I had plenty of time to chill, read, knit, talk, eat, swim, kayak and have the most relaxing time.

It sucks to pack up and clean the boat. But all things come to an end, good and bad, and this week it was all good.
I love Dru's family. They're great to be around and everyone had a blast. What's not to love right?