Russ is snoozing hard demonstrating what a wonderful and relaxing our week at Lake Mead was with our new friends, the Smiths. Oct. 8-15, 2011
Chloe and Liv and I came up to the top deck of the boat after a swim and found Daddy cuttin' some zzzzz's
Russ and Rick and Allison all grew up in Boise, Idaho and graduated from high school in 1982, 84 and 86. They have so much fun talking about the good ol' days in Idaho and all the friends they have in common although they didn't know each other back then.
Russ, cousin Sydney, Miranda Smith, and Sydney's friend, Dan, are sitting around the big square table in the middle of the main living room cabin of the houseboat where we ate our meals, watched movies, and played LOTS and LOTS of card games! Mostly; Five Crowns, Egyptian Rat-race, war, Speed, Fast Sundays and we even played a little Risk and "What if...then"
Rustin trying to decide what his next move's gonna be.
Jacob Standiford (Hillary Smith's boyfriend) and Miranda in a heated card battle
Russ dealing out a game for him and Tess while Rustin is acting like Rustin.
Bentley on the far end of the table was a total crack up! He was so much fun to be around and had tons of fun with Rustin!
Olivia and Chloe and I had tons of fun up on the top having a dance party where we watched Olivia's moves and made up crazy themed dances, that often involved acting like we were throwing ourselves over the railing into the lake below. I'm making the face that Olivia makes when she does her best, funkiest dance! She does it better though!
Tess the wakeboarder is back! Although we don't have our own boat, Tess learned to wakeboard when she was pretty young and LOVES it as well as being quite good at it!
I can't help it, but the crash pictures are as fun as anything else!
Olivia all bundled up during our morning boat ride.
Rustin is scowling because he didn't wear his contacts all week and when he doesn't he is always squinting or scowling.
Rustin and Bentley cutting up the water with the Jet Skis out on Lake Mead
Chloe showing us a great crash as she's trying to do a little wakeboarding
Now she's up and doing great!
I love this scared face. She is not thrilled about going over the wake!
We loved this cute little duck couple was always close to our boat. We called them Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
One of the many cool features of the houseboat was the slide off the back.
We could only slide off it when the ski boat was out in the water and not tied to the back of the houseboat. GO LIVVY!
Liv doing a great pose before she hits the water!
Tess looks like she's riding on Shamu in this picture. She LOVED the Jet Skis!!!
Biting her tongue and riding hard!
Bentley making us laugh our heads off proving to his dad that this Personal Floatation Device does NOT flip you over on your stomach if you are unconscious in the water.
My cute husband!
Taking off for our one and only tube ride (the tube had a leak in it already).
Bentley, Olivia and Rustin getting blown around and soon Bentley is thrown off the side by a sharp turn!
Chloe hops on and little does she know it's about to get a lot worse!
A big turn and a big wake spells craziness! Olivia is on the water and Rustin looks like he's about to land on her! Chloe is nowhere to be seen!!!
Now they're all gone!
Here they are and surprisingly, no one is hurt and everyone is smiling!
Rustin's turn for some wake surfing. He wakeboarded earlier when I wasn't on the boat and hurt his already injured ear drum (from tubing this summer) so it was only surfing and jet skis for him after that.
When you wake surf, you don't hold onto a rope after you get up. You just let the enormous wake push you along and surf on it. IT'S A BLAST! Rustin is fighting to get back in front of the wake. He's going to get left behind if he doesn't move up quick!
Just had to show the gorgeous water and Rustin's killer calves!
Here goes Tess on the wake surfboard. She's got her concentration face on.
Now she's playing in the water and telling us she loves us (posing for cool picture!) in ASL.
She was amazing at wake surfing and could just ride along forever!
This is one of my many crashes! I finally got the hang of it on Saturday (the day we left) and man was is a blast to find that groove in the wave and just ride and have fun!!!
Allison loves her daughter, Miranda, and gives her a smooch on the boat.
Olivia is fighting to get up on the wakeboard for the first time in her life!
Oh ya! She gets up and gets a cool pose in, just like Tess!
Oh no! She's going down! Great crash shot!!
Olivia bites her lip when concentrating!
So does Rustin...
Tess too!
Chloe is the queen of funny tongue and lip biting!
This is as close as I got to biting my lip.
Allison got great pictures of Russ which I will add when I get the CD from her.
Chloe has got the wake surfing down (at least for the moment) and gives us a smile!
What a cute girl!!!
Miranda and Chloe went on a "treasure hunt" and found a swampy area full of junky treasures. This grass growing kick board was their favorite!
Here are their other treasures. Chloe put on two of these flip flops so she could walk around and get more stuff! Ewwww!!
After Tess and Rustin left for youth conference at Camp LoMia (on Thurs.) Chloe took good care of Miranda.
When Rustin left, Olivia took over his room and was loving just chilling with her favorite snack and movie after a long day in the sun.
I'm standing at the back end of the houseboat and looking towards the front. There are six bedrooms along the hallway on the left (3 upstairs and 3 down) and three bathrooms on the right. This is the biggest houseboat at the Callville Bay Marina and the Smiths got it for free from their company for a whole week!
Bentley, Rick, Miranda, Jacob, Hillary, Allison, Chloe and Russ in the kitchen on our last day.
Here she is, the "XS1." Our lovely home for the week!
XS1 parked in Rufus Bay and the M1, Allison's parents' boat is parked just on the other side of the hill from us. They were a fun group to hang out with too (Anne and Rjay, Lynn and Dave, Florence and George)
