Lessons learned in Lake Powell

We took our last boating trip of the season to Lake Powell. It was definitely last the best. I forget how beautiful it is there, the red cliffs are endless and the water is sooo warm. There is truly nothing like Lake Powell.... it is heaven on earth. We went with my dad and sister and made some fun memories. However, the trip was not without some drama. First off, Josh and I decided when we take the kids with us from now on, we will refer to it as a trip. Without kids we will refer to it as a vacation. I'm sure all who have kids will understand. On the way there, poor Colton got carsick and vometed in the car, in his car seat. After cleaning it up, we still could smell it the rest of the trip. Also, to make matters worse, just after getting the vomet cleaned up and heading the rest of the way, there was a bad accident on the main highway we were on, and so we had to detour at least a half hour down a (bumpy) dirt road, praying all the while that Colton wouldn't throw up again. Anyhow we made it. And once we did we had a great time. The lesson we learned though.......DON'T TRUST YOUR BOAT GAS GAUGE and ALWAYS HAVE EXTRA GAS ON BOARD, oh and LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE. Saturday morning we had a full day of boating ahead of us. We headed out early and as we were leaving the marina I said Josh don't you think we should get some gas??? He said no we have 3/4 of a tank left, we will be fine. So I said ok, even though we had spent half the day yesterday on the lake and we were going to be out all day today. So we skied and tubed and wake boarded and had lunch. After lunch I asked my dad, don't you think we need gas???? Of course he said no, we are fine we have half a tank left. So what do I know right? I just kept my mouth shut the rest of the day, until when we ran out of gas on the way back to the marina in the evening, then I had something to say.:) We had 26 miles left to get back to Wahweap and the sun was setting quickly. I was freaking out. We must be doing something right though because not one minute after we realized that we were out of gas and in the middle of a very large lake with the sun setting, a ranger boat drove by and helped us out. They we not to happy with us at first, but they ended up being very nice. I was so embarrassed though. All along thinking, I told you so!!! The rangers called in another guy who brought us some gas, and he ended up heading back to Wahweap, where we were headed. Which was so great, because by the time we got gas in the boat it was dusk and quickly becoming dark. And we only had 26 miles of lake to drive through to get back to where we were staying. SCARY!! We ended up using our GPS and following the light on the boat of the man who helped us. I had a new appreciation for the sun that night and wished so badly it would stay out a little longer. As scary as it was driving on the lake in the dark, with my two babies on board, there were moments that were amazing. You could see the Big Dipper and the Milky Way so clear, and we were the only people out on the lake of course. (Mom if you're reading this sorry, we made it back okay.) All in all, we learned some lessons and we also were grateful for nice people who cared enough to help us out. We truly had a beacon of light in the dark, leading us home.