On our last night at Lake Powell, we had a bbq dinner. Our kids grabbed their dinner and sat at the large table with the other kids and teenagers. With 45 people, the area was loud and little chaotic, but I stood just a few feet away from the table talking with a friend as we waited for the food line to die down.
While Briggs was eating dinner, the two teenagers sitting across from him noticed his eyes were watering. They asked if he was okay and he shook his head yes. But he quickly panicked and started shaking his head no. One boy yelled, “He’s choking!” The dad sitting directly behind Briggs immediately turned around and grabbed him and started the heimlich maneuver. With heavy force, a large chunk of hot dog dislodged and conveniently landed on his plate.
I didn’t even see it, it happened so fast. I recognized the boat had grown quiet and everyone was looking at me as Briggs walked to me with tears in his eyes. And I heard, “Cam just saved his life!”
We made our way to another section of the boat, away from the eyes of everyone so we could process what had just happened. The dad who did the Heimlich came and found us, concerned he may have broken Briggs’ ribs because of the force. He was sore, but mostly just shaken.
We eventually made our way back to the dinner area and his plate sat on the table as a reminder of his scare. His chest hurt, his throat hurt and he settled on watermelon for the remainder of his meal. Everyone was still in shock of what they witnessed and the story was retold multiple times from different perspectives.
It was a close call. He’s obviously old enough to know how to chew his food, but he didn’t. He has braces and an expander in his mouth and he took far too large of a bite.
I am grateful the teenagers sitting across the table noticed his distress.
I am grateful for the quick action of our friend the second he heard the word, “choking”. (Another dad heard the cry and jumped as well, he was just two feet behind him.)
I’ve never had to give the Heimlich before. I’m sure I would be able to do it if needed but I was grateful there were medical professionals present to assist. (They also came in handy a few years ago when Hunter had his mishap with the underwater rock!)
I am grateful for the outcome, our Lake Powell tender mercy.
I’m not sure how it’s possible, but this trip gets better every single year. The kids get older. They’re happier on the lake. They enjoy more activities. They can put sunscreen on themselves! 🙂 Our relationships with our friends are stronger than the year before and we have more shared experiences.
If you ask my kids, Lake Powell is their very favorite week of the year – more so than any other vacation we’ve ever been on and I have to agree. If you haven’t been to Lake Powell before, your only experience might be the media telling you how much its dropped in water level over the years and it’s true. We stayed in the exact cove we did last year but it looked different since it’s sitting almost 25 feet lower than last year. And yet, there is still so much to enjoy.
The weather was warmer than we’ve ever had with multiple days in the triple digits and yet I would argue, it was our best weather yet. The daily heat warmed up that water so even I found it to be enjoyable and luckily the houseboats have AC.
Every year our group has a few mishaps – broken props, stitches, boat issues or unpredictable weather – and yet every year we can recount God’s fingerprint during the week. Hunter will have a scar from a simple encounter with an underwater rock (hours into our first day), a simple reminder of God’s fingerprint that day. Luckily, we had Utah’s best maxillofacial surgeon taking care of him. (Between all the doctors that join us on this trip, they bring enough medical supplies/equipment to run a small medical office – every year it comes in handy.) Unfortunately, it did put a damper on Hunter’s experience for the week and he’s claiming last year was a better year than this year. 🙂
Bennett has been working on his surfing skills and has been using a trainer board with straps to get comfortable. This trip was the first time he not only used a real board, but was able to let go of the rope and start carving. A far cry from previous years when he was crying in the water frustrated and ready to be done. I’m convinced learning to surf is a labor of love and we’ve been fortunate to have so many great people teach our kids. This year, it was our turn to teach someone else’s kid and she did great – our experience has been kids always learn better when its someone besides their own parent teaching them.
If this picture had a sound (ie a video) you would hear a gaggle of kids chanting “Jared, Jared, Jared” over and over again. You see, Jared brings a boat every year strictly dedicated to tubing. It’s a smaller ski boat, doesn’t throw a large wake, and gets the best gas mileage. Every morning, my kids would wake up and run to the other house boat to ask Jared to take them for a ride – and he always obliged. The kids loved him so much, they started chanting his name with love every time he was taking them out for a spin. The chanting became a thing during the trip and it made me smile every time. At the end of the trip, as we were driving the house boats back to the marina, we caught up with the other house boat as they had stopped to remove the boat they were towing behind it. From the top of our houseboat, I could hear the chants. I walked out to find the kids chanting Jared’s name as we passed them on the water. The perfect send off for him!
The whole crew – all of us crossing paths for various amounts of time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin years ago. Oddly enough, we weren’t close with all these families while we lived there, but we all have a shared experience of our time together and that was enough to form an unbreakable bond and we have grown to love each other and we look forward to catching up each and every year.
I always think that I’ll only need a couple pictures to tell our summer Lake Powell story. And then 25 pictures in, I realize I still have more favorites. So round two of pictures it is!
Every year as we wrap up our summer road trip we always ask our kids what the highlight of the trip was. Never failing, Lake Powell is at the top of every kid’s list.
This was the first year we brought Briggs (The first year we felt confident he would be able to keep a life jacket on 24/7) and even he had the time of his life. When we first arrived and got out of the car to start loading stuff on the house boat Briggs had a little freak out moment as we were trying to force him into his life jacket. He was not having it and we immediately regretted bringing him. Luckily, we had another style life jacket and the minute we swapped it out he was happy for the rest of the trip.
This picture pretty much sums up Briggs’ experience: Life jacket on, sucker in one hand, ice cream in the other. He won the hearts of everyone on the boat and every time I turned around it seemed as though someone was handing him a treat or snack. He was a charmer.
Bennett tried knee boarding for the first time (I didn’t know anyone even did this anymore!) and he LOVED it. I think more than anything he just liked trying something new and feeling successful at it. Next year he’s committed to learning how to wake surf.
The trampoline was a new feature this year and it was a huge hit. Every day is was WWF as the boys battled it out and pushed each other off. I could have been entertained all day watching that trampoline. Never a shortage of laughs.
Steve found his surfing groove. I on the other hand am mastering the art of letting go of the rope and just riding smoothly behind the boat. I find the sweet spot and I just cruise!
The kids love cliff jumping. Bennett loves it most of all the kids. He’s always the first one to jump. (what’s crazy about Lake Powell is there are areas over 500′ deep. So we’ll find really deep little coves where the kids can choose how high they want to jump from. Everyone seems to master their fear at a different level.) Cannon jumped for the first time this year and it was at diving board level and he was proud as could be.
We love these people. We love that they are so generous with all their toys. We love that we can gather once a year and catch up. We love that our kids are friends. We love that all those years ago we all crossed paths in Milwaukee. We love Lake Powell!
