June's Lake Powell Trip

Lake Powell this year... hummm. Well, it was a bit interesting to say the least. It definitely was not the typical Lake Powell trip. First of all we had very strange COLD weather. I didn't bring any warm clothes for my kids at all. I tried to go into town to buy some, but there were none to be found. At night, I piled on the blankets to keep my kids warm since we had decided to sleep outside. The kids loved that part! But because it was only 70 degrees the water was not enticing anyone to swim let alone learn to ski. I had borrowed some trainer skis with high hopes to teach my kids the lost art of waterskiing. Maybe next year...

And then there were the wasps! From the moment we set foot on the dock, Kamryn and Carter noticed the large wasps that hung around the light fixtures on the dock. Not only did they notice them, they let everyone else around them know that they were very aware of the bright yellow and black bugs that could possibly end their life!! Screaming, crying, dodging, running were just a few verbs that could describe my kids behavior. They survived the week, needless to say. I sat them down and told them to ignore the frightening wasps and they would be left alone, but when there are so many I guess it's hard to remember mom's advice. Each of them learned to cope. Kamryn decided to hole up in the houseboat all week and Carter decided to brave it, but still thought that running and dodging might be a good idea. I'm not sure why the phobia started with this trip, but we might need some help for next time.

Oh, and then there was the fire. Yeah that's right. Big fire. In the middle of the night. Two houseboats engulfed. Couple explosions. Small but still loud. Let me set the scene. Mason asleep inside the houseboat, the rest of us outside sleeping on the front of the houseboat. I wake up to what sounds like elephants running down the dock (all the 17/18 year old senior trippers just graduated from high school running towards the fire) and alarms going off. My mom tells me there is a fire and they (they who?) are telling people to evacuate. Oh my! Where is Benn? Where's Benn. WHERE IS BENN!?! I start to panic just a bit. Mind you, I just woke up from a very nice sleep. Kamryn and Carter are still sleeping. Where is Mason? Why are Jody and Beckham still laying inside sleeping when there is a fire!!! Where the heck is Benn? I start to wake up Kamryn, telling her there is a fire and we need to leave. She is having a hard time processing and lays back down. Where is Benn and why isn't he helping me!?! Here comes Benn, finally. He was down the dock using the bathroom. Oh, good place to be... I guess. I start crying cause I was just about to have a melt down before he got there. By this time, I'm trying very hard to pull it together and calm down. The alarms were still going off and there was a lot of noise, but my kids slept through the entire thing. My parents, Benn and I were on top of the houseboat watching these two other boats burning, while my brother, his prego wife, my sister and bro-in-law were filming the fire on their camera. We had a pretty good view from up on top. The burning boats were just a dock away. We saw boats trying to get out of their slip as to avoid all the thick smoke. People were evacuated closer to the fire and those that were in the wake of the smoke. Luckily the wind was blowing at just the right angle so we didn't have to leave. It was very scary to me. I kept wondering if there were people on the burning boats. Was anyone hurt? Is anyone helping them? We found out days later the boats had been vacant at the start of the fire. I still don't know how the fire started, but they burned and sank right there. That is for sure, hands down, the most action I have seen at Lake Powell in the thirty years I have been going there. I hope I never see that again!

Among all the strangeness of this trip, we of course managed to take several pictures documenting the moments we were having the time of our lives!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com