Ryan and Debi Cragun’s Blog

What used to be my favorite Lake Powell activity, early morning water skiing, had lost some of its appeal over the years - I rarely get to water ski, I’m out of shape, and most of my siblings are no longer interested in skiing.  Only my brother Mark and sister-in-law Kristen were interested.  So we got up early this morning and went water skiing.  They were nice enough to give me the first ski, which meant I got the good water.  I amazed myself by getting up on my first try - I always used to, but it has probably been almost 5 years since I slalomed.  It was fun, but I couldn’t ski nearly as long as I used to - I’m really out of shape.

After skiing I played my brother Danny in chess (he beat me twice and we drew once; I’ve lost my edge in that too).  We played some more Guitar Hero then my Dad set up another activity for everyone.  He brought a bunch of 50 gallon barrels and PVC pipe that he anchored off the end of the house boat.  It was an obstacle course for the kayak we always bring to Powell.  As a ridiculously competitive family, we timed everyone to see who could do it fastest.  I did end up winning, but considering all the variables, it was probably more of a three way tie between me, my brother Mark, and my sister-in-law, Kristen.  Even so, most of the fun came from watching people try to maneuver the kayak around the obstacles.

After lunch I got into a lengthy discussion, the second of the trip, on Mormon growth.  The earlier discussion was about pre-marital sex among Mormons (about 50% of Mormons have pre-marital sex compared to 80% of the population generally).  I don’t think my family has quite realized that these are actually topics I study.  With my laptop handy, I started pulling out articles to illustrate my points.  I think they might be getting the idea of what I study now, but maybe not.

That carried us through the afternoon.  In the early evening, Debi and I were getting ready to do a little scuba diving when a wicked windstorm blew in.  It’s probably the windiest storm I’ve seen at Lake Powell.  Luckily our boat was well anchored, though we fiddled with those a bit more as well.  The bigger concern was all the loose stuff on the exterior of the boat.  We got all of that situated then Debi and I looked up at our jury-rigged tent to see that it was barely surviving.  It was mostly blown down, the wind was whipping it everywhere, but the poles we had driving into the ground were preventing it from flying away.  We initially thought that maybe we could save it, so I had some of the nephews help us fill it with rocks, but the wind picked up even more, and the tent started to lift off, even with the rocks inside.  At that point I realized we needed to take it down, but that was easier said than done.  I had to untie the straps form the poles and the wind was getting inside the door, lifting it up.  I got most of the straps off when the tent decided it was ready for liftoff.  Debi was holding on to it the best she could, but she doesn’t weight nearly enough to weigh it down.  A couple nephews jumped on, too, and I started screaming for them to tackle it.  But with all of them on it, it was still getting away.  Finally, my sister-in-law, Kristen, saw that we were struggling.  She sprinted out of the houseboat and tackled the tent.  She would have made a great linebacker.  With her help we were able to finally wrangle it to the ground and pull it inside.  Our cozy tent was no longer available, but at least we didn’t lose it to the storm gods.

With the tent in, I checked the rest of our stuff on the beach to make sure it was all battened down.  We had a cooler and plastic bin on the shore by some bushes that looked like they might need some anchoring.  I tipped the plastic bin on to its side and threw a couple of rocks inside it when I heard a loud hiss.  My first thought was that it was a can of pop that I had broken.  So I ducked down to look inside the bin.  As I drew close, I realized my error, luckily in time.  Just outside the bin, blended into the rock and sand, was a rattlesnake, reared up and ready to strike.  I probably got within two feet of it before I realized what was making the sound.  I jumped back and swore.  It was perfectly camouflaged - matching the Lake Powell sandstone perfectly.  A few people saw me jump back (and probably heard me freaking out) and asked what it was.  I screamed over the wind that it was a rattlesnake.  My older brother, Mike, came out with a shovel and took care of it (he chopped it up - it struck at him twice in the process - and buried it).  If it wasn’t 15 feet from the front of the houseboat we probably would have left it where it was, but the kids played there everyday.   Leaving it was probably not a good idea.  Sorry snake.

The wind did eventually start to dye down.  My Mom put me in charge of an activity for the evening, wanting a repeat of the male synchronized swimming performed several years earlier.  Not wanting to get back in the water, my brother-in-law, Don, and I came up with an alternative.  The women had their own activity, a poem written by my sister, Tammy, and performed by all of the adult women.  Here’s the poem:

To Think That We Came from the Very Same Old (In Dr. Seuss form):

To think that we came
From the very same mold
This story is so crazy
It’s got to be told

So let us begin
With the head of the clan,
Until we’ve told you a story
About the Cragunrump men.

In the beginning
Where the wuffnorf tree grew
There was a fine little boat
That wasn’t so new.

The news that we got
One day in July,
Of our house boat sinking
It of course, made us cry.

But to the rescue
Super dad saved the day,
So we still have a boat
We can come to and play.

To begin our journey
We have to make a stop,
Five carwashes, two wal-marts
And fill up with carba-drink pop.

We made good time
Only sixteen hours it took,
Nine kids and 35 hamburgers
We got a lot of funny looks.

So who packed all this stuff
That we have to unload,
It’s obvious to us
We’re not from the same mold.

The kitchen sink
And a drawer full of socks,
Three extra propellers
In case we hit rocks.

And to our dismay
Should then appear,
Hey dad, pooper-stanker’s clogged
Back in the rear.

So out came the wrench
And the rink-rinker-fink,
He’s our hero for sure
The toilet no longer stinks.

I’ll teach the kid-cloppers
To fish cause it’s fun,
I’ll show you just how
And we’ll catch ninety-one.

We’re watching, we’re watching
Show us how it is done,
But tell us the reason
That hooks in your thumb.

(All say together)
And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

Wow what a day
What a day at the lake,
The water is smooth
And one boy is awake.

After eating his hummus
And greasing dread locks,
Ryan was ready to ski
Wow, that Cragulump rocks.

He’s debating the driver
That’s pulling him around,
He’s the wisest of all
That could ever be found.

If you use his GPS
You’ll see which way to go,
He’s the best ski driver of all
He’s safe, patient and slow.

If you want to know more
About our wisedight Ry,
He’s got the coolest blog
You should give it a try.

Let me talk about food
And I’ll fix you a treat,
I’m a vegetarian so
in other words, I won’t eat.

Cucumbers and hummus
Meat I no longer crave,
To be stuck with Cragunites
I am definitely brave.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

Oh the wonderful things
Our brother Troy can be,
A motorcycle maniac
Riding up in a tree.

He can go to the widow maker
He can go vroom, vroom
He can even beat his brother
If you give him a little room.

He can go to Olive Garden
With his kids dibble and dop,
He can tell the best stories
You can’t get him to stop.

He can scare you, he can dare you,
That he can do it best of all,
Unless you can scare him under the tramp
Then for sure he’ll take a fall.

He can read in bed
He can read in a car,
He will make you drive
If you’re going very far.

If he reads with his eyes shut
He’s likely to find,
That the place where he’s going
Is far far behind.

Oh the wonderful things
Our brother Troy can do,
But his phone mailbox is full
And he doesn’t have a clue.

But we like the music
Cause it goes boom, boom,
So we wiggle and we jiggle
Hope he calls us back soon.

Oh the wonderful things
Our brother Troy can do.
Vroom, vroom
Dibble, dipple dop
He even likes to drink
Dads carba-drink pop.

Eeek, eek
You who
Tick tick tock
It’s time to get up
Just look at your clock

Boom boom
Guzzle, guzzle,
Klopp, klopp, klopp
Fix the cycles
Cause the fun won’t stop.

And to think that we came
from the very same mold.

Left foot left foot
Right foot, right
Don’s got his shoes on
It’s just not right.

Left foot, left foot,
Left foot, right
He loves his lotion
Puts it on every night.

Left foot, right foot,
Feet feet feet
How many, many,
feet he’ll meet.

He sees feet come
And he sees feet go
Some are fast
And some are slow.

Oh me oh my
Oh me oh my
What a lot
Of funny feet go by.

Don’s here all week
Now that’s something new,
He’ll love every minute
Just don’t take his shoes.

Tickle my arm
And my sexy cheeks,
Just keep me happy
This whole week.

Don’s in the kitchen
Organizing the closet,
you can only get in there
If you make a beso deposit.

(baby talk)
You come here, give me kisses
I’m going to get you, give me kisses.

Don’s so sweet
He can even do this,
He can kiss his kids
With a butterfly kiss.

He can cook anything
He’s the best cook around,
No one more willing
Will ever be found.

If you want to laugh
Just keep Don real near,
He’ll keep you rolling
You have nothing to fear.

Bare feet, dirty feet
Sandy feet, flirty feet
Play canasta without a doubt
Come on Tammy, “Let’s go make out.”

In the houseboat
And on the beach
Oh how many bare feet
Don will meet.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

This was no time for play
This was no time for fun
This was no time for games
There was work to be done.

So no time to waste you will not
Sit, sit, sit, sit
Laziness he does not like it
Not one little bit.

Mark’s the scout leader
They’ve got him in sight,
They follow him around
They must think he’s quite bright.

Little do they know
He’s a real hum-dinger
Our kids really hate when
He brings out Mr. Bone finger.

If you’re kids are being brats
Mark knows just what to do,
He’ll talk sense into them
They’ll apologize to you.

So kids I’ve got tricks
I will show them to you,
You’re parents won’t mind
At all if I do.

He loves the tickle torture
Of that there’s no doubt,
He should not be allowed to do it
When the parents are out.

He’s our number one swimmer
The best in synchronize
Has the best sense of humor
And a great time with the guys.

He can be so cool
And that is not all,
If you’re hiking with Mark
You will for sure have a ball.

He’ll look at you and say
The buddy system is a must,
If they’ve gone off with Mark
It is him you can trust.

To the cave we will go
And we will pick up trash,
Those five mile hikes
Will be done in a flash.

He will teach them a lot
With no looking back,
We’ve watched and we’ve watched
And we’ve kept careful track.

He rocks with the kids
Of that there’s no lie,
We’re glad that you’re healthy
And that you didn’t die.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

We like our boat
It is made for twenty-three,
Our mike sits up
In front you see.

We like our mike
And this is why,
He does all the driving
When the waves get high.

Say,
Look at her toes
One, two, three and four,
Nails that are painted
With colors galore.

I can’t stop staring
It’s making me mad,
Put your shoes on like Don
And you’ll make me so glad.

The captain of the boat
“What the crap”
Not again
I’ve broken my back.

Head shoulders
Knees and toes
Knees and toes
Knees and toes.

Head shoulders
Knees and toes
I’ve broken
all of those.

Wait a minute
Singing like I was happy,
You know I’m onery
Cause manning the boat is just crappy.

When he hangs a picture
Why does Mike get so mad?
We do not know
Let’s go ask dad.

What makes him smile
Kris has the key,
So if they disappear,
Just let them be.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

Hey look at me
Can you guess who I am,
You are so right
It’s me Dan I am.

That Dan I am
That Dan I am
He bought that boat
That Dan I am.

All the tires popped
And the tide was low
But we made it home
Warlord still in tow.

Would you could you
On his boat?
No you could not
It could barely float.

So do you like
The Warlord Dan?
I will “buy it now”
I am Dan the Man.

Would you could you
Drive your new boat?
Would you could you
See if it floats?

I can, I can
If Mike shows me how,
Where is the stern
And where is the bow.

With pirate flag hoisted
The new ship I’ll man,
Because everyone knows
I am Dan, Dan I am.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

It is, of course, an entertaining poem and a fairly accurate depiction of my father and brothers.  But my brother Danny thought he could top them.  He took twenty minutes to write a response while Don and I set up our activity.  Here’s Danny’s response:

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

We are women, hear us roar
Too many activities to ever bore.
No matter what your trip we will never be ignored.
With our feminine wiles we win every war

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

(Mom)
Let me introduce myself, my name is Grandma Jeanne/Geni/Genie,
You scarce can recognize me, I’ve gotten so very skinny.
I only ask one thing and I’ll only ask it twice.
You can do what you want which means you have to take my advice.
I love my family and all my happy times come,
Yes I said love love love or to quote Ryan, “I care about you.”

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

(Tammy)
Let me introduce myself, my name is Tamara Lynn Rupe,
I attract the misfits, my offerings range from counseling to cleaning your chicken coop.
I’m a stay-at-home mom that is almost never there,
Why do I attract the weirdos, I swear I do not care.
I love my family too – but yes they drive me nuts.
You try having six brothers, you’d want to kick their butts.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

(Kristen)
Let me introduce myself, oh crap, I forgot my own name,
Tammy, Jeanne, help me – something, someth… oh, Kristen Bindrup just the same.
I like to chatteranga, Mike don’t get the wrong idea again,
We can do that later, yes your a stud – a real man among men.
I love Lake Powell and will fight you tooth and nail,
If you ever try and stop this trip, I’ll send you straight to… Jeanne,
Because she loves it too!

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

(Hillary)
Let me introduce myself, my name is Senora hillbilly,
I can pick on my husband, but if you do I’ll beat you frickin’ silly.
I’m married to Mark, which is like sleeping with a porcupine,
I may be defended well, but it’s uncomfortable and I’m not allowed to whine.
I clog like a machine, and have talents coming out my ears,
But put me anywhere near a cliff, I’ll bust right into tears.

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

Let me introduce myself, my name is Debi C.
I love my husband but he only “cares” about me.
I dabble in dancing and make a mean pad thai with rice.
I’m academically awesome, I’ll gladly explain a gene splice.
I have had a good time, in my family I have lots of pride.
I put on this sweet demure exterior, but I’m a “wild women” inside!

And to think that we came
From the very same mold.

We are the Cragun women, loved but completely misunderstood,
We are never nagging, it’s not nagging if its for your own good.
We are the Cragun women, martyrs to our very core,
Beautiful, sassy, nearly perfect – yours to love and adore.
We are the Cragun women and we only ask one thing,
Game night, poems, dancing, skits, movies, gourmet food, and maybe we should sing.

If Danny ever wanted to give up his highly lucrative career as a lawyer, he could probably support himself as a poet.

Don and I put together a tribute to the Olympics - the Marshmallow Olympics.  The first event was the marshmallow toss (tossing mini marshmallows into a partner’s mouth) - this was won by Karlie and Missy, defeating Jake and Corbin.  The second event was the marshmallow roll - this was a four-person relay rolling a full-size marshmallow back and forth about 2 meters - the men won this one with a clutch performance by my brother Mike.  The third event was a marshmallow stuffing contest with full-sized marshmallows.  You had to stuff as many in your mouth as you could but still eat them (not really a health-conscious event).  Don won this one handily, destroying Debi fairly easily by stuffing 13 in with room for at least a few more.  The final event was a marshmallow tower building contest - women against men.  Each got a bag of marshmallows and had to build the tallest tower they could.  The women won this one handily as well, even with the men trying to cheat.

We ended the evening in style, watching the new Stargate film.  It probably won’t surprise most people Debi and I love sci-fi and are huge fans of Stargate.  But, it turns out, so are Danny and Colleen.  They saw the new movie the day before we left in Costco and brought it.  The four of us were probably the only ones who understood what was going on, but it was still fun.  With the weather mellowed out, we were able to return to the top of the boat for bed.  Very few places offer night views of the stars better than Lake Powell.  The Milky Way was amazing!

Note: I forgot another important event.  The very first night one of the toilets got clogged.  Toilets on houseboats aren’t like normal toilets.  They are more like airline toilets, except they have a grinder that chews up the, um, chunks and paper to prevent clogs.  I was upstairs running the movie and didn’t realize that Danny drew the short straw and had to unclog it.  That meant taking it apart and cleaning everything out.  Imagine cleaning out a port-a-potty with a spoon and you’ll get the idea.  It was awful.  After his night of toilet terror, Danny penned “Mike’s Rules of the Pooper”:

1. If more than an inche, squeeze off and pinch.
2. If pushing more than a pound, go find higher ground.
3. If you decide to take a poo, push the down button is what you do.
4. If only  a relaxing pee is on your mind, there is no reason to grind.
5. Up is what you pull, if you’ve just wizzed in the hole.
6. A glass of grape juice every day will grease your inner way.
7. After your done with your squeeze, use your finger if you please.
8. Then use one square on your finger wash with soap so no smell linger.
9. Forget it! Don’t dookie until saturday!

Second Note: Hopefully I can get some pictures of some of these activities from my sibs.  If so, I’ll post them later.

(Note: I forgot to mention the science outing on Day 3 when I originally posted it.  You may want to go back and read about our ant war experiment.)

We felt well rested after a nice night of sleep in our tent.  We started the day with a slightly longer hike, climbing all the way to the top of the plateau, well, I did.  It was a bit treacherous just below the summit, so I left Debi there and climbed to the top.  It was perfectly flat and covered with brush.

My Dad came prepared to build just about anything, but one thing he had in mind was a zip line for the kids.  Lake Powell has plenty of cliffs and he thought he could figure out a way to anchor a rope over a stretch of water so the kids could zip into it.  Most of the adults spent about 3 hours working on the zip line.  Turns out, this is a pretty bad idea unless you have a steel cable and a winch.  We stretched the rope over the stretch of water and down to a little island, but had to try to tighten the rope by hand.  My Dad was holding the anchor in place while I cranked on the rope and Debi helped.  I was standing close to the edge of the island, cranking as hard as I could when… the knot I tied gave way and the rope came loose.  I was pulling hard enough to launch me a good five feet into the water.  Debi was right there, watching the whole thing.  She now says that’s her favorite part of the trip: the look on my face as I plunged into the water.  I was fine, of course.  I just surfaced with a doubly-bruised ego - for falling and for my knot coming undone.  As we tried to re-run the rope, it got caught in my brother Danny’s prop twice.  We did pull it taught a second time and actually tried it, but there wasn’t enough tension to even hold a small child.  Three hours, an unexpected plunge into the lake, and two screwed up props later, we scrapped the idea.

If you’re reading this travelogue closely, you’ll remember that one of Debi’s truths from the previous night was that she had never been fishing.  My Dad and brother, along with a couple of nieces and nephews, had worked out a pretty good recipe for the fish off the back of the boat.  There recipe was good enough that you could basically put a baited hook in the water and the fish would fight to bite it.  They weren’t keeping anything, but the nieces and nephews got a kick out of it.  Debi walked back there while they were playing around with them and they gave her the rod.  Two minutes later and she’d caught two fish.  Here she is with the second one:

My brother, Mark, and his wife, Hillari, came early in the morning with my niece, Karlie, and a friend of hers, Missy.  Apparently the year before Mark took the grandkids on a hike and they all liked it.  So, he set up a hike for this year and took pretty much everyone again.  He sent us up the hill to a groovy crater-like formation he found.  We stopped and shot some pictures there (I didn’t, but I’m going to try to get some from my siblings).  We then split up, sending the younger kids down the rock to the boat and the older grandkids and my siblings down a narrow, narrow canyon.  In true Mark fashion, the canyon he sent us down was virtually impossible to climb back up and it ended at about a 20 foot cliff.  The only option: jump.  As an avid hiker, Mark sent me down the canyon first to make sure it was safe.  Safe, mostly.  Easy, definitely not.  But everyone did it and no one got hurt.  We did have to send a lot of stuff over the cliff in backpacks using a rope (we all had shoes, shirts, cameras, etc.), but it worked out in the end.  Here’s the canyon:

I’m getting ready to jump.  Yeah, that guy at the base is me, in my sexy whiteness!  The water is just below the bottom of the picture.  It’s probably a 15 to 20 foot cliff, maybe a little less.  Here are a couple of pics Debi shot (she went down with the kids to make sure they got down safe; she actually really likes jumping off things like this).  This is my sister, Tammy, doing the nose hold jump:

Here’s one of Tammy’s kids, Corbin.  This was just a really good shot by Debi:

I’m floating in the water at the base in case there is a problem.  This next one is my brother Mark, the crazy one who planned the hike:

Here’s a shot of everyone who climbed down the canyon and jumped:

I’m laying in the water.  Behind me from left to right is: Tre (a nephew), then Danny (brother), Tammy (sister), Colleen (sister-in-law, Danny’s wife), Mark (brother), Kristen (sister-in-law), Carson (nephew), Hillari (sister-in-law; Mark’s wife), McKenzie (niece), Corbin (nephew), Karlie (niece), and Missy (Karlie’s friend).  Unfortunately you can’t see Jake (nephew); I’m pretty sure he’s behind Tre.  Don, my brother-in-law (Tammy’s husband), also jumped.  I’m not sure where he is in this picture.

From here we swam to a little beach that Mark dubbed “Cragun” island because someone named “Cragun” had carved his name in the cliff above the island (how Mark found all of this in the 5 hours he was here is beyond me):

We got one last photo of almost everyone on the island:

Debi and I cooked dinner for everyone.  I made peanut pad thai and a broccoli and tofu in peanut sauce.  It was also farely well-received, though some of the kids didn’t dig it.  After dinner we had a talent show, which is a Lake Powell tradition.  It was entertaining.  It was also a calm night, meaning we got a good night of sleep in the tent.

I left off yesterday’s story with Debi and I sleeping on the roof of the houseboat under the canopy hoping the rain wouldn’t be a problem.  As you’ve probably guessed by me telling this story, the rain didn’t ease up.  It got worse, much worse.  We were situated to protect us from the rain from one direction, but it switched in the middle of the night.  The rain poured in from the other direction and even started leaking through the canopy.  Around midnight the water was seeping into our bags.  Around 3:00 am our bags were so wet Debi woke me up and said she’d had enough.  We crawled carefully downstairs and looked around for a place to sleep, but with the grand kids sleeping everywhere and their parents and grandparents (my siblings and parents) in their respective beds, we couldn’t find anything but the hallway, which is a bad idea with 20+ people getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathrooms.  We finally found a location: underneath the kitchen table.  But we didn’t want to wake anyone up, so we weaved our way in-between the chairs and tried to get as comfortable as possible.  It worked enough for us to sleep another couple of hours, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant.  Here are a couple of photos illustrating why we went downstairs.

Tammy and Don are still asleep in this photo.  They were directly under the center of the canopy and built themselves a wall to protect themselves from the rain from one direction.  They still got a little wet, but not too bad.

We were on the two pads perpendicular to Tammy and Don.  This next picture shows just a little of the water we slept in:

We had sleeping bags, but this water accumulated under the sleeping bags.  Here’s a shot of Debi’s sleeping bag the morning after:

We were wet.  Here’s why we slept under the kitchen table:

The kids were laid out all over, leaving us this spot:

Debi slept under these two chairs.

One night under the table convinced us it was time to set up a tent on shore to make sure we didn’t have to do that again.  We set up a tent my parents brought, or at least we tried.  Some of the poles were missing, so, with the help of my Dad, we jury-rigged some poles and got a tent set up.  It worked, at least for a couple of nights (more foreshadowing…).

We also went hiking, snapping a few photos from the cliffs and hills above the houseboat.  Here’s Debi over-looking the canyon where we spent the week.  The houseboat is just to her left:

This was also our day to cook lunch.  We made hummus and cucumber sandwiches, which were generally well-received, though some of the kids didn’t dig them very much.

After lunch, we decided to have science hour with Ryan and Debi.  We tried hard to think of active science stuff that my nieces and nephews would find interesting.  We ultimately decided on studying ants.  I remembered my friend Tom mentioning that he and his brothers would go gather different ant species when they visited his relatives in rural Wyoming and put them into bowls together to watch them fight it out.  We figured we could teach them about ants - how much weight they can carry, how they developed trails to food, how they communicate, etc. - and then let them watch some ants tear each other apart when we were done.  We figured that would keep them entertained.  So, we took the kids up the beach and found three different ant species.  We dropped some food to let them build trails then scooped some up and took them back to the boat.  We put them together and watched to see what would happen.  As it turns out, not much.  There were some minor skirmishes, but it wasn’t the all out ant massacre we expected.  Then one of the kids suggested we drop a lizard in with the ants to see what would happen.  I’d like to say it was true scientific interest, but I think it was more an interest in carnage.  Two of the nephews caught a lizard and dropped it in.  Given the huge size differential, we were all thinking the lizard would stomp the ants to pieces.  Nope.  The ants teamed up and went to town on the lizard.  Debi couldn’t stand torturing the lizard, so we let everything out after about 30 seconds.  For our first foray into Ant Wars, it was definitely entertaining.  We also talked about different kinds of rocks; McKenzie and Carson, two of the grandkids, studied rocks this past year in school, so they did pretty well classifying them.

We swam a bit and for our evening entertainment played a few games.  I forget the first one, but I suggested one game - two truths and a lie.  A lot of people had very good truths and lies, and many were revealing.  Here are mine:

• I’ve seen someone shot.
• I love my wife.
• I’ve seen someone killed.

Any guesses as to which is the lie?

Here are Debi’s:

• I’ve never been fishing.
• I’m pregnant.
• I ran around a parking lot in high school without my shirt on.

Again, feel free to guess which is the lie.

After the two truths and a lie game, Danny, one of my older brothers, taught us a game he played in college.  Basically you bring people into a room one at a time and have them kneel under a blanket.  You then tell them, “You are in a desert and can remove one thing on you that will help you cool down.  We (those outside the blanket) know which item you need to remove that will help you cool down.  You need to remove that item and hand it to us.  When you hand it to us, we’ll let you know if it is the correct item.”  We played the game using the older nieces and nephews and most of them figured out pretty quickly that the correct item is the blanket (a few handed out their shirts first).  Then Danny put his 2 year-old under the blanket and told him to take something off (all he was wearing was his diaper).  Hilariously, Connor took off his diaper and smiled and laughed when he handed it out to Danny.  It was awesome!

After the night activities wrapped up, we headed out to our franken-tent.  We spent about 20 minutes wondering if someone was messing with us as we heard a lot of sounds that sounded like there was someone outside the tent.  Turns out it was just our franken-tent rubbing against itself.  Once we realized it, we finally got a good night of sleep.

This was a relatively calm day.  I went out on one of the ski boats with my brother and some of the grandkids and rode the tube with Trey, my nephew.  We also pulled out another nephew’s XBox 360 (Corbin’s) and started playing the hit game of the trip - Guitar Hero.  I’m not sure I would ever buy it, but it’s actually much more fun than I thought it would be.

The rest of the day was pretty casual, until evening rolled around.  The wind started picking up in the evening and then it started to drizzle lightly.  The kids watched a movie down in the main room while the adults shored up everything outside the boat.  They all eventually fell asleep where they were, taking up all of the main room.  With just a light drizzle up top, we didn’t think it would be much of a problem if we slept up on the top of the boat under the covered section.  My sister, Tammy, and her husband, Don, decided to do the same, as did my sister-in-law, Kristen.  We all set up underneath the canopy on the roof of the houseboat and settled in for the night.  Slowly, the rain picked up and… (continued in next post)

We flew into Utah on July 30th.  We spent the 31st just getting settled and hanging out with family (we went out to eat with my sister, Wendy, and her husband, Mario, and son, Ethan, before they moved to Purdue for graduate school).  I then left for New Mexico early on August 1st for my annual hike with Mark Woolley and Tom Triplett.  You can read about the trip here.  I got back early August 3rd and tried to recuperate before we headed out the next morning for Lake Powell.

My parents picked us up early on the 4th and we met up with my other siblings headed to Lake Powell in American Fork.  We arrived at Lake Powell early in the afternoon, launched and found a beach a little down the river to set up camp.  Everything seemed to go well with no problems the first day.  Apparently the old boat my brother and father had a 1/2 share in (giving them 1 week on it a year) sunk a couple years ago (it was called the Red Sands).  The new boat is bigger and nicer.  Here are a couple of pics of the inside and outside.  This is the new boat where we put in:

The new boat is called the Red Sands 2 (original, huh?). Here’s a shot of the top of the houseboat:

Here’s the main living area, kitchen, and dining room (that’s my brother, Mike, and his son, Broc, in the picture):

Here’s a shot from the back of the boat looking through the hallway:

We watched a movie on the top of the boat using my brother’s projector and a projection screen for entertainment the first night.  It went well, for the most part, until the wind picked up, which was foreshadowing of what was to come the rest of the week.

Here’s a shot of Debi swimming off the back of the boat after we put in and got settled:

And here’s a shot from the back of the boat:

We slept on the roof of the boat under the stars.  It was one of the most calm arrival days at Lake Powell that I remember.