Our Lake Powell family reunion was awesome! The kids were in the water almost 12 hours every day and there were plenty of activities to keep them all busy.......water skiing, wake boarding, tubing, jet skiing, kayaking, standup paddle boarding, fishing, swimming, snorkeling, jumping off the top deck of the houseboat, or sliding down the water slide, building sand castles, having water gun fights or relaxing on a very large, floating 'lily pad' that held about 5 adults or multitudes of kids. Our last day ended with an epic water balloon fight (about 900 balloon bombs). To those activities we add night games, fabulous food, tons of junk food and cases of soda, (stuff their parents would never let them eat at home). Last thing we do every night is called 'My Day In Six Words'. Everyone writes their favorite memory of the day, but must only use one 6 word sentence. We read them out loud and love hearing the best part of everyone's day. Then family prayer, and after a few hours of sleep it's time to do it all over again. Jeff and I are exhausted when the week is over, but it is ABSOLUTELY worth every single minute! We feel so blessed that our children and grandchildren not only love each other but like each other and have great times together. After the fun ends, everyone sends me the photos they took. I add mine and I make a hard cover book of our vacation and give each family a copy as a Christmas present. The parents tell me their kids look at those books all through the year as they anticipate their next Lake Powell adventure. (The one thing that was not great this year was night photography. Most days and nights there was a thick, dull haze that must have been caused by wild fires nearby. It cleared one day only to be replaced by cloud cover. On the last day, I kept watching the sky, and finally there was a break in the clouds and I could see the stars and Milky Way for a brief time. This year we anchored the houseboat where I could not get a shot of the lake and the Milky Way. I was standing in front of the houseboat with the lake at my back to have this view. I took one shot to expose for the foreground and cliffs, and another shot tho expose for the sky, and combined them. Enlarge to see more detail.)
