Survivor Lake Powell 2012

After much persistence, my sisters and I convinced my parents our next family reunion needed to be at Lake Powell on the houseboat. Over UEA we all headed to Bullfrog Bay. Most of my favorite memories of vacations as a child are of being on the houseboat at Powell. There have been many trips with awful weather and problems. High-winds, boats coming off trailers, boats breaking down in the middle of the lake- just to name a few. I could see why my parents (especially my mom) were a little cautious about the idea. But this trip did not go down in the 'Book of Disastrous Trips to Powell'. In fact just the opposite. Beautiful weather, no boat issues, good fishing, and lots of friendly competition. All that was missing was Hermanita Lambert, but we all knew she is on a much more important fishing trip.

Survivor Lake Powell: Out Fish, Out Play, Out Compete.

All the brotha'-in-laws seem to think we are really competitive. They may be right because at each family reunion we have a friendly competition. Each family can score points through different games/challenges and the winners at the end of our get-to-together gets their name on the Lambert Family Reunion Rock and gets to keep it until the next year. Last year the Hubbards won and this year at Powell the Hatchs barely beat the Bleazards, who dominated until the last challenge. . . I'm not bitter.

     Sand Castle Building- Sponsored by the Swallows:

Each couple could earn cups to help them build a sand castle that touched a rope above. It wasn't much of a competition because we finished several minutes before any other couple. Domination.

     Family/Lake Powell Trivia- Sponsored by the Hatchs:

Teams were required to answer a series of questions about other family members and trivia about the lake. Needless to say we won. Domination.

     Lake Powell Map- Sponsored by Mom & Dad:

This was a good old memory game. Teams ran back and forth from an official map of Powell to their blank map, filling in as many names of canyons, bays, and land formations as they could in certain time limit. The Swallows outwit us, but I was happy with 2nd. Near Domination.

     Chubby Bunny Obstacle Course- Sponsored by the Bleazards:

Because we were in charge of this competition we didn't compete. Everyone would have been blown away if we did haha. Couples had to eat 2 jumbo marshmallows each, chug a cup of water, shimmy along the outside of the houseboat, go up to the top, off the slide, swim to a rope, dive down untie a sunken pop bottle, swim to shore, use the rope to do a three-legged race on the beach. Intense. Hubbards won.

     Fire Building-Sponsored by the Hubbards:

Here's where our domination goes down hill....couples had to build a fire with flames high enough to burn through a small rope hanging horizontally above. Keith taught us all how to build a fire using only materials from nature. This is the true Survivor skill. We had a bow, spindle, flint, tee pee etc etc. During practice time Heath and I got a fire going so I thought we wouldn't have trouble adding one more win to our score. When the real competition began, we choked. No ember, no flame, no fire, no win.

Congratulations Hatchs on being the Survivor Lake Powell champs.. Thank you for stealing our victory out from under us. Don't cover the rock with your name. Ours will be on it next year.