"Um....I think we have a problem..."

So, my parents, sisters, and eighteen year old brother went to Lake Powell last weekend. They left Sunday with two other families in the ward. Jason had to work and there was no way I was going to take two little ones to stay on a houseboat for two weeks by myself, so we "volunteered" to stay home and watch the yard, house, and dog.

Their plan was to spend the week anchored on some beach out in some canyon, then return to the Wahweep marina to drop off one family who needed to be home as well as Brennan (my brother) because he needed to get back to work. They've called a couple of time when they were in the main channel to check up and see how things were going and let us know this plan.

Then today when we got home from church I had a message from my mom asking me to call as soon as we got home. I couldn't think of anything she might need, and thus called back curious. When she didn't answer I called my dad's phone. Here's that conversation in a nutshell:

Dad: Well, we got in to the marina and I sent Brennan up to meet me with the car.
(My dad's speed boat has been in and out of the shop a lot lately. Apparently it had died during the week and they were going to just leave it on the trailer until he could get it into the shop...or buy a new boat...)
D: Anyway, he came running back to the houseboat really fast with this weird look on his face and he says to me, "Ummm, Dad? I think we have a problem." So I told him to just give it to me straight. He says, "The car blew up."
Me: WHAT?!?!?! (in that really annoying high pitched voice everyone gets when they're shocked)
D: The car blew up. It exploded.
M: WHAT?!?!?!?! (in the voice again)
D: Yeah. It's totally gone.
M: Are you serious? (and a third time)
D: Yeah. Don't worry. No one was in it and no one got hurt.
M: WHAT?!?!?!?! Are you serious? What happened?
D: A nearby camper caught fire and apparently blew up four cars, including ours.

So you get the idea. We finished by talking about what they were going to do and what the plan was now. They have to leave the speed boat at Wahweep because (obviously) the trailer was torched with the car. And they'll either pile into the other cars (if everyone and everything fits) or rent something and then deal with insurance when they get home.

Last year on the way to Powell my parents started a hillside on fire. Seriously. In the midst of all the other fires that were going on last summer, the axle on their boat trailer broke, sparked, and burned an entire mountainside. Now this. I can't help but just laugh!

Anyway, my dad e-mailed me a photo of the used-to-be-2007-Denali-turned-charred-shell:

Hopefully the second half of their trip goes more smoothly than the first half!!! =)