This year at Bear Lake there was a new segment of the reunion added called “Fear Factor.” I’m pretty sure it’s one that will be sticking around for the long haul. Because it was a hoot I tell you. (man, I do sound like my mother:) Before I explain the gory details I must put a little disclaimer out there lest anyone be dismayed and duped into thinking these children were forced to participate: 1) All children participated willingly and knew they could withdraw at any time. 2) There were no children harmed in the process of this competition. 3) One of the rules was: “you can cry if you want to.” Or maybe I just added that… 4) All the foods were perfectly edible and got the kids all prepped for foods they may be partaking on a regular basis if they ever find themselves living on the other side of the planet. Ok good, got that taken care of. Oh, one more thing…my sister-in-law Kristi took the awesome expression pictures in this bunch, not me. So I can’t take any credit for those beauties. Here we go. “Who wants to participate in something called ‘Fear Factor’?” “Oh me, pick me! What? there are prizes if you make it through all the rounds? Oh sign me up!”
My brother sets the rules and a teensy bit of trepidation creeps in:
…a little more:
…”say what? we will be eating what?”
“Yeah, we’re all still good. We get the rules and we’re up for the challenge. Excuse me while I have a little hair for my appetizer.” (see Elle)
Round 1: Lemons “Yeah, a little bit sour but I can handle this.” (Grace) “Easy peasy!” (Max)
“Oh my word, I don’t know if I can do this!” (Claire)
“You can do it, Lu!”
Round 2: Tomato Juice 
Testing the “plugging-your-nose” theory:
“Can I please have some more?”
Plugging-your-nose theory goes down the toilet:
And with that, poor Grace and Claire were out. Round 3: Seaweed 
The “seaweed series” was my favorite. My sister-in-law brilliantly caught these shots of my sister’s twins:
“Done!”
“Yeah, not going there…I’m good with my wing-dinger of a prize from the first two rounds.”
Round 4: Squid 
Round 5: teeny pickled eggs of some sort “Maybe it will help if I pull my eyelids off…”
“…Or do some serious meditation.”
Round 6: dried little teeny fish with eyeballs that look up at you
Round 7: pickled cockroaches 
Ok not really, but they sure looked like it and I can’t read that writing. 
I don’t even remember what the food was on the last round, but it was down to Max and his 11-year-old cousin.
Max could NOT get that chewy, rubbery, whatever-it-was down.
So his cousin Isaac came out triumphant. And I don’t even have a picture of that, darn it! The very best part was watching the audience cheer the kids on.
Yeah, I think “Fear Factor” will be sticking around. I just hope it doesn’t include adults next year.
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Oh man I was laughing when I read your captions. What brave children, I wouldn't have eaten most of those things. How fun!!
oh my gosh these pictures, and your captions, had me laughing out loud at work. Hilarious! I think my family needs to try this for a reunion. What a clever idea!
Sooo funny!!
Oh my that looks like such a great idea! I want to copy-cat that game for my youth group! 🙂 What exactly were the rules, so I know how to best play it with my teenagers?! (This seems like a perfect Halloween-time game, since it's on a Wednesday this year!)
–Halie
What a darling, darling family! Love your girls (and the moms) suits– what a gorgeous crew. Where did you find those cute suits?
That was so funny!!! I was laughing so hard I cried!!! Your captions were great!!!!! Love that all the kids gave it a try as long as they could!!!!
ohhh poor kids….thats hilarious!!!
Oh my, those faces are priceless!! Im loving all these posts from your reunion. Such a big and fun family!!
This was so great! Your camera must be glued to your side! I really need to get into that more. What great pictures and what a brilliant idea!
Thanks for sharing!
This post made my day. (My co-workers are wondering why I'm giggling.)
What a fun activity! I'll have to propose it for our family's next trip to Bear Lake.
my daughter totalyl ate one of those dried fish with the eyeballs, when she was about 3. My mom went to Japan and got little snack bags that had the fish in them. My mom would just toss the fish but she jokingly offered it to my kids and I. My son and I "knew better" but my daughter just figured it was like a cracker!!
This post made me laugh so much! Thanks for sharing…their faces were priceless.
This was hilarious! Your family is so fun.
The looks on the childrens' faces are so funny, especially the twins' ones. I love how Lucy got involved too.
Poor Grace, I felt for her.
How did Tal (Is that his name?) come up with all the great ideas?
By the way, there's no way I could've eaten half those foods:)
Oh my goodness! I'm laughing my head off…. Thanks! And such a great idea!!
Oh man, those pictures had me laughing out loud! Thanks for starting my day on a happy note :).
Awesome!
I have a few tears right now from laughing so hard at those faces! Made my morning!
ok seriously, what a great idea. the pictures of those kids faces just cracked me up. i couldn't stop laughing. thank you so much for sharing these! hilarious! what a great contest!
ok seriously, what a great idea. the pictures of those kids faces just cracked me up. i couldn't stop laughing. thank you so much for sharing these! hilarious! what a great contest!
This was so fun! There's nothing like what taking a risk can do for you! Loved seeing the how the different personalities handled this! Thought it was so funny that for many the vegetable juice was the hardest thing of all, especially because Lucy asked for seconds. Hilarious! Thanks to Kristi for catching so many of those priceless expressions!
part of me is laughing at how awesome this was and half of me is slightly offended that you white people are so afraid of typical foods we asians eat (except the cockroaches, what was that about?!) hahaha but more than that, the fact that my 17 month old has eaten most of that stuff on a regular basis because of me.. makes me oh so proud
You should be proud, SupaPowaFlowa! Your 17 month old is probably so healthy with all these foods in comparison with the heavy-laden preservative foods our kids are used to! I guess it's all what you get used to but man I'm trying to change what they turn their noses up at 🙂
Oh my stars! I was laughing OUT LOUD, cracking up at this one!! Awesome shots and caption. 🙂
Hello! Im Rachel from Singapore (a little red dot in Southeast Asia and yes, we are NOT a part of China!) and it's just hilarious seeing the expressions of the kids eating those food because they are common in Singapore (and in fact, we do love them!). I LOVE eating salted seaweed, and the "fish with popped up eyes" is called Ikan Bilis, which we love too! (Some of us do sprinkle it on top of rice.) Squid is pretty nice too! Im not too sure what that "fried cockroach" is though, from the words, I think it's just fried springrolls or something. It's really interesting how the food so common in Asia can be seen as "freak food" in US!
So what was the grand prize that kept them going? This is the best idea for kids. I am so excited to try it at Liam's Monster party! Our whole family has read this post and cracked up!