Our First Camping Trip

Our ward had their annual camp out this weekend. I wrote on here a while back that I wanted to go, and sure enough we ended up going! The event actually went on from Thursday until Saturday.

I spent the last week making lists, checking them twice, and making sure we packed our whole house...just in case. The kids and I left early Friday morning and headed up into the mountains. Some of our good friends were already there, but very few people went up Thursday night so we had a great pick of where to set up camp. It was so beautiful being up there in nature! It's so different than only twenty miles away down in the valley where we live.

The kids and I had a blast all day sitting around the campfire,, getting REALLY REALLY dirty, exploring, visiting as friends slowly trickled in, cooking hot dogs for lunch, and getting wet in the ICEY cold streams (all of which is 100% pure snow melt). By 3:00 that afternoon loads of people were coming in. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone in their natural state! One person actually didn't recognize me with out my hair and make up done. But it was great getting to just relax.

We enjoyed some incredible dutch oven cooking for dinner, right about the time that Cody pulled in. We were very excited to see Daddy! I think he was really glad to see that we had our camp already set up and he didn't have to do a thing.

The kids were in Heaven having so many friends to play and explore with. Once it was dark we all congregated around the main campfire and the Bishopric gave a really nice devotional. We sang some songs, cooked lots of smores, and became hypnotized by the flames of the fire. It was hard getting kids to bed because they were so wired from the day's events.

Finally everyone was in bed but a few of us sat out while the fire burned down into the wee hours of the morning. I eventually hit the hay and of course didn't sleep well, now being in my eighth month of pregnancy. My hips hurt all night long and the temp got down into the 40s. But it was such a fun experience that I didn't even mind my prenatal discomforts. All the kids are talking about is when we get to go again. What a fun time!!

Mmmm, that tastes good!

A portrait of beauty.

Wow, check out that camp fire smoke! It looks so hazy.

Hailey insisted on bringing her little tent. She was very popular with the girls! They loved playing cards and being imaginative inside.

I have to mention that Ethan can be quite the charming leader. During the devotional, he grabbed one of our battery operated lanterns and lured a bunch of kids away for their own little pow wow. He set the lantern in the middle and told what he said was a "spooky story". He told me it was about Scooby Doo. I kept looking over at them to make sure things were okay and it was funny to see how he held the other kids' attention. I think he may have the Gov's knack for story telling! He was always the hit at camp outs for that reason when we were kids .