Ward Campout

Near the end of August our ward sponsored a camp out over at Ensign Ranch. We're a new-ish ward, so this was the first attempt at such an endeavor. Two other wards from our stake also had ward camp outs the same weekend at the same place. Rumor has it that they only had handful of families each. Our ward had over 40 families RSVP. Granted, the weather took a chilly turn and some of those families backed out, but we still had well over 100 people show up. Apparently we're an outdoorsy-type ward.

Mark had meetings at work so he drove up separately and didn't arrive until almost 7pm. The kids helped set up camp then most of them scooted off to play with friends. A while later I found Aubree hiding out from the cold and reading in the tent. Once older kids arrived however, she was off with them.

My kids were really looking forward to the slip and slide at Ensign. The boys were not deterred by the cold weather (Aubree, Nellie, and I definitely were though).

Graham was fearless. He didn't hesitate at all to run up and slide down as crazily as possible.

They loved sliding, but even their positive attitudes couldn't hold off the chill for too long.

After about 30 minutes, they were shivering and ready to change into warm, dry clothes.

Back at camp we had a simple dinner of homemade roll sandwiches. The kids shoveled the food into their mouths itching to get back to play with their friends.

The ward camp-out was kid paradise: friends everywhere, room to roam, dirt, s'mores...what's not to love?

The primary presidency had the genius idea to bring a bunch of hula hoops. No joke, the kids spent the entire two days thoroughly entertained with making up their own games with the hula hoops.

Granted, the games didn't always end well (Graham took a hula hoop to the face and got a fat, bloody lip), but even Graham was back to playing about 30 seconds after I took this sad picture.

Even though I knew the forecast predicted cold weather, I'd grown too used to the hot summer weather and didn't bring as many blankets as I should have. That meant for a colder than necessary night, but it wasn't unbearable.

We didn't stay as long on Saturday as we'd originally planned because it was so cold, but we're looking forward to making this an annual tradition.