Last week was busy with preparing for the ward camp out. I am still the Activities Committee Chairman, so that made it a fairly busy around our house. It is hard to get an activity together the day before and day of the event. But then, as it gets rolling it usually starts to be fun. That's how it was again this time. By about a half hour into the cookout I was enjoying myself. My family had a great time too, so I am thankful for that. I was appreciative of their help. I also appreciated the help of Patsy Willis and Joyce Seay who are on the Committee with me and Bro. and Sis. Butler who brought tables and brought a riding lawnmower out a few days prior to mow the land! What a huge help!
We camped at the land across from Shoosmith Brothers again. It is pretty there.
Lilly pads on the lake
We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up for the cookout. It was hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought sides to share. After we ate, families participated in a Nature Scavenger hunt. it was pretty fun. The hardest things for our family to find were berries and a feather, but we managed to find everything on the list! Yea!
Then, we had a brief campfire devotional. We sang and prayed and our bishop, Bishop Farthing, spoke about handing our burdens to the Lord. It was a good spiritual thought. Then we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed s'mores!
"Mom, don't take a picture! I have smores on my face!"
Nice face, Christian!
Christian doesn't like smores, but loves marshmallows. Look at how filthy this boy is! He loves camping and sure had fun being outside with his friends.
Here he is bouncing around with Tyson and Greyson. Are they goofy or what?
Please ignore the stick. What is it with boys and sticks. After I took the picture, I took the stick. No worries about stick injuries. But on the topic of injuries. While chasing Christian, I caught a prickly weed and got about 15 itty bitty little thorns stuck in my toes. It got pulled right across the thong of the flip flop between my big toe and the one next to it. They were tiny, but ouch! The next morning I wore close toed shoes. I am thankful for Amy's tweezers.
I am also thankful for women and young women from church who helped with holding Grant! It helped me get the things done that I needed to do and allowed Danny to focus more on watching Victoria and Christian(mainly Christian). Thanks, Samantha!
It was a good night. It took us a while to get settled in the tent, but everyone slept OK. Grant slept in a pack and play and then with me. He wasn't so sure about what was going on, but was good anyway. We were able to nebulize in the tent thanks to the adapter that we plugged into the van's lighter, and his wheezing never got much worse than it started.
The next morning was pretty chill. We had breakfast(the AC wasn't in charge of it this year because the Cub Scouts had a fundraiser breakfast down the road. If people didn't go to eat there they were responsible for their own food). It was kinda nice not to have to be responsible for cooking tons of pancakes.
We just played for a few hours. Lots of people brought canoes and kayaks, so we took a few turns riding on the water.
Christian thought it was so fun to ride with Avery and Anson and some of the YW(young women 12-18) in our ward.
He also had fun playing with his friend, Tyson. I found you! He played with Zane a lot too. So, he had a lot of fun. However, one part was not fun! Being stung 7 times by a hornet! Seriously! It flew into his shorts and got him 4 times. Danny got the shorts off and shook them out. When he put them back on he got 3 more bites! The hornet was still inside! Poor kid! I didn't witness this because Victoria and I were out on a canoe, but Danny said that Christian handled it pretty well and was back to playing with his friends pretty quickly.
Grant and Daddy driving the Jeep.(No keys really) I just needed free hands for a minute. Grant sure thought it was funny though.
Then, it was time for games- everything that I had planned wasn't really working out, so I had to improvise, big time! But with Danny's help I was able to come up with a relay race, an obstacle course, and a game of sharks and minnows. Danny came up with the idea to have a ride in the trailer. The kids had fun!
V and Makayley were on a team together for the water relay
Wiley's team filled their container first and won!
Sharks and Minnows
And the non-hay, hay ride!
As they rode around I threw together an obstacle course. Zig zag through cones, jump over some caution tape, crawl under the picnic table, run around the bush, balance on the balance beam(a long board that I was lucky to find) and hop over the aluminum pans. It was fun and the kids did it over and over again to see if they could set a new personal best time. Sad to say, no pics of that. I was busy working the stop watch.
Victoria looking naturally beautiful with a lilly choker that Dad helped her put on.
A lizard that the kids found in the picnic pavillion. Here it is in front of an empty bird's nest. This is where we found our feather, by the way.
So, as we pulled out both boys were asleep within 5 minutes. How cute are they?
We wore them out!
It was a fun time. I think it is a fun tradition for the families in the ward. I know it was fun for our family. The kids told grandma how "awesome" it was! It was nice to spend time enjoying friends, family, and our beautiful world!
The moms who helped with stations were given this with the children's cute fingerprints and names. It was attached to a shovel and gardening gloves. So cute!
And ... she gave Penny and I these hanging baskets for being room moms.
She's thanking us? REALLY? I couldn't have asked for a better teacher for V! She has been incredible! It did make me feel really special though.
