Ward Camp-out 2011

The last weekend of the fair also happened to be our ward camp-out. Sean and I have never been to a ward camp-out since we've been married. I went back and forth on the idea of going. On the one hand, we hadn't had an opportunity to go camping all summer and on the other hand, Ethan and I would be going at it alone since Sean wouldn't be home until late Friday night and then have to leave early-ish Saturday morning. Well, peer pressure won out - all of our friends were going on the camp-out which would leave Ethan and I to hang out by ourselves {yet, again!} so we packed up our gear {correction: I packed up our gear} and headed to the campground...

Our home away from home for the night. It was kind of nice to have the tent up, off the ground. It made it much easier to put up, take down and get in/out of. Our neighbors were the Dahls, Walkers, Blake and the Kestners were just outside our campsite.

Ethan was in little boy dirt heaven! It's not very often that he gets to play with so many boys and they were loving their time in the dirt playing with and "sharing" the trucks that each had brought. Ethan's monster truck mysteriously disappeared within a couple hours - supposedly thrown into the bushes - and then reappeared the next morning just as we were leaving. Hmm. Glad he got it back, though!

Funny side story: Notice the little boy in white shirt in the bottom, right picture. Yeah, his mom said she specifically dressed him in white so he'd be easier to spot against the green and brown of the trees, grass and dirt. I had to laugh. I had just dressed Ethan in what I wasn't worried about getting dirty/ruined - a BROWN shirt and CAMO shorts!!! Oops! Didn't even realize I had him dressed for a black ops mission. Oh well, live and learn.

Scenes from around the camp. The girl in yellow (upper left) is in my Primary class and the girls in the bottom right totally posed that way without prompting!

Dinner. Since I decided to go on the camp-out so last minute, I had just picked up Subway for my "foil dinner". Well, my friend Jenn was nice enough to make me one of her famous hobo dinners. Yum! She puts ground beef, carrots, peppers, onions, tator tots and pepperoni in hers. The pepperoni keeps everything moist and adds a nice bit of flavor. She also put bacon in them, but I like my bacon super crisp, so I opt for just the addition of pepperoni. With a little squeeze of Ranch or ketchup these hobo dinners are so good! I gladly saved my Subway for lunch the next day. Ethan's foil dinner was mac-n-cheese w/ hot dogs.

After dinner we had a ward fireside w/ a brief devotional and s'mores. The kids LOVED it!

I was very lucky, Ethan went down for the night very easily just after 9pm. Actually, the only real problem I had with him the whole time was a couple of potty accidents. We've been working on remembering to go potty - he's gotten into the habit of being too distracted playing and waits and waits and waits to go until it is too late. Well, with so many kids to play with, he had 2 accidents. Actually, the first one was just outside the bathroom and it was because the door was stuck, so not really his fault. Anyway. After kids were in bed, the adults stayed up and played cards. Funny how it ended up boys on one side, girls on the other!

Our BEAR story: So, while we were all playing games, there were a couple of older kids playing around the campsite - throwing rocks and pine cones into the bushes. And then they heard a growl. And a rustle of the branches. And what do they do? Continue to throw pine cones. Well, the growling continued and they got scared and came to the adults. By then, the growling and rustling were loud enough that we heard it too. Whatever animal they were throwing things out was angry! Eric thought it was maybe a raccoon, but then they heard it again and it sounded much bigger than a raccoon - maybe even a bear! I was totally freaked out, but it was kinda funny to see everyone's different reactions. Jenn jumped up and stood behind me, Eric and Todd jumped up and went towards the woods. Eric said, "where's the bat?!" while Todd said, "the one time I'm not packin' (a gun)!" Ryan went the opposite direction of the angry animal and the whole time I was thinking, "what do I do? What do I do? Ethan's asleep in the tent. Do I go get him and try to get to the car which is too far away? Or should I just quietly get into the tent with him and pray for the best?!" Well. Turns out our "bear" got scared when he heard Eric asking for the bat and finally revealed himself. Yeah, it was none other than...

Brian Coleman!!
Yeah, he got us pretty good!

Ethan and I were up bright-n-early. About 7am, give or take 15 minutes. Breakfast was pancakes, eggs, sausage, Tang and hot chocolate. Thank you to the Brethren for cooking it!

After breakfast, the kids had sack races and practiced lassoing while the adults packed up tents, sleeping bags and all the other gear.

This was just as we were getting ready to leave - I'd say we were still in pretty good spirits for having survived without Daddy. Though, he was greatly missed!

Ethan totally crashed on the 15-minute ride home!

I woke him up when we got home, though, because he was in desperate need of a bath. Specifically, a bubble bath! We hung out around the house the rest of the day and then made homemade pizza and rented movies in the evening.