Ward Campout

First off: cute picture of B & Syd. Amanda was at Brynna's sleeping over (have you ever heard me say we don't do those.....yep, I thought so, too). Anyway, Sydney can't sleep without Amanda and Brandon can't go to sleep by himself ever since we went to Lake Powell. Perfect solution, put them in Syd's bed together and off to la-la land....

Ok, the ward campout was back in August, but with school starting and other fun things, I haven't had a chance to blog it out. We were not that excited about planning a campout. But, thanks to our wonderful committee and really my hard-working hubby, we had a great time! We had a few bumps in the road on the way up to the campground....from trying to find an air mattress at Sportmans through all the construction, to dragging and ruining the wire to the trailer lights on the Shulz' trailer (no trailer lights), to no good food for dinner....but we pulled it together and started to feel more optimistic when people started arriving. Our campout was Survivor themed, and we had some immunity challenges set up for early arrivers....such as No speaking in church for a year, to first in line for breakfast. We had our annual Men Only Dessert Contest and I was worried that it would flop since it would be more difficult to bring desserts camping, but we had a good showing and Mike ended up winning again this year. He defaulted and so Brad Wilson, Casey Francis and Richard Fawcett won, with a good showing from Rick Orison's cobbler.

The winners with their bedazzled wooden spoons! Brad is our home teacher and hasn't made any of our activities. His guilt finally kicked in and he made sure to make it to this activity, despite his hatred for camping. Thanks, Brad!

The Bishop gave a great devotional around the campfire. I thought it was so cute how his daughter, Kate, snuggled up next to him. Lots of marshmellows a-roasting and consuming of the contest desserts before heading to bed.

Bright and early the next morning (6am), we got up to start breakfast. Jared and Jenny B and Mike & I worked long and hard cracking eggs and trying to determine the egg to milk ratio for 60 eggs on Thursday so that we wouldn't have to crack eggs up camping. We must have called back and forth 5 times before getting it down. That was a fun memory...the breakfast went great! No lines, and good hot food. The only downside.....bees and hornets. Brandon getting more marshmellows. Once again, I know that Heavenly Father helps us be able to do these activities by having our kids behave so great! They are always good, not crying and taking care of each other.

We designed the Survivor games to be for families and to be self-starting...we figured we'd be cleaning up, etc. So, we posted rules at each game and let people guide themselves through. It worked out great! Here is Sydney & Amanda in the three-legged race. The girls had a great time doing the games even without their parents. When a challenge was completed, then you take a ribbon to put on your family flag. We had some great flags and I really wish I got more pictures of them.

Shulz's....part of the committee

The Bartons...part of the committee
The Smiths...part of the committee

So, in the end, we were pleased with how it turned out. We got home by noon and went right to bed! As we talked to the other committee members, they did the same thing! It takes a lot out of you to put on an activity....that or we are just getting old. I guess it went well enough because the Bishopric has already requested a campout for next year....

Our kids had a BLAST! Here are pictures of them on our way home....dirt covered and happy.

Sydney

Amanda

Brandon & Larsen McCleary