Ward Campout and the 24th

It is sooo nice to get out of the heat of the summer to the smell of pine! Ahhhh we love it, even though it rained on us, yet once again, actually even hailed. We borrowed a big old tent from some friends which was awesome. It fit the pack and play for Anna, an air mattress for us (Ok I had to convinced Kent that we were still rugged campers even if we slept on an air mattress), and Elise slept in her baby carrier, and the tent had a bunch of extra room too; I am sold on getting a big tent for camping.

Camping with a toddler is a different experience. At first I was using tons of wipes trying to keep her clean every time she touched the dirt and then I decided it was a loosing battle and I would just let her get dirty; we were camping right? I did cringe when she was pretending like she was drinking and poured a cup of dirt in her mouth. She was quite the ball full of dirt and mud by the time we left that we could hardly recognize her. We threw her strait into the bathtub when we got home and found our little girl again under all that dirt. But she did have so much fun running around with the kids and playing outside to her hearts content.

Anna's favorite book is called, We're going on a Bear Hunt, so while up at camp I took her on a bear hunt. We went through the deep dark forest, through the long wavy grass, over logs, and up the hills looking for a bear. Then, then we heard something, something that growled, we thought it was a bear and we ran all the way back to camp and bearly made it. Whoo! That was a close one.

Elise was the youngest camper; what a trooper! She loved being outside too! I was worried all night that she would get cold like I was, so I think I bundled her up too much, but she stayed warm and slept the whole night and I stayed cold and didn't sleep the whole night. Oh well. She was such a good camper girl.

Kent and the EQ made and awesome chocolate sauce for dessert that everyone poured over gram crackers, pretzals, bananas, and marshmallows. After all the kids were asleep, all the adults stayed around the camp fire telling fun stories. Some other BYU alumni and us were reminiscing about the crazy funness of BYU days.

That very night was our stake's 24th of July celebration of the Pioneers. We dressed Elise in Kent's old baby cowboy outfit (we had to put a bow in her hair to make sure people knew she was a girl), Kent wore his hat and boots, and Anna wore a poofy sleeved dress. Now, they had a pioneer dress contest and Anna actually won 2nd place and cracker jacks as a prize with that dress! The funny thing is that it is not really a pioneer dress. What a day!