Ward Campout

We had a great ward campout with lots of our friends, both new and old, from the Mormon church. We went to Brigham Park, and although the weather was a little chilly, we had a great time. We got there, and with James McKay (whose birthday it was) struggled to get a fire going in wet conditions. Eventually a boy scout helped us. Cait keeps thinking I should know how to make awesome fires because I was a boy scout, but I think we maybe had one class on starting a fire once, and then the leaders made the fires from then on, or if not, the more assertive boys in our very large scout troop. Oh well, it started in the end. We roasted hot dogs, ate some delicious salsa that someone dropped off, and then spent some time at the main campfire and pavilion where people had been gathered most of the night, to cook some s'mores.

It was great to see so many of our friends that we hadn't seen all summer hanging out in one place. It really got us thinking about how much we love the people in our ward, and how awesome it would be if we all went to a church where we felt comfortable, but alas. Still, we are so grateful that everyone is so truly our friend, despite differing levels of commitment to Mormondom and continue to invite us to their activities.

We got the tent set up fine and all fell asleep well. Cait left to play games for a bit after the kids were asleep. We woke up to it being quite cold, but running around and warm food we made it through (although for the first time it really struck me, Mormons really need to find an alternative to a big pot of coffee on ward camping trips, or get used to drinking hot chocolate early in the morning). We played on the playground for a while, got another fire going and went on a beautiful nature hike before closing up shop for another year.

We obviously didn't get to camp as much as we would have liked this summer, but we had a really great time at least once, which is more than enough.