A Ward Campout through the eyes of my iphone

I can't promise I won't post more when I find someone in my ward to snag some real photos from (both of you Rachelles… get a move on will ya?) but I needed to document it before I leave it in the past forever.

We decided last minute to do our ward camp-out up in Big Bear. We thought we'd be out of town, so we wrote it off…. then it snuck up and we realized we had no excuses. We went last year and loved it, accept for the sleeping in a tent with a not-quite-2-year-old that woke at the first crack of a twig outside and had to scream in the car from 5 am till she became human at 6 or so.

But this year was at the YW girl's camp site in Big Bear where there are CABINS with bunk beds and the whole bit. It was so much easier. Mila still gave us a little run for our sanity while everyone tried to go to bed and she felt like crawling out of her playpen and screaming. I've decided that there's always a flip side to any parenting technique. Our kids have always been really good at going to bed behind their closed door by themselves. But because of that--- we're a couple of idiots when it comes to getting them to fall asleep amongst us. I can never understand it when I see 2-year-olds asleep on mom's shoulder at church for an hour +. Not a chance. So Mila just wasn't feeling bed time in a room with eight other people… but after a couple of walks with Ross, and then a close snuggle in my bed while I sang rock-a-bye-baby as quiet as I could as many times as I could in her ear, her breathing eventually got steady and Ross saved me and lifted her into her crib. Phew. The rest was cake.

There was yummy breakfast, smores, volleyball, skits, a bear (a real one), some catch-phrase, a sneaky stake service project they tricked our husbands into ;), and lots of wonderful people with less make-up than usual. That's the best part of camping to me… just seeing everyone in a different, more natural light.

We got home and Sophia went on and on about how much she wished we lived there and how our house was SO BORING. Great.