A Successful Ward Campout

Before this summer, Ryan and I had been on two ward campouts. Our first was with our BYU married student ward. It was up in the mountains southwest of Provo and it was great. Our next ward campout was a few years later back here in Seattle. Hannah was just a few months old then. We packed her in our little Civic and headed over the mountains to the Church ranch. At about 2:00 AM the next morning, we packed her and our stuff back in the Civic and headed back over the mountains to home. It was not a fun camping trip. Lots of crying... not much sleeping... you get the idea.

It's taken us seven years to get the desire to go on another ward campout.

And so... with our ward campout just a few days away and our tent still packed in the box we brought it home from the store in ... six YEARS ago.... I thought I'd better make sure I knew how to set up the tent before we got out in the wild and realized we were missing a pole or a stake or something.

We set the tent up in the backyard. Miriam screamed when Hannah and I went in it for the first time. I think she thought we were being eaten by it or something. Poor girl.


Hannah, Emma, and Ryan slept out in the tent one night just for fun. Hannah's summer-long dream was to tell ghost stories and sleep out in the tent.
Good-night everybody!

The girls got cold at about 6:00 AM and came in the house to get a bit more sleep. A minorly sleep-deprived Ryan went to work.

The rest of the day involved playing in the tent... without Miriam. She still screamed when brought near it.

Here she's trying to get her shoes on to go outside. Not to play in the tent, but to stand at her water table and yell at the girls in the tent.

That Friday, with our tent ready, we went over the mountains to the Church ranch. After setting up camp, Ryan made Mac and Cheese with hot dogs on the camp stove. It was a bummer that we couldn't cook over a fire, but there's a burn ban right now so no fires. Positive side of that: you don't come home with all of your clothing reeking of smoke.

We enjoyed our fancy dinner outside our tent. The girls look like they were cold, but the weather was mild. I think Hannah just missed wearing her coat during the summer. Seriously, even when she got hot and took the coat off, she ran around with the hood on her head. Whateva.
For Miriam, camping was the best of times...

...and the worst of times. Note to file: do not schedule doctor visits and immunizations the day before big events like ward campouts.

Here's a preview of Young Women's Camp 2018:

After dinner, we walked through the campground where I went to Girl's Camp (as it was called) back in the day. For those that are familiar with the area, this is where the ampitheater was located. During last winter's crazy weather, the river got huge and washed the entire ampitheater away. It was amazing and kind of sad. Later on, someone told me that the ampitheather was rebuilt in another location. I felt much better.

The girls loved our campout and ran wild with packs of kids from the ward. At one point Ryan and I wondered where they'd wandered off to. Ryan found them sitting in the back of a handcart that some of the older kids were pushing. Ryan took a couple of pictures, told them to keep their hands inside the handcart, and sent them on their way.

If our camera hadn't run out of batteries we'd also have pictures of Emma going down the enormous slip and slide and Ryan and the girls canoeing on the lake. The girls said canoeing was their favorite part of the campout.

We all had a great time and can't wait for next year's campout.