The Barri (more than one Barrus): Ward Camp Out

Our ward campout was last night. We went, even Kent. Kent does not like to camp. He doesn't like sleeping in a tent which is uncomfortable, he doesn't like being surrounded by other people sleeping in tents and making lots of noise, and he doesn't like trying to do it with kids. Last year we camped out in Grandma Sue's backyard and Kent went home to sleep. When I announced that the ward campout was coming up, I asked who was interested in going. Blythe immediately piped up that she wanted to go and sleep in the tent, but Brandt cautiously asked, "What are you doing Dad?" Kent said he would come up for the evening, but then go home and sleep. I said I would stay with Blythe and Brandt decided he would go home with Kent.

Then, the day before, Brandt decided he wanted to sleep in the tent too. I think Kent felt some pressure to stay because in the end, he did too. So we all slept in the tent. Before the sleeping, however, we had lots of fun. We were to bring our own dinner (we brought KFC supplemented with fruit and crunchies) and come prepared to perform something (skit, song, story). We set up camp, ate our dinner, and the kids ran around with other kids. There weren't a lot of people there; families included were Barrus, Elder, Drake, Phillips, Tanner, Runia, and Helquist. The Tanners and Runias didn't sleep over, so there were even fewer of us in the morning. But we were a good crew for the kids to play with, and both of them ended up filthy by the end of the evening, a sure sign that fun was had by all.

Our talent show was pretty silly. There were lots of skits of the boy scout variety some made up ones by the kids which were even sillier than the boy scout ones. Asher Runia made animal noises, the Tanners pulled Ryan Elder's underwear out of his pants with neckerchiefs, and I told Where the Wild Things Are with help from the audience. The Phillips rehearsed a play several times to great comedic effect. Our treat for sharing was ice cream, much of which was very soft and mushy. We ate it quickly.

The settling down for the night was a long and drawn out process. Although Blythe claimed she wanted to go to bed, there was too much going on to actually settle down. She had to go to the bathroom four times, each trip necessitating putting on shoes, climbing out of the tent, and navigating around in the dark, plus being unhappy about the not-so-nice smelling bathroom. The not-so-nice smell was probably what brought about the four trips. She was unwilling to spend enough time really taking care of business, so we made multiple trips. There was much thrashing around in the tent, but when we were finally able to get Blythe to be still, she clonked right out. There was a yippy dog in the neighboring camp site (up late and early both) and it was alternatively too warm then too chilly, but we made it through the night. It will likely be next year's ward campout that I can again convince Kent to camp, but maybe not even then.

We had cereal, muffins, and fruit for breakfast, then packed up and went home. We were back by about 9:30. No lingering in the mountains for us, mostly because everyone was filthy and smelled like smoke. But I know the kids had a great time, and I will probably pitch the tent in the backyard a night or two more this summer just because it is so cool to sleep in a tent.