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.

Cooking dogs on a stick.

Darren Tanner and Kent

Heidi, Jack, Simon, and Elizabeth Elder holding Brady

McKenzie Drake, and Becky and Mike Phillips

I made snickerdoodle cookies.

Either Blythe or Brandt snuck them away to the tent and then distributed them to the children.

This is Caleb Elder who came out of the tent clutching four cookies, all with little bites out of them.

The was totally unwilling to relinquish any of them.

Two not-so-super-flattering pictures of me telling

Where the Wild Things Are

It was entertaining.

Asher Runia with his mom Stacy. 

He is making animal noises.

Ashlyn Elder and our Miss Blythe

This is the girls' skit.

They are looking for Ashlyn.

Oh! There she is!

Then they danced in joy.

Mike Drake, Simon Tanner, and Elizabeth Elder

They are doing the empty cup tapping, banging, flipping routine.

Simon and Jack

Ashlyn Elder, Abbie Drake, Blythe, Collin Elder, Shaylee Elder, Gavin Drake (or half of him anyway)

Becky dramatically calling the doctor to say her son has been shot.

Blythe and bosom buddy Shaylee

Collin Elder, Connor Helquist, Simon Tanner, Connor Phillips, Asher Runia, Evan Runia, Brandt, and Gavin Drake

They are doing a skit where they are all made to die.

I don't remember why.

Blythe is trying to quickly eat her melting ice cream sandwich.

What a mess--a yummy, sticky mess.

Glow sticks!

Brandt wanted to carry around our lantern instead of having glow sticks.

Ready for bed.

Probably taken an hour before anyone was actually asleep.

Fairies

Because the children are not in school, and because I can't think of something to entertain them with every minute of every day, and because sometimes the children don't want to do something I do suggest, they have been watching too much TV.  In the past week, I think they have watched Secret of the Wings (a Disney fairy movie) about six times (pretty much at least once a day).  At least once during the past week, they also watched The Great Fairy Rescue wherein Tinker Bell is captured by a little girl who makes a fairy house and puts it in her yard.  Tinker Bell can't resist the darling home, and winds up trapped, but then becomes the girl's friend.

The idea of a fairy house has been very intriguing to Blythe, and when we received a package this week, in a cardboard box, Blythe quickly claimed it as her own and began creating her own fairy house.  She decorated, had me cut a door and windows, and then asked if she could put glitter inside.  I helped her with that, then found some buttons she could use as a sidewalk.  Then she put the whole thing out in the yard hoping to attract a fairy or two.

Brandt wasn't very encouraging.  In fact, he said to Blythe, "There are no such thing as fairies.  Except the Tooth Fairy."  I think Brandt was hedging his bets as he has not yet begun to lose teeth and doesn't want to get the shaft if fairies (or the Tooth Fairy in particular) actually do exist.

The fairy house had a roof, but it was made of paper and didn't stay on.

Maybe that was why she never caught a fairy.

Isn't that wonderful decoration?

The two figure picture on the wall is of Blythe and the fairy dancing together.

Dinosaur Train

Sharae found tickets to the Heber Valley Railroad for only $5 in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago, and called to ask if we wanted to go ride the train.  Of course we did!  The kids love the train.  So today we got to go for a ride.  It did not turn out exactly like we had thought.  

The tickets were for a special promotional Dinosaur Train, loosely based on the PBS program of the same name.  The kids like the show and we went singing the Dinosaur Train theme song.  We were apparently not early enough to enjoy the dinosaur themed activities before the actual ride, but we did see two people dressed up in dinosaur costumes.  This was unfortunate because it was 102 degrees and I am certain those costumes were bringing on heat stroke at least and possible death.  I felt so, so sorry for the young people inside.  

Then we got inside the train, and I felt so, so sorry for us.  For some reason, they didn't have the open passenger cars attached to the train, so all riders were inside.  The windows of the cars didn't fully open, creating the ideal environment for baking.  It felt like it was 137.5 degrees in the car, and although our ride was only 45 minutes, I was certain we would be nicely baked by the time the ride was over.  We sat by the windows hoping for a breeze, but as the train doesn't move very quickly, our hopes were largely dashed.  It was stifling, suffocating, horribly hot.  And while I was feeling miserable for us, along comes a dinosaur costumed person to dance with us for our Dinosaur Train entertainment.  Again, I was certain death was imminent for the poor person inside. 

It was fun to be with cousins, it was fun to have a train car to ourselves so the children could be up and down and back and forth along the center aisle, and it was fun to be on the train.  We saw a huge beaver dam, too, at the turn around point.  I think next time we ride the train, however, we will do it on a slightly cooler day, like maybe when it's only 85.

I asked Brandt is he wanted to have his picture taken with the dinosaurs.

"NO!" was his emphatic reply.

He does not like people dressed up in costumes.

They make him very nervous, even though he knows it is just someone in a costume.

Waiting to get on the train.

In a rare showing of insecurity, Brandt brought Mayday Kitty with him.

Maybe he just thought she would like to ride the train too.

Person inside dino costume slowly (or not so slowly) dying of heat stroke.

Blake, Luke, and Brandt

I wanted a picture with their heads at different heights, 

but the windows only opened so far.

The conductor recounting some story.

The dinosaur came into our train car to dance with us.

Brandt did not like this at all and hid between two seats.

Blythe and the rest of us danced.

The beaver dam

Train riders Blake, Collin, Brandt, Luke, Makenna, and Blythe