WARD CAMP-OUT
What a busy week! Ryan had deadlines to meet, so he got home at 11 pm, 10:30 pm, 8:00 pm, and 7:00 respectively for Monday through Thursday. He took Friday off.
Friday night was the Ward Campout at Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park. It has the highest free-standing sand dune in North America, or something like that. We didn't go up that one. The much smaller one we scaled was quite enough! We got there pretty early, so we just parked and climbed up the dune without knowing anything about the place. Turns out we went up the hardest part! It was really cool, though. A lady offered to take our picture (she has the same camera that I do, and said that she never get in the pictures. Sounds familiar!) so I felt like I had to run up the dune after handing over my precious camera. I felt like that beach scene from Chariots of Fire. No wonder they ran in sand to train. It's hard! It's even harder uphill.
The boys thought half way up was a good place to play, but changed their minds after Mommy and Daddy made it to the top. Jared had it figured out, and scampered to the top on all fours. Zach screamed his head off until Daddy went back down to get him. Poor Ryan had to carry all 33 pounds of him back up again. Then I was afraid the boys would fall down the other side, which was much steeper. Of course, right when I was about to tell him to stay away from the edge, Jared went over on purpose. But he scampered right back up again!
The way down was way more fun. When you run, you take huge steps, sink in, and slide a ways. The boys tried sliding down on their bums. That didn't work too well, but it did fill their pockets with sand! We didn't discover that until we were in the tent....
At the bottom, I found a horny toad. I haven't seen one in a while, but we used to catch them on all our childhood trips to Arizona. So I caught it to show the boys. It was an itty bitty one that clung to our thumb and just sat there. The boys got a turn to hold it on their thumbs, too. I tried to rub its belly and make it fall asleep, but I think its belly was too small and my finger too big, because it didn't work. They're so cool!
We found our ward and set up our tent, then headed to the observatory to see a solar flare. I'm not sure what equipment they had, but we didn't go blind. It was pretty cool. We also got a tour of the cylindrical building that houses a very large telescope. The volunteer guide let Zach push the buttons that rotate the building so they can point the telescope wherever they need to. Zach's still going on and on about that. When we got home, he said, "That building go 'round and 'round, like my fan!"
We went back to camp for dinner. Wow, that was an ordeal. I told the boys to follow me to the tent to change into jeans (the skeeters were out), but when I arrived, only one boy was there. We started looking for Jared, and after 15 minutes, I started freaking out. The ward mobilized and just a few minutes later, a family found him playing at someone else's site on the other side of the campground. He'd seen a kid walking with his mom and decided to go along. They said it was a nice family and they all knew Jared's name. They thanked him for coming to play. Why that mom didn't send Jared home, I'll never know!
At dinner, Zach somehow managed to dump salad down his back. We still can't figure that one out.
Then we went back to the observatory. They had a nice slideshow and presentation, then we got to look through telescopes! Zach and Jared had trouble at first, but finally they saw the moon up close. Zach said, "I see it! Cool moon!" then pulled his head away and looked straight at it and said, "Like that one!" Jared said, "I can see craters!" Then we looked through another 'scope trained on Jupiter. We could see the dark bands and four of its moons. It was crazy cool. Both Zach and Jared saw that, too. It was so cute to hear Zach's little voice say, "I see Jupi-er!" Then we waited in line at the BIG telescope to see a ring nebula. It was late, and the boys were tired. The wait was long, and then the boys didn't manage to see anything. But Ryan and I did. We'd showed the boys pictures of it earlier, and they'd decided it looked like a Cheerio. So when I held Zach up to the eyepeice, he said, "No see Cheerio planet." He's really understanding everything!
Zach didn't sleep too well. He isn't the roughing-it type yet, and didn't like his hard foam mattress. He started crying at midnight, and then repeatedly through the night. The only thing that would get him to stop was to pull him onto my softer mattress. It was an awful night, and I'm pretty happy that camping season is over!
In the morning, lots of people cooked big breakfasts. We figured we'd pack light (sans camp stove) so we took bagels and Tang. The boys were very disappointed. Jared wanted our customary oatmeal. Finally hunger took over and they ate their horrible blueberry bagels. I'm such a mean mom!
The ward had a craft for the kids: Pet Rocks! Jared named his "Puffle." Zach's had hair, too, but he didn't like it (I glued it on without asking him) and ripped it off.
Ryan and I had just about had it, so we packed up and headed for home. Besides, Ryan had to make it back in time to see the BYU football game!
And to top off the busy week, we're also speaking in church tomorrow. Tell me when we were supposed to write our talks? How's Saturday night? Better than Sunday morning, I guess!
You can see more photos here.