What have we been up to?

This weekend was the Ward Campout, which (even with all the craziness) I hope becomes an annual thing. I love ward campouts. It's a great time to meet people and see them in a different environment than church. I love that nobody is made-up and the kids are dirty - and it's fun to have semi-burnt bacon and lukewarm pancakes (if only because someone else made them!). Some of my fondest memories in South Carolina were from the ward campout there, and I hope to continue to make more ward campout memories in Arizona.

We went up to Prescott, which is a great little town that I've heard has a Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in December. It was in the 90s where we live, and we knew it was going to be colder in Prescott, but we were ill prepared for the drastic change in temperature. It was beautiful when we got there in the afternoon - we only sweated a little when we put up the tent and got everything situated. By the time Annie went to bed at 7:00, it was COLD. John realized he didn't even bring a coat when he started shivering while we were playing games with friends. By 10:30, we were ready to go to bed, but we were COLD COLD COLD! It was one of the worst nights sleeping we have ever had camping. I brought Annie into bed with me as a space heater, and I realize that I do not like sleeping with my kid. She thrashes and bends at weird angles. I finally got to sleep at about midnight and woke up an hour or so later because Annie had kicked me to the edge of my cot. Then Annie started shivering and it became more and more awful as the night progressed. I didn't get much sleep and I was so grateful for the warmth that the sun brought.

If we just brought thermals for us and a couple of extra blankets (we brought three or four extra blankets, we didn't know we would need more), I think we would have been fine. Lesson learned: Arizona cools down at night. I still loved the campout, it was just a reminder of my need to prepare better.

So we got warmed up, cleaned up and came home and we had an excellent night's sleep in our own beds. We woke up early the next morning to get ready for our 8:00 church where Annie would be performing in her first Primary program. Annie's great-grandma, Grammy, came with us to church and Annie was so excited to show her where her classroom was and where she sings songs in Primary. During the program, she was a little hyper, but her teachers seemed to keep her mostly in check. She sang all the songs and shouted her part "I can have good thoughts" into the microphone. She was very proud of herself and Grammy was soooo proud of her and so glad that she was invited to come and see the show.

It was a great program - and pretty crazy when you think that our primary has over 130 kids! I don't think I've ever seen so many kids smooshed into those choir seats before. They put up extra chairs and probably created a fire hazard, but those kids sang their little hearts out. Nobody turned out the lights, threw up or giggled in the microphone.

It gave me memories of my own service in the Primary. Although, with both of the Primary's I worked for, we only had 30-45 kids. I gave all of the kids over eight a two minute speaking assignment for the program and all the little kids had more than one part. Here in our ward, there just wasn't time for any of the kids to say more than a little part, but they all got their turn at the microphone. It's fun to see all the kids shine in their own way.

I'll try and get some pictures from the campout posted soon. I think my mind might still be frozen from Friday!

Love you!