MORE Camping!

 Just two weeks after our disastrous beach camping, it was time for the Manassas ward campout!

I have to admit-- neither Craig nor I were looking forward to camping again so soon.  Especially because the forecast did NOT look promising.  The night before, Craig told me, "I really don't want to camp in the rain again."  I whole-heartedly agreed.  We finally decided that we would go and just not set up the tents until it was close to bedtime and only then if it was dry.

Craig had to work in the morning.  We had a notary coming by to help us sign papers on refinancing our house (huzzah for low interest rates!), and then we headed out shortly after that, with Craig still attending Zoom meetings on his phone while I drove.  This time we did NOT get lost, so that was nice!

Thanks to COVID, this year's camp out was much smaller than normal.  Also, the person who has organized it the last few years, Crystal, had moved to South Carolina and put Emma in charge of the whole thing.  So this was what Emma was doing with it.  So this year, it was just us, the Johns family, the Atkinsons, and Betsy Hayward.

And it was WONDERFUL!!!

Practicing being ninjas

Ryder and Luke

Bentley made it his goal to photobomb every picture

Kendra and Lily

This picture makes me laugh

Emma's youngest, Henry, was too cute for words

Another picture that makes me laugh-- Bentley takes GREAT shots with my phone!

Ryder's friend Oscar taught him how to sharpen sticks with a knife, and they spent a lot of time doing that and feeling very proud of their spears!

The kids trying to start a fire when everything was damp

Oh, look-- I was there, too!  And Emma, behind me!

Everyone except Betsy, who left right before we had the idea to take a group photo

It did rain, but just a little and even that was when it was time for the kids to go to bed, so we tucked them in and then sat under the pop-up chatting and it was great.  It was pleasantly cool, too, which was a nice break after such a hot July.  It rained more at night while we were sleeping, and it sounded like it was POURING, but it's hard to tell in a tent because everything sounds loud!  When I got up in the morning, everything was damp, but not flooded, so I think maybe it wasn't raining that hard after all?  Who knows?  Also, at 5:30 in the morning after a quick bathroom trip, I heard an owl hooting in the woods, so that was cool.

And it was SO GREAT getting to see my friends and letting our kids all play together!  I'm so glad we braved a lousy forecast for that!

On the drive home, it rained non-stop.  Who would have guessed that the weather would be so much better up in the mountains?