Ensign Ranch Campout 2009

Every year, when we get home from our mega-campout, i make a “favorites” and “un-favorites” list about the events of our week.

 

Favorites:

• being on an island all by ourselves (and the bees)
• bike rides
• the slip-n-slide
• ice cream at the slip-n-slide
• sleeping in own tents
• having the 6’x8’ artificial turf in front of our tents
• great weather
• canoeing
• horse-back rides
• sea-dooing at lake kachess
• low-flying fighter planes over lake kachess
• the stars at night
• getting some school shopping done at the outlet mall
• easy meals
• not taking on all the food for our entire group this year
• having jillian with us
• finishing a book
• having ray refer to our campsite as our “website”
• keeping 8 boys entertained with nature and a very small bucket of legos
• being able to squeeze our king-size mattress into our non-king-sized tent
• biking to old man hogan’s haunted house again
• being in an environment where i felt safe at night
• “going to sleep…cuz it was pretty much the only thing i did and it was kind of fun” [nolan]
• “going down the waterslide” [savannah]
• “having my own tent instead of sharing a tepee with all the other kids” [elli]
• “going on the slip-n-slide and going canoeing” [ray]
• “going on the sea-doos!” [ray]
• “rope swing, the lake, and horseback riding” [emma]
• “'i like the horseback riding, too” [ray]
• “oh yeah, the rope swing, too” [elli]
• “keeping warm snuggled next to my pregnant wife’s hot body every night” [damon]

 

UN-favorites:

• gross port-o-potty [“mom, why do all the flies like my poop?”]
• not having to chaperone children on bike rides
• the bees/yellowjackets/wasps invading our beloved campsite
• nolan being sick the entire time
• no campfire = lame s’mores
• the injuries (bee/yellowjacket stings, elli’s elbow from a bicycle wipeout, jill’s toe from exploring old man hogan’s trail in flip flops)
• trying to blog from damon’s cell phone
• getting sunburned on the first day
• bug bites
• coming back home with almost the same amount of food that i so carefully calculated we’d need for our 5 days of camping (how does this always happen?)
• “i hated when the yellowjacket stung me- what did i do to deserve this?” [nolan]
• “getting splashed on my face on the waterslide” [ray]
• “bugs” [elli]
• “getting hurt at the end of the waterslide” [savannah]
• “bees and the port-o-potty” [emma]

sea-doo hair touching the soft part 7 of these babies- FULL the Barry compound our artificial turf patio    UN-serviced slip-n-slide nolan’s sting canoeing w/dad  under the bridge   sea-dooing w/dad the lovely couple savannah on micah ray on tia sweet nolan nolan on micah  “poop”- by ray “dad’s butt”- by ray  love this pic jill and elli   jillian billy-bob thornton   “the tepee”- by ray    ray’s filthy face beautiful emma ??? tongs labeled “toilet” in the “nice bathroom”

us the reason we do it all over again every year

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