Bed Appreciation Day

Scott accused me of wanting to go to the ward camp-out solely because it would make a good blog entry… He knows me well. Enjoy.

The ward camp-out was located about an hour away from home at a little place called Bennion Creek Campground. The area was nice, and we felt pretty outdoorsy as we drove up to the site in one of two sedans (everyone else had RV’s or SUV’s or other made-for-camping acronyms). We were greeted by our best buddies in the ward: the Young’s (don’t be deceived by the name, they are one of the oldest couples in the ward). They welcomed us and helped us get settled as we set up our tent and beds. (Oh yeah, the pump to our air mattresses broke and we had to repair it after realizing that you just can’t blow up an air mattress with your lungs only. Lesson learned.)

That night was a lot of fun. We met several nice people. Scott was sure to tell everyone that I’m a camping novice, and we learned that many of the toddlers had more camping experience than me. (Thanks babe.) After a while it felt like bedtime and we were getting cold, so we headed to the tent. I think we were the first ones to go to bed besides the newborn a few tents down. (I’m sure that fueled the newlywed jokes we were already getting. Not to mention we were almost the last people to get up in the morning. Aye carumba.)

Then came the bad part of the camping experience. Our tent was right next to a river, so it was freezing cold all night long. I hardly slept because I was claustrophobic in my sleeping bag but too cold to move around. Scott was a good husband and walked down to the bathrooms with me at 3 AM and offered to take me to a hotel so I could die in peace (I was pretty sure death was inevitable at that point). I'm sure we never would have done that, but I appreciated the offer. Thankfully we both eventually got some sleep and survived the night. So…that was camping. (Scott predicts we won’t break out the tent for another five years.)

After camping, we headed down to Manti, to check out the temple, and…well, that’s the only thing in Manti, so that’s all we did. We were going to go to a sealing of one of Scott’s friends, but…I may or may not have read the date wrong on the invite. So, we did a session instead, which we had talked about doing a while back anyway. The Manti temple is beautiful, and it was packed with weddings. We had a very sentimental conversation while walking around the grounds:

C: Honey, remember when we got married?

S: The stone on this building is incredible!

C: …

S: …Oh yeah! I remember now.

Hahaha.

Even though our camping experience was a little uncomfortable and I lost my privilege to open wedding invitations, we had a great time together this weekend. We shared many laughs, sang a lot of Kelly Clarkson on the road (Scott is surprisingly good at the backup vocals), played many rounds of “Would You Rather,” and decided that camping was invented by beds who felt underappreciated

(or maybe the pioneers).