Ward Camp

This weekend we went to the New Forest near Bournemouth, for our Ward camp. It's a tradition that our ward has started this year. It was also our first experience camping as a family.

The New Forest was such an interesting place. It's completely wild and said to be the same as when William the Conqueror used to hunt there. There was wild horses and ponies everywhere. Chloe was obsessed with them, but one of the ones in these pictures charged at me and snapped at me, so she kept her distance after that! One horse opened a tent and went in for a sneak. It was mental.

We were pretty lucky with the weather b/c this year has been a complete washout. We only had one night of rain. The clearest night was also the coldest one, and I didn't sleep at all! It was also a bit nippy in the day time too. We went to the beach for one of the days and it was me and a bunch of English friends. Now, the English seem to have some sort of thermal protective skin that enables them to enjoy a cold, wet, windy day at the beach...for me (being an Arizonian), it was a bit more difficult. The last thing I want to do when it's cold is hang out on the beach waiting for the sun to shine. I'm just not built for it. I need my sunshine. It only made me miss Lake Powell and the warm rocks and water. I don't know how long I'll survive in this cold!

I did enjoy being with our ward, though. I love being in the Bath Ward. It feels like having a family to me. The people in our ward really do care about and love each other. We got to know each other a lot better, too. So, despite freezing to death, I am looking forward to going at it again next year.

I've not included a lot of pictures b/c they have my friends children in them and I haven't asked them if it was okay to post their children on here, so I had to not post a lot of the best ones.