Ward Camp

Disclaimer: Super long post. Sorry, but I needed to put it all in for journalling purposes.

Ward Camp. Where do I start. I would say we've done some amazing things in the last four months, but  ward camp was by far the best thing we have done. Oh, we loved it. When they said ward camp was going to be 5 days long, on a beach only a mile away,I thought they were crazy. FIVE DAYS. I just didn't get it. But now I get it. Five days was too short. I laughed because our ward (aka congregation) is made up of only 5 streets. I thought,"Don't we already live close enough?" But ward camp was so incredible. All the families in the ward came out with their extended family as well to camp. They set up their easy corners side by side at the edges of this giant field. On the other side is the beach. So we were literally circled the wagons. In the middle of the tents was a big tent were we gathered for events. They brought in picnic tables in for the pot luck dinners. I stopped cooking after day 2 because every tent you entered you were fed. These people are the greatest. Under their Easy Corners they would set up their tents, their outdoor kitchens, bring their tables, and sometimes even their couches. They would throw down mats where their kids would sleep on at night. So after seeing the event of put their tents up, I understand why they stay for 5 days.

Here is the view our camp. Below-The third easy corner tent in with the orange, purple, and blue chairs in front of it is our camp. We begged, borrowed, and stole (well not really) everything from our two tents, mats, a cot, a picnic table and sleeping bags- which we didn't use because it was warm at night. We all slept under a sheet or light blanket. 

The theme of our camp was "The Ward Olympics." Each family was suppose to bring a family flag. We don't have many supplies to go all out, but we were given some cloth and some paint and the kids made this. It is a Christensen crest (it may not actually be our crest, but Sam found it on the Internet and made it). Then on the bottom is has one of our family motto's,"Christensen's Never Give Up." This is actually last years motto, this years is,"Christensen's We Don't Care What You Think." But we thought that we might be a bit "misunderstood" using this years motto, so we put last years. Here's the clan below in there camping/beach attire, they are one in the same. 

Here is our ward camp shirts. In each of the Olympic rings is one of the names of the streets in our ward boundaries. We competed against each other. Mostly for bragging rights.

On the back of our shirts was our theme- FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER, IN BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT. We all have matching shirts for all of us. I am thinking family pictures? Just kidding. But I do love what they represent. 

To give you an idea to what really happened at this event, I copied and pasted our agenda. I need not explain how incredible it was. As you can see, we got up early and we went to bed late. The kids ran free and we spent time at the beach every day. There is a reason I haven't been keeping my blog up- because I was so tired. So tired. In fact, I have never slept so well camping. But it was because I was happy and tired every night. Check this out.

WARD CAMP AGENDA

Date	Time	Activity
Friday, June 8th	8:00am	Set up
	6:00pm	Ward photo, opening activities and pot luck
	8:00pm	Dance
	9:00pm	Movie
Saturday, June 9th	7:00am	Scouts Flag Raising Ceremony
	7:30am	Fitness
	10:00am	Primary Activity
	10:00am	Relief Society Activity
	11:00am	Rootbeer Floats
	3:00pm	Relay Races/Field Activities
	6:30pm	Scouts Closing Flag Ceremony
	7:00pm	Game Night
	8:30pm	Dance
	9:30pm	Movie
Sunday, June 10th	12:00noon	Church
	6:00pm	Musical Fireside
	7:00pm	Refreshments
	7:30pm	Church movie
Monday, June 11th	7:15am	Morning Devotional (Bishopric)
	7:30am	Fitness
	9:00am	Primary Activity
	6:30pm	Family Home Evening
	7:30pm	Refreshments
	8:30pm	Movie
Tuesday, June 12th	7:15am	Morning Devotional (Bishopric)
	7:30am	Fitness
	10:30am	Penny Carnival for Primary
	6:00pm	Closing Ceremonies/Potluck
	7:45pm	Closing Remarks by Bishop
	8:00pm	Dance
	9:00pm	Movie
Wednesday, June 13th	8:00am	Break camp

Yes, every night a dance and movie. Every morning, Power Aerobics (it was like aerobics on steroids). Most of the camp showed up to participate. The whole field would be full of all ages. On Sunday, they left a few men at camp to keep guard, while the rest of us went home, showered, went to the chapel for church, came home, changed, and went back. So awesome.

Below is Jayne and her twin, Malia. The two were inseparable. We camped right next to her family so it was literally 24-7. She is a sweetie and we love her family. 

     This is Seth getting settled into camp.          This is our bishop getting ready for opening ceremonies.  

Below is the line for the opening pot luck dinner. Pretty amazing to feed that many people.

Here's Ellie getting some food.

I just had to put this picture up to give you an idea of who showed up for the pot luck dinner.

Seth in front of the big tent.

Opening Ceremonies-we decorated the big tent. Our street, Kulanui, was yellow.

We had two tents to sleep in. We put Ellie, Sam, and Jake with the port-a-crib in one tent, and then Seth and I with Jayne at our feet in the other. But at about 3 a.m. the first night, I heard the door zip open and saw Seth crawl out. I was too hot for him. He grabbed a blanket and slept on the ground between the two tents. He said it was quite peaceful and especially cool. This is the picture I took of him when I woke up. Our neighbors passed by in the morning and saw him sleeping with his blanket on the ground between the tents, and they then brought over a cot for him. He slept there the rest of the nights and loved it. 

Jayne passed out after three days of 14 hours days full of beach, sun, slippin' slides, zumba and friends. I found her here asleep on the mat. Her face had awesome bamboo marks across it when she woke up, but it gave her just enough energy to go for 2 more days. 

Ellie and her posse made water balloon babies. They took care of their babies day and night. 

Here's Sam on the cot catching up on some reading.

I will be honest in saying, I have no idea who these children are or what family they belonged to. I am pretty sure Jayne didn't know them either. But that didn't matter. She found them on the slippin' slide and they played for hours. That's the beautiful of ward camp. 

We found Jake here on the cooler. He stopped for two seconds. But only two seconds.

Here's Jake telling Ellie about all his little 2 year old worries in life. 

This was one of the Primary (childrens) activities. One of the ladies teaches Zumba, so all the kids got to go and dance with her. It was pretty fun. I need not remind you that these people can groove- and there are no exceptions when it comes to their children. 

See if you can spy Ellie and Jayne in crowd of beautiful brown faces.

Here is Jayne and her posse. Hopefully you can tell which one is Jayne. For talent night, they were going to represent our group by dancing the Tongan dance they had learned at school. Jayne didn't know the dance, but was happy to follow along because that's Jayne. They practiced several times and after they would finish, they would put their hands together and shout,"Tongan Girls," and then break. It was awesome. They got too nervous when they were up in front of everyone, so there performance wasn't the best, but they sure had fun practicing. 

"Tongan Girls" Gang

The last day the primary activity was a Penny Carnival. Each age of youth group made a booth for the kids to participate in. They all won candy. It was a hit. They even got their faces painted. The pictures say it best. 

Below is Ellie, Savannah, and Mckenna. They had a lot of fun together and were sad to break camp and separate. Except for the fact that they all live in the same house made it a bit easier.

Here we are heading to the beach.

Jake found the cot too. Unfortunately this was at 5 p.m. So he was up and ready to watch the movie at 10 p.m. But it was ward camp, so whatever. 

Here's my darling surfer boy. I posted on Facebook- What will I do when they are all in love with this surfer boy? Seriously. He is such a cute boy. Unfortunately for him he got sick on Monday of camp. He ran a fever for 6 days. There was a nasty flu bug going around and he got it. It was a respiratory flu and he coughed and coughed suffered from too many days of high fever. On day 4 of fever he woke up at about 10 p.m. delusional from fever. He had watched like 8 hours of Jackie Chan fighting cartoons that day and he was yelling at me to get the masks. Needless to say we cut off the cartoon watching, but really he just had too high of a fever and could not wake up from his dream state. He is such a good kid and we missed all of his help that he gives us when he was sick. He really contributes to our family. We  actually packed up most of camp at 11 p.m. the last night because he was too sick and we felt like we need to be home. But I haven't had much sleep since because I have been up with him a couple times through the night. He is finally feeling better and I keep crossing our fingers that the rest of our crew stays clear of it.

This is Seth and his brother, Tommy Uluava. Tommy got us the easy corner, gave Seth his cot, fed us most days, and made camp for us so much fun. 

This is Tommy and his wife. They were the greatest Ward camp neighbors ever. In fact, when we couldn't find Jake, all we had to do is look to the right and there he was invading their tent!

Its hard to explain this experience. We met some many incredible people that we never would have the chance to meet. I told Seth I wished we would have had Ward Camp four months ago when we moved in. Seth and I participated in the Newly Wed game, and made fools of our selves, so they got to know us as well. We got to see first hand how important family is to the Polynesian culture. Each of their families gathering in their tent. The cousins slept all together in tents and on mats. You couldn't tell which one belonged to which parent. They were all one big family. The most overwhelming emotion to us was how they welcomed us, making us feel like one of their family. We gained 5 pounds from the food they feed us, but even that was an expression of love. At one of the morning devotionals, the Bishop shared a short verse from the Book Of Mormon. It was,"And my father dwelt in a tent," referring to Lehi and his family as they journeyed in the wilderness. The Bishop reminded us that many revelations from God came while in a tent. It was a great reminded that all we need is each other and God. We can leave the rest behind and find such rich happiness together. Seth said he was sad to come home, five days was too short. It was because we loved being enveloped  by this great experience. We teased with everyone that we will be flying in next year for ward camp. Thanks to all who adopted us and made it such a incredible experience.