Wednesday, June 12, 2013

When Circus Animals Attack

I have a professor who says he hate everything about camping. He says he went to grad school so that he wouldn't have to sleep on the floor.

Well, I didn't go to grad school.

Kam and I went camping for the first time!

And it was super fun. We went with our ward, so it was just our bishop and his wife, and a few other young couples like us. There were no kids around, so we could do whatever we wanted! I worry about setting a bad example for the kids in our ward sometimes. I like to be adventurous! So, even though kids are super cute, it was kind of a relief none of them were there.

That meant I got to explore the river and climb on the logs and walk across the mud and do all of those things you're not allowed to do when you're little. Then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and someone brought jumbo marshmallows so I made a crazy huge s'more and it probably wasn't as good of an idea as it sounded. And Kam bought himself a hatchet for the occasion because he's grown up and no one can tell him what to do either (except me). So I guess that's what he wanted to play with. I got to play cards with a few people, too. I always love playing cards, but especially when camping, so I was glad someone shared that tradition. One of our friends' dads came up, too, because he's into all kinds of mountain man stuff and told us some old stories.

 


I look super concerned in this picture, but Kam says I always look like that when I'm listening to stories. Which is probably true, because I've scared a few people with that face before, and I don't remember any of the stories being particularly scary.



We also got to hear Andrew sing and play guitar. Kam said even he was falling in love with him.



We also had a potluck back at the park by our apartments before we all packed up and left. Kam made the barbecue chicken and it was amazing! I think I'm going to have to make him do that again.



We bought our own tent so that we can go camping again whenever we want. I was super proud we got it up (another thing I was never allowed to do when I was little). I think Kam's more just amazed at how complicated I made it.

So in general, it was a fun, pretty standard, "wake up with a sore back but it's worth it" evening. But I do have a couple funny stories (I mean, of course I do. Right?) that make this a little less typical of a camping experience.

First, this picture:


Our bishop likes to collect bugs. So, naturally, he brought his bug collecting gear. As we were just getting out of the car at the camp site and starting to get our bearings, Bishop hands our friend, Preston, a huge net, points down the parking lot, and says, "Ooh! Go get that!" All of us just kind of laughed. The bug was already far away and flying pretty fast. But Preston's got some crazy reflexes or something, because he just took off running. We still didn't think he'd get it, but to all of our surprise he leaped into the air and came down on that bug in one stroke. It turned out to be a really big fly... thing. I was more impressed with Preston's track skills than the bug.

Second, man I wish we had a picture of this one. (But since I don't, I'll entertain you with a little video instead. But read the story first. Or you won't get it.) As we were all driving to the canyon where our campsite was, we decided to follow each other in a long caravan so that no one would get lost. So Kam and I were just following this pickup down a street in the middle of no where, when we see we're driving up beside these huge beasts just to our left! It took a minute for each of us to figure out what was going on. It looked like there was a bear with its arms up towards us, and the car in front of us wasn't swerving, and our instincts were going crazy thinking, "What do I do!? Do I swerve? What is that animal?! Is it being carried on a truck, or attacking a truck? Is that a giraffe?! What's going on?!"
Fortunately, we followed suit in the caravan and didn't make any crazy swerving maneuvers. It turns out they were taxidermied animals already (mostly) in their display positions. The animal closest to us was a bear, in the position it needed to be to look as if it were about to chow down on the moose next to it. In a trailer just in front of the bear was most of a giraffe, but its head was detached and in a separate, still visible, crate. You can understand our concern, right? Someone mentioned it at the campsite a little later and it turned out that all of the cars in our caravan had gone through that panic-inducing event, but none of us had decided to swerve. I wonder what that tells you about human nature? If it looks like a bear on top of a truck is about to attack you, chances are you're probably wrong? That's probably true, right? (Ok. If you wanted to watch that video, you now have my permission.)

So, our little show down with the circus animals was definitely our most eventful part of the weekend. And we weren't even to the campsite yet! But really? How do you beat that? But our slightly less eventful rest of our weekend was just how we liked it--without any scary animals in it.

2 comments:

  1. video, what video? I want to see! You guys are too cute!

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  2. I love ward campouts! We had one when we first got married too but it was absolutely freezing and just a disaster! I'm glad you had fun! I love your "concerned face!" Haha

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