Dance Family: Camping at Ensign Ranch

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Camping at Ensign Ranch

We had a lot of camping at Ensign Ranch this weekend. We had originally planned to go to Lake Kachess, but when we found out their were no campfires allowed we decided to switch to Ensign. We had some friends that were going to be there Friday night, so camped by them.

The big boys and Doug set up the tent.

After setting up camp, we drove over to Lockamora to see the A-frames I stayed in when I was at girls' camp:)

We tried skipping rocks in the river.

When we got back Doug started a fire for our dinner.

Coleman helped light it.

Jordan helped make the fire as well. The kids had foraged in the woods to find the wood.

Jackson convinced Mackenzie to play Pokemon with him.

Kenzie spend lots of time reading. I got her a book from the library about how to take care of bunnies that she read over and over again.

The fire was finally ready to cook our foil dinners. I had done all food prep at home so it was super easy to cook while we were there. This is the first family camping trip where we have had to cook for ourselves. Doug's had more experience with it so he did most of while we were there. He brought his tiny snow shovel to flip the food and get them off the grill.

The dinner turned out good. Coleman's was a bit burned, but he wouldn't have eat much anyways. I tried to share mine with him and I ate some of his burnt ones, but he wasn't a big fan.

I used chicken sausage instead of ground beef and we really liked that.

Doug and the kids played baseball while I watched the fire to make sure it didn't burn down the camp.

We roasted marshmallows and ate Smores. So yummy!

When it was dark we looked through Doug's telescope at the stars and Jupiter.

The night was much colder than we expected. The boys were warm in their sleeping bags. Kenzie slept on the air mattress with Doug and I since we only have 3 sleeping mats. We brought a comforter for us, but it wasn't warm enough. In the middle of the night Doug found the other sleeping bag we had a unzipped it and put it on us, and then we were much warmer. The other problem we had, was that our air mattress had a hole in it, so all through the night we were sinking until we were just on the ground (which also made us colder) Kenzie stayed elevated all night though since she's the lightest :) It was a long rough night. Everyone was awake around 6 or 7 so we put more air in the mattress and a got a couple more hours of sleep after that.

A Pokemon tournament happened.

I did a lot of reading.

Cute Coleman taking a selfie.

We walked around. This is lake Crabtree. Konrad's dad and grandpa and uncles helped build it.

Jordan and Kenzie

These two wanted to play tetherball, but neither of them would stand so the sun was in their eyes. So they didn't play.

Doug and Jack played corn hole.

There was a free minigolf course.

During a long chess game between Doug and Jackson, Kenzie, Jordan, and I went on a walk around the lake. Kenzie found some feathers she wanted to turn into quills.

We also found a huge yellow mushroom.

And some teepees.

Kenzie and Coleman had a wand battle.

The long chess game still going on. They actually played two games, I think.

That evening our friends came. The Winters got their first. The kids helped get the fire burning. I didn't get any picture of our second dinner. We had a pizza roll. You make it like cinnamon rolls, but keep it in log form while you cook it. It turned out really yummy! Next time I would 3-4 of them insteaf of just the one...

Thane and Coleman started playing games as soon as they could:) They picked from a cup with rocks in it to figure out how far they would move. They realized they could cheat pretty easily though once they could feel the difference between each rock.

Aubree, Lily, Jackson, and Jackson

Aubree brought her friends Lily and Jackson. Jackson and Jackson became friends by the end of weekend.

Coleman and Thane played chess.

Kenzie, Holly, and Eden

Kenzie and Annelise. Kenzie loves Annelise and talks about her often. If can't do something or gets something wrong she'll say that was so easy even Annelise could do it!