Friendship Brings Happiness

Here's a little taste of how lucky we were this month: we got a surprise visit from some of our favorite friends, the Southwicks, who moved up to Monterey a few months ago.
Gabe, (not a Southwick) helped us decorate Halloween sugar cookies too. It felt like old times. We decorated cookies, (thank you very much, Lori), ate at Red Robin, hung out, and made a shopping trip to Mission Valley. Aaah! Life was good!
Another day, we were fortunate to have a few extra visitors romping around for our first turn at the co-op babysitting. We had a blast! Here the kids were dancing to some music.
Below is the only scene I snapped on camera from our recent ward camp-out. We went on an overnighter near Palomar Mtn. I was a better sport and actually went this year instead of sending Stephen and one of the children. Yes, it was a terrible night's sleep, yes the gnats were out in full force, and yes all our gear begged to be rid of lingering campsmoke when we returned, but it was worth the memories of singing off-key round the campfire, getting super sticky s'more fingers and feeling around in the dark for baby wipes, having your children eat more potato chips than anything else at dinnertime, and "holding it" as long as possible in the morning to avoid getting out of the tent and into the outhouse. Despite popular belief, Desirae Badger can muster "roughing it" with children for one night with a good attitude despite her neat-and-control-freakish ways. And it was genuinely fun. I didn't even have to try or pretend that I was enjoying. Really though, there is something uplifting and spiritual about breathing and sleeping in the wilderness. Aaaah.
Soooo, now that it's said and done, I think that I can check my "family campout" off the list for this year. :)
And I do apologize to my children that I'm not as fun as most other parents, especially Jana and David who plan their own super fun family campouts without the help of the ward activities committee. I am making strides though.