Family Camp Out

The US Embassy Moscow has a dacha (Russian summer house) pretty much right in Moscow even though generally dachas are out of the city.  But it is one of a few places that has a yard.  It has a kitchen a few rooms with a bunch of beds and room outside for tents.  The boy and girl scouts use it for all their camp outs and it us used for official events where for example Levin's office invites a lot of contacts and has a nice barbecue.  I also reserved it for the Stake Girls Camp the previous summer.

It was always difficult to find good venues to have ward activities.  The church was far away, and there wasn't really enough space in our chapel which also served as a cultural hall.  We had several ward activities at the Embassy, but that put a lot of work on those of us with badges because we had to escort all visitors.  And I felt like I was constantly running to my house to grab something for someone.  And I ended up being in charge of or helping with the food every single time.

SO . . . . . Levin decided to present the idea of a ward activity at the Embassy dacha.  He got some push back, but in his way he carried on with the support of those who were for it.  You have to rent it kind of like a hotel so it was rented for the Friday night before the ward activity.

So we made a family camp out of it.  We went after Levin got off work and Leah out of ballet  . . . or did we have her skip?  I can't remember.

Anyway, we had hot dogs, shashlik (sp? but it is Russian kebabs and sooo good) and smores.  Autumn and I slept inside while Levin and the kids slept in the tent.  It was technically spring . . . but still in late March or early April.  (this is why you shouldn't wait half a year to catch up your blog)  It was cold.

Here you can see Autumn sitting in a chair waiting for dinner.

 Our fearless leader at the grill.

 The kids playing on the swings.

 Trying to cuddle up for warmth.

 The only way we could do S'Mores.  You are forbidden to build a pit fire.  The only problem was the Commissary only had cinnamon graham crackers and the cinnamon would burn before the marshmallow melted.  I think we got it perfected later, but by then the kids were so cold they were inside and we didn't want to eat anymore.

 The crazy campers in their tent.  Did I mention snow flakes started whipping around in the cold cold wind?  Let's just say they didn't last the whole night out there.  They watched Finding Nemo on the iPad and I think fell asleep.  Autumn and I had by the time they came in anyway.What you can't see is the multiple layers of pajamas they have on.

I don't have any pictures of it I don't think . . . so I will mention they have "camped" in our back yard in Maryland twice since we've been here and the kids ensure they keep up the tradition of watching a movie on the iPad before going to sleep.  Both times Levin and the two older kids have lasted the entire night.

And I guess we were lame-o and didn't take pictures of the ward activity.  But here is one I stole off of Facebook from our friends the Gil Family.  I don't have a picture of their cute son who was Leah's age.  We had a wonderful time at the party.  The dacha was warm inside with a lot of pot luck food and it was warm enough outside that you could be outside talking and not freeze to death.  I just want to mention that i hate this picture of myself, but am posting it as a test of my pride.