Since we live in a Protestant Kanton we don’t get nearly as many public holidays as the Catholic ones. But we still have quite a few, and one of my favorites is Ascension Day. The ward often does a fun outing, although they hadn’t for a few years. So I was happy when the buzz I put in Chris’ ear was greeted by the same thought from others in the ward, and a true ward activity was planned.
We met at our new church building, Hurray!, and walked from there up through the nearby forest to a fire pit to cook lunch. The trail was easy enough and short enough that the little kids had no trouble walking it alone. And it didn’t involve a long drive or any money. Woohoo!
The weather was perfect as well. A tiny bit of chill in the air to start out with, but plenty of sunshine and clear skies to enjoy. The girls’ favorite part was getting to walk my friend Julie’s dog, Lexi. One of the few dogs they aren’t scared of. 🙂
There was a lovely Nature preserve around the bend from where we were. So the kids headed over to check it out. Along the way they found this very weird looking tree stump that was worthy of a photo.
We had lots of fun grilling our food. I brought a few things to experiment with this time; garlic bread and corn. The bread would have been delicious except for the fact that I cooked it too long and the outside got burnt. The inside was delicious, though and we will definitely try that again. The corn, well, the corn was a total flop. I had mini-cobs that I had brought from Bofrost, a company that delivers frozen food to your door, kind of like Schwan’s in the States. I threw them in my backpack still frozen, thinking they would thaw out by the time we got around to grilling them. But they were still pretty much frozen solid. And no matter how long I left them in the coals, they never seemed to warm up past “cold”. sigh
So, next time I need to remember to take them out of the freezer the day before we want to grill them. Fortunately, I had brought plenty of other food, so no one left hungry.
And the kids actually cooked their own sausages this time, instead of making Chris and I do it all for them. Gee, they must be getting older. heehee
There was a pretty good turnout considering lots of people had taken advantage of the long weekend and gone out of town.
These are two of our favorite missionaries. Elder Ellis, (standing) was in our ward for almost 10 months, so we got to know him very well. We were very sad when he went home and hope that he will make it back for a visit someday.
After we were mostly done eating, the Primary had organized a fun scavenger hunt in the forest for the kids. There were little papers with different things they had to find. When they did they brought them back for a treat. The kids loved it.
Especially Alexandra, who had her own special transport.
There was also a giant pile of logs that proved irresistible to kids and adults alike.
Eventually a whole group ended up sitting there in the sun chatting. It was really nice!
While we were sitting there we heard some music in the distance. We listened for a while and concluded that it must be an Alphorn. Sure enough, a few minutes later the source came walking through the forest. So fun!