Fathers and Sons Campout

Bryan took the boys on their first Fathers and Sons Campout this weekend. The boys were very excited. Bryan was kind of overwhelmed at the prep work required to make it happen. After spending a few hours gathering supplies and packing everything they would need, they set off to join the other fathers and sons from our Stake. I snapped this picture as they were heading out the door.

These are the only two pictures that Bryan took during the adventure. That's fine with me, because it means his brain was focused on more important things, like making sure no one fell in any bodies of water or had a run-in with a bear. At least we can see what their tent looked like.

The boys had lots of fun playing tag and hide and go seek with the other boys. They were glad that they had taken Cooper's walkie talkies because that gave the boys some freedom to walk the campsite without being totally unsupervised.

It's a good thing Bryan put on the rain fly. After three days of temperatures in the 90s, the heat broke while the boys were sleeping thanks to a surprise deluge. Some of the other campers were soaked. Our boys were dry and only had to deal with the cold, noise, and panic attack that the rain storm brought. Between walking boys to the bathroom in the middle of the night, holding them on the too-small air mattress, soothing that panic attack I mentioned, and hearing other campers who had stayed up much later, Bryan got a whopping two hours of sleep.

They woke the next morning to discover that most of the other campers had packed up to escape the weather. Thanks to a pause in the rain, Bryan and the boys broke camp and packed the car quickly. They surprised me by arriving home three hours sooner than I thought they would. All three were exhausted and hungry and Peter announced he was never going camping again. They all slept soundly Saturday night.

With a solid night of sleep between them and the campout, I think Peter is willing to give it another go. That's good since he has a goal to become an Eagle Scout and that will require A LOT of camping. Now we just need to convince Bryan to go camping again...