Fathers and Sons Outing

Since the weather was a little overcast we decided to take the extra two captain seats out of 'mommy car' so that we would have a place to hide if a big storm washed our camp away. Shannon masterfully cut Peyton's face out of this picture since she wasn't invited to the Aaronic Priesthood commemoration. She was sad, but took comfort that Shannon promised to take her to her favorite restaurant (Chick- Fil-A) for dinner.
After a stop at Wendy's, a few detours (thanks to google maps), and some crazy directions from a native of Springfield LA (After we talked to him Carston asked me if I thought he was the voice for Mater from Cars), we finally made it to Tickfaw State Park with just enough time to pitch our tent before dark.
Right after I took this picture I put insect repellent all over the boys. All three of them cried and said that it was stinging their faces...oops. To redeem myself I pulled out these little light sticks, they did just the trick, and they saved my retinas from the inevitable burnout that goes hand in hand with little boys and flashlights. You might notice that Jackson had a hard time adjusting to the lack of facilities in the great outdoors. I think we are going to blame this one on a mommy that encourages her boys to always sit on the potty to avoid splashes.

I guess that is one of the great things about camping when mom isn't around, even if you have a little accident - who cares? You are camping! You are supposed to get dirty!
We walked over to where the rest of the group was congregating and had a little campfire with a thought from President Conlin. Carston's favorite part was looking at an eight inch turtle shell that someone had found in the woods, Jackson liked the songs we sang like "Tarzan of the Apes", and Grant just liked running around the fire and hitting people with his light saber.
I almost forgot to mention Buster, the stuffed animal that Carston is carrying. Buster is Carston's class mascot. He gets passed around from child to child throughout the year, and he just happened to come home with Carston today. Carston wanted to be sure to get a few pictures of Buster's camp experience so that he could tell his class all about it on Monday.


After the campfire and a few snacks the boys decided that they didn't want to roast marshmallows. They said they were just too tired. I think that was partially because it was almost three hours past their normal bedtime, but mostly because they were dying to play in the tent some more. Carston and Jackson didn't last long...But Grant was another story. He played and played. It was fun for the first little while until he got really tired. Finally he fell asleep around 10:45. He woke up every hour until 1:45 when he announced to the whole campsite that it was "morning time" and that we all needed to get up. In an effort to keep him semi-quiet we got our shoes on and went for a little walk. I told him that I was really tired and wanted to go to bed and he said, "Me too, lets go home!" There was no convincing him(especially not in a quiet way). So, after another 45 min of tantrums and trying to get him to fall asleep, I decided that I was going to get a better night's rest in my own bed. I put Grant in his carseat, laid the other boys down in the empty belly of mommy car and broke camp at 2:30. As we pulled out of the camp, I thought to myself: 'Well that wasn't so bad, at least I will get a couple of hours of sleep before everyone wakes up'... The gates were locked. There was no way out of the park. 45 mins later after 4 calls to the parrish sheriff's department, trying to break into the ranger station (unsuccessfully) and being chased by a guard dog, a maintenance man let me out the gate and I drove on home. Grant slept the whole way.

In retrospect, I really had a fun time and all three boys enjoyed it too. Granted, things didn't turn out as I thought they would, but I guess life never does. All I can do is look forward to next year's outing with all four of my sons.