Father Son Campout

Our ward holds a father and son campout every year. Xavier has been looking forward to this weekend all week long. After about two weeks of pure rain I was beginning to wonder if they would be able to go. Well, the day they left it was raining, then it cleared up, and then it began to rain again. When they got to the campsite it was STILL raining. What could be better than camping for a bunch of boys? A muddy campground, that's what. The better to.....

slip and slide around while playing baseball! The rain didn't put a damper on this fun weekend. Xavier had a blast playing with all the older boys, getting muddy, setting up his tent, roasting marshmallows, and hanging by the campfire.

I asked Xavier if he liked sitting by the fire and he said, "No, it was too hot." So he kept his distance. Thankfully it's the one dangerous thing he is not totally into. But put him next to a shark or a rattlesnake or even a brown recluse and he'd think it was the coolest thing ever. Go figure.

Living in PA there is a perk to this father son campout. It's held near the place where the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods were restored near the Susquehanna river. So, it was especially cool to talk about that with Xavier. This month in Primary I've been teaching the kids about the restoration of Christ's church and the restoration of the priesthood through Joseph Smith. So it was pretty neat to cement those lessons in his mind with a real hands-on experience.

Hanging out by the river

They were super close to this deer.

Xavier loved sleeping in his sleeping bag. He said he was a little caterpillar in a cocoon. Then when I asked Tim about how X slept he said he lasted about ten minutes in his own sleeping bag and ended up in Tim's. Ha ha!

The funny thing about having boys is that there will be many years of scouting and camping ahead and I am not a camping expert at all! The last time I went camping was for girl's camp more than twelve years ago and one camping adventure to see the dedication of the Nauvoo temple eight years ago. I'm definitely not much of a camper. I love the outdoors, don't get me wrong. I just like having a shower every day and sleeping in a comfortable bed when I sleep at night. Okay, I'm a girly girl. Let's just hope most of the boys campouts require dad only. :) Or maybe God sent me boys to help me appreciate getting my hands dirty now and then....