Mother/Son Campout

Recently, Paul took the boys on a Father/Son campout for church. He was reluctant to go. Paul does not have the best experiences with camping. Anyway, about 1:00am I awoke to the house being blown away. The windows rattled, something huge pounded the roof, and a wild whistling shrieked through the neighborhood. "My babies!" I thought. I texted Paul but got no answer. "There is no way he's sleeping through this" I pondered. I got online and checked the weather on 9News. No wind advisories. I checked the state park website and there were no warnings. Finally I got on Facebook (don't laugh- there's ward members on there) and sure enough, some guy was updating and there's a picture of his kids nearly being squashed flat by the tent. I knew it! Just then I hear the garage door go up. My kids are home! After we get them settled in bed again, Paul stands in the kitchen and looks at me. "Now do you understand why I don't like camping?"

Let's review his experiences -hurricane winds at the Father/Son, constant downpours and freezing in South Dakota (we checked into a hotel), torrential rains and flooding on the Priest's High Adventure, evacuation to a nearby shelter at Magness Adventure Camp (cub scouts), and the list continues. Yes, my love, I understand why you don't like to camp.

Still, I do like to camp and it's seems like he's always the one going with all the boys. We have decided he's a jinx. No fair, I say. Just a few days ago, as Paul was gearing up to go to youth conference I decided to take my boys camping. It would be the first annual Mother/Son Campout. I figured my lads were large enough to keep any trouble at bay. After checking online and making some calls, I decided to stay fairly close to home and only go for a night. We camped at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It was wonderful.

Our campsite was spacious, secluded, and close to the bathrooms. Mmmmm, pine trees!


We ate a great deal, played a few games, and got really dirty. And we played with fire, BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Boys really like fire, in case ya didn't know.


We all had a really good time, and I am so glad I was brave enough to try it.


On a final note, there was a decided lack of foul weather. Very suspicious! I didn't sleep a wink but then I never do. There was, apparently, a Long Distance and Continuous Dog Barking Festival up there that weekend. They didn't announce this one on the state park website. The participants were very enthusiastic. Between that and Ben's man-snoring, there were no zzzzzzz's for Deb. It was still worth it!