Fathers & Sons campout

Over the weekend I had the chance to take my son to our churches Father's & Sons campout.  I use to go to these camps with my Father when I was younger, and I have always been looking forward to the time when I could take my own sons.

My son is only two so it was a bag of mixed emotions when it came time for me to determine if we were ready to go camping on our own.  At first I thought he was too young to be going, and I was worried about how he might behave. I also knew there was a raging river that runs through the campground and he has a tendency of running off (very typical two year old boy.)

Once I decided that I would man up and take the kid camping, I had to start getting him excited about it by bribing him with the idea of marshmallows and candy.  I didn't want to have to bring him home early because he was too afraid of what ever two year olds are afraid of.

One nice thing about camping with just you and your son is that you can pack very light. My wife packed my sons clothes and I through some extra clothes in a piggly wiggly bag (OK it was really a Maceys bag.)

As soon as we arrived my son noticed that gigantic playground on the other side of the river.  I tried to strike a deal with him that if he helped me unload and setup the tent I would take him over there to play on the swings.  Well that deal lasted about a minute because when I turned around after unloading the tent (see The Daily Man Show: A Great Deal - If You Don't Mind a Little Dirt
) he was already gone. 

Setting up camp took longer than it would normally as I had to keep stopping to chase him down.  Once our camp was setup it was time for dinner.  Our ward had put together a nice dinner of BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs, baked beans and corn on the cob. The best part about camping is the hotdogs.

The rest of the night I let my son play on the playground.  The playground was pretty cool, and my son loved playing with all of the other boys (I am pretty sure he was the youngest there, most of the other boys were about 5.) 

When night fall came we sat around the campfire and cooked marshmallows, Preston didn't like the smoke so we moved over to the propane fire ring and chilled there for the rest of the night.  Preston found a bag of Doritos and sat in his little chair. I think he was in heaven.  I put him to bed pretty late (much later then he goes to bed at home), but since we were camping those rules go out the door.

We had played pretty hard that night and my little man was tuckered out, so he fell asleep pretty quickly.  The night was chilly so I kept waking up worried that he was cold.  I didn't sleep the greatest, but I think he did. 

He was up at the crack of dawn as usual and soon as he was dressed was off to the playground again, where we stayed until it was time to eat.  The stake cooked a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes with juice. 

When it was time to go I was a little concerned with how I was going to take down my tent without Preston running off, but he took care of it for me. He wanted to just play in the car.

I am really glade that I decided to take my son camping with me even though he may have been a little on the young side. It was a great bonding experience and I enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with him without any other distractions.  Most of my fears about bringing him were overly exaggerated in my mind and he proved to be a fun little camping companion. I am already looking forward to next year.