Campout

This is Mike. I feel the need to identify myself because this is probably only the 2nd or 3rd time I've written a post on this blog. Anyway, Benson and I went to our ward's fathers and sons campout last Friday and had a great time! Benson had been looking forward to it for weeks.

He was so pumped that he spontaneously started singing God Bless America complete with signing in the car on the way there. Yeah, we had no idea he even knew this song.

When we arrived, he helped me set up the tent and air mattress, sleeping bags, etc. Then we sat by the fire with the big group and ate dinner, roasted marshmallows, and listened to "scary" stories. Ben loved it. He was so happy, running around with a flashlight, chasing the other kids. He particularly enjoyed the "scary" story someone told that was basically a rendition of Kung Fu Panda, which we have subsequently rented.

His favorite part was definitely sleeping in the tent. While we were sitting by the campfire he kept saying "Daddy, I think I must be tired. Can we go to bed in the tent and make shadow puppets." We did make shadow puppets later much to his delight.





The only problem was it got down to 22 degrees that night and I froze my pants off. Despite the fact that I had a catalytic heater and plenty of layers, I still kept waking up because of the cold. Plus, I kept having nightmares about being separated from Ben. Benson, however, slept great all night. Whenever I would touch him to see if he was cold he was toasty warm. Go figure. At one point he woke up for a second and told me I was waking him up. Wow, dad's a spaz, I guess.
It was still totally worth it though to see him having so much fun and get in some good "guy bonding time". Tonight when I put the kids to bed, Ben asked if we could go camping again, so I guess he really liked it too.