Camp Out!!!

When ever I hear the word Camp Out I immediately have the scene from "The Sandlot" pop into my head with the music "The lion sleeps tonight" playing in the background, Smalls being taught how to roast a "Mallow" and make a smore and having the story of "the BEAST" freak everyone out! I absolutely LOVE that movie!

Brady had youth conference this weekend and while he was packing up on Thursday, the boys were jealous and sad because Dad would be sleeping out in the tent and they were going to be left home. On Friday morning with the Sandlot camp out replaying in my head I spontaneously decided to pack up the boys and take them camping!!! In my parents backyard of course, I am not that insane. My brother and his family would be up to tour the new Temple so it was the perfect scene for some memory making family fun.

At about 7 pm I decide it would be a good idea to figure out the tent. I grabbed Zach the boy scout and enlisted his help. We took everything out of the tent bag, turned the tent around about 5 times thinking we had the door the wrong way only to realize that it had 2 doors, put the bars through the tent then realized that I had pulled them apart, (it didn't click with me that you should push them through not pull. No wonder it bent funny on the top), and assembled the main part of the tent. We stood back to admire our work and saw that the top was a screen only and that we did need to figure out the rain shield and put it on. After it was all said and done we had assembled a decent looking tent with only 2 poles left over (still not sure where they should have gone) and about 6 extra stakes!!!!!! It made it through the night without falling. That was all I asked for!!

After dinner I thought it would be fun to teach the boys how to roast a "Mallow" and make smores! I pulled out the fire pit, gathered the wood, newspaper, and twigs, and dumped them into the fire pit, lit the match and was feeling really confident as I watch the fire roar!! Go me !!!This isn't that hard. I could make it in the wilderness and build my own fire! I don't need a Boy Scout around! I am INDEPENDENT! Just about as soon as I finished this personal pat on the back I realized my fire was dying and that the only thing that was lit was the paper not ANY of the wood. CRAP! So I enlisted the help of Tonya and my Mom and we tried over and over again. I think we used all the newspaper my Mom had and started in on the papertowel rolls, junk mail, drink boxes any paper we could find. Tonya was light headed from blowing but in the end, with a few puffs from Shane I will admit; we had the perfect roasting fire! It was great to sit around enjoying the fire, letting the kids stuff their cheeks with marshmallows, laughing and joking together.

Around 11:30 the kids were so tired so be brushed teeth, said our prayers and headed for the tent to sleep. Zach was a great sport and despite heading to scout camp to sleep in a tent all next week, he agreed to stay out with us. Thanks Zach! I was shocked at how fast the kids fell asleep. I just wish I was as lucky. What was I thinking. I am not a kid anymore and sleeping outside on the ground was not a good idea. I had a rock in my back and my pillow was too flat. I tossed and turned and finally fell asleep only to be rudely awakened by 2 cats fighting just outside the tent. What I would have given for that rock in my back to throw at them. I tossed and turned some more listening to the tent blow in the wind from the storm that was moving in for Saturday and praying that the tent would stay up and that those 2 "Extra" poles were not that important. I finally fell asleep for what felt like 15 minutes to be woken by excited kids that morning was here. I looked at my phone to realize it was 6 am and they wouldn't be going back to sleep.

I let them out of the tent to play, thinking I might get at least another half hour of sleep; to see black rain clouds on the horizon. I grumbled as I got out of bed and quickly rolled up the beds and started on the tent. Now tell me why tent manufactures think that the average human can roll up the tent and make it fit into that tiny bag as easy as the machines can do it? I sure can't. I must have folded and rolled that tent at least a dozen times when it started to rain. I called for reinforcements and together with my Mom we managed to get the tent into the bag, minus the stakes and poles, just as it started to rain hard. I was sweaty and tired and it was just past 7 am.

All in all I am glad I did it for my boys. They had so much fun and it was the first time Garrison and Maddie had ever slept in a tent. The best part is that I have had my turn and next time I am sleeping inside in a comfortable bed so that someone else can have the memory making experiences!!! Who is next!