Rebecca is exciting about camping. It’s never been an interest of mine, due to having to live out on the dirt, not take showers, and of course, deal with uneven ground and my bad ankles. However, she convinced us to go to the annual ward Father and Son camp out, which happened at the Cherry Campground of Hobble Creek, near Springville. I don’t know why the ward chose that area, but I was glad they did, once we arrived. It was very woodsy and close to the creek, and there were plenty of trees for shade. Considering the weather was overly hot through the past week, it was a welcome coolness.
I got off work a little early on Friday, as Rebecca met me at work and I loaded the boys and our camping equipment up in my car, and then we set off for Springville (after a quick stop at McDonalds for food). I was surprised with how far the campgrounds were into the mountains, as the directions said to simply go to a stop sign, turn right, and continue on to the camp. It was miles past there to the grounds, then miles more to the Cherry Camp.
We arrived and found other members from our ward, then set up the tent. Ethan and Jeremy tried to help (Ethan read the directions, both tried to set up the poles) and eventually we had our tent up.
The boys went exploring up the hillside where everyone else was going, and I just hung around the camp.
The boys found much pleasure in climbing up the hill and sliding down (notice all the dirty back sides?).
After a while, the boys decided they wanted to pee, so we made our way to the restrooms. I was surprised that they were more of a glorified outhouse (brick building with a hole in the ground, and a hollow toilet seat over it). Jeremy refused to use it at first, and we stayed outside whilst Ethan used the room. I showed Jeremy the posters on the walls of the bear and snake warnings.
He wasn’t too happy about them, and wanted to pack up and leave.
We stayed, though. Next time, we’ll probably bring campfire foods (marshmallows, hot dogs, etc) and just roast them, instead of doing McDonalds. They continued to play, and there wasn’t much structure to the evenings’ events. After a small fireside-like message, people started going to their tents to sleep. We ended up trying to watch a movie on my tablet, but the volume wasn’t good, so instead, we played with glow bracelets until we were all too tired.
It was hard having to sleep with a slight feeling like I had to pee. In the morning, we woke up early and all went to the bathroom, then made our way back to the camp to help make breakfast. There was more than enough food (supplied by the ward) and we had pancakes, sausage, hash browns, eggs, and juice to choose from. After everyone had their fill and we cleaned up, and the boys played some more, and we started tearing down tents and picking up random bits of trash, then went home.
No bears or snakes were seen, though.
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