Boys Campout

The boys and I went on a campout earlier this week. We went to Massacre State Park, which is probably the most frequent place that we go for camping. We got a little bit of a late start, because I had some unexpected meetings in the morning.

First thing we did when we got there was set up camp. Then we did a couple of short hikes to the river. The snake river is really wide and deep here. The boys don't really swim in it at all, but instead just stick their feet in and go out a few feet until the water is up to their knees. They got rid of the dock that we have played on in the past, but we still found a few places to go in.

After that we did dinner - hotdogs & nachos. Rebecca got us a couple of cans of nacho cheese, which we were able to heat up in a pot over the fire. The boys especially liked that. The boys played in the fire a bit more after that, then we cleaned up and watched a movie in the tent.

It was super hot in the tent at night. We have one of those blackout tents and it was keeping all of the heat in. Usually that is great when camping, but since it was already hot out, it was getting to be a bit too much. Opening up all of the flaps helped, but I don't think anyone got in their sleeping bags when it was time to go to sleep. At about 3 in the morning it started to get a bit chilly, so I think most of us got in our sleeping bags by that point. I ended up getting up around 5am or so, but I think the boys slept in until 7am. 

There was still one piece of wood that was smoldering throughout the night, so we were able to start up a morning fire off of that. Usually we would have poured water on it before going to bed, but there was no wind, the fire danger was low, and there was nothing around us that could have caught on fire. The boys played in the fire some more, then we ate breakfast and set up our camp. For breakfast we just toasted some pop-tarts over the fire.

After the camp was all set up, we played some games of capture the flag, then went down to the river again. It was a fun campout and a good bonding experience for the boys at the start of summer. Next time we might bring our fishing polls and see if we can catch our dinner.