Father and Sons

This weekend I took all three boys (Jacob 8, Brigham 5, Caleb 2) on our first Father and Sons camp-out. Normally Caleb wouldn't have made the trip but Holly was going to Philadelphia for the weekend to attend "Timeout for Women" (that is where women go when they refuse to eat their vegetables).

First I would like to point out a few things that I learned that might be of use to someone attempting a similar feat in the future.

1. Campgrounds do not provide pillows. I really wish they did though since I forgot to bring them.


2. If you are going camping, arrive early enough to set your tent up in the daylight. Setting up in the dark is no fun.


3. Campgrounds are not exactly "handicap accessible" which we learned as we drug Jacob's wheelchair over the gravel roads.


4. Four man tents do not anticipate one of your "men" being in a port-a-crib.

Now for a recap of the experience. We got a bit of a late start on Friday afternoon. The campground is only about an hour away but since we didn't get on the road until 5 pm, with traffic we didn't end up getting there until about 6:30. Everyone was eating dinner so we went ahead and joined them. I don't really know anything about camping so I kept asking people where you were supposed to setup etc. All the kids loved dinner. Jacob had Fritos, Caleb downed a hotdog and stole Jacob's Fritos and Brigham went for the full on chili cheese dog (with no bun though since he is on the Atkin's diet).

After dinner we went hunting for a campsite. It was already dark which made things a little complicated. I brought Jacob and Caleb with me and my brother-in-law Josh agreed to come help me setup the tent and would bring Brigham and Sam (Josh's son along with him). We were able to drive the car pretty close to where we were going to camp but since I had to carry the tent, sleeping bags, etc. I couldn't really carry Jacob or Caleb. So they started walking behind me, Jacob in his walker and Caleb waddling along. I was looking for a place to drop our tent down, shining the flashlight around and got a little too far ahead of Jacob and Caleb. I turned around to see Jacob crying and Caleb with a very scared look on his face. I went back to gather the troops and try to move them along to our destination.

About the time I got found a spot Josh showed up and we started setting up the tent. The tent was actually pretty easy to setup except for the fact that Jacob was crying the entire time, begging to go home. By the time we were done with the tent we had two leftover poles. That was a little concerning but I still have no idea where they were supposed to go.

After setting up the ten it was off to the campfire. The stake had a little program and the kids go to roast marsh mellows. All of my kids really liked this. Some of the older kids did skits. Brigham couldn't figure out why the kids in one of the skits called toilet paper the "very important papers".

After the campfire it was off to bed. There was just one problem. We weren't allowed to park our car by the campsite overnight. So we had to take it out to the parking lot. We parked the car and started our walk back to the campground, Jacob in his wheelchair, me carrying a cooler, Brigham with his backpack on wheels and Caleb waddling along.

We were moving pretty well on the pavement but once we got to the gravel road things slowed down considerably. It was almost impossible to push Jacob's wheelchair on the gravel so I turned him around backwards, popped the chair onto its back wheels and stared towing him. At the same time a lot of cars were coming down the gravel road since they were going out the parking lot. This meant we had to keep pulling over to the side of the road and containing Caleb so that he would not "run to the light". Needless to say, our progress was very slow. We had to be quite the site though, me dragging Jacob's wheelchair behind me and Brigham walking along holding onto Caleb's arm, looking like he was taking him to a detention center, to make sure he didn't run away.

Eventually, we made our bathroom stop and finally arrived at the tent. As stated previous, we had a four-man tent and Caleb's port-a-crib took up some significant space. After quite a bit of wrestling I got all of the kids in pajamas and into their sleeping bags/cribs. Jacob passed out almost immediately, Brigham wanted to hear some stories and Caleb was just happy to be there. I told Brigham a few stories and he went on and on about how fun camping was and how we should do this every year and... then he was out cold. But Caleb was still happy to be there. He didn't seem tired yet but I thought I would just go to sleep and Caleb would eventually doze off.

I got into my sleeping bag. All of our sleeping bags were brand new since we had never been camping before as a family. Brigham and Jacob's bags were slightly different than mine. As I got into mine my feet went right out the bottom. What? I checked the zippers to make sure I wasn't in upside down. Nope. I check to see if there was a way to zip up the bottom. Nope. I thought, "What kind of moron makes a sleeping bag with no bottom?" But I was exhausted and decided to just go to sleep.

But Caleb was still excited to be there. He was jumping around the crib, laughing, cheering etc. I am not sure if I fell asleep for awhile or not but as the night wore on Caleb never calmed down. I was having a real tough time getting comfortable, especially since I had forgotten the pillows, was on no padding on bumpy ground with a sleeping bag that had no bottom. After several hours of tossing and turning I finally discovered another zipper on the bag. There was another layer! I could actually get "into" the sleeping bag. All of the sudden my sleeping bag became a lot more useful. And all this time Caleb was still excited to be there.

I closed my eyes for a bit and suddenly something heavy fell on me. I opened my eyes to see Jacob's face right over mine saying "I want a thousand years clapping" (that means he wants to listen to a live version of a Sting song). I told him that it was still night time and he had to go to sleep, which he did promptly. I couldn't quite see but apparently he had fallen asleep on top of Brigham. Brigham woke up a few moments later screaming "I can't move my legs". I rolled him out from underneath Jacob and back to the other side of the tent. And Caleb was still excited to be there.

This was getting crazy. I didn't have a watch on but it had to at least be 3 am and Caleb was still bouncing off of the walls. I hadn't brought a sleeping bag for him, just his blanket sleeper and his blanket. I started thinking that maybe he was too cold t calm down so I got him out his crib to lie down with me in my new and improved sleeping bag. Big mistake. He was even more excited now and started crawling all over everyone in the tent. Brigham awoke again yelling, "He grabbed me in the face! I hate it when Caleb grabs me in the face!"

Caleb was quickly put back in the crib and I tried putting my jacket over him. That didn't work, the Jacket became a very fun thing to throw around the crib. So finally I relented and gave Caleb my sleeping bag. He didn't calm down immediately but after about 45 minutes or so he finally fell asleep. It was almost 5 am at this point.

Everyone was asleep now but I had a problem. I had no pillow and now sleeping bag. I put on all the clothing I had but that still wasn't quite warm enough. So finally, I opened up Jacob's sleeping bag and got in with him. It wasn't big enough that I could close it again but we were both warm enough that I was able to get to sleep for at least 90 minutes or so.

Then Brigham and Jacob woke up and we were ready to start the day! We had some breakfast with everyone and Brigham had a blast playing with his friend John at all of the great play areas in the campe as Jacob and Caleb say by while I packed up the tent and sleeping bags. Caleb, who had been such a wild man the night before was amazingly sedate and seemed content to sit in the port-a-crib with his blankey while I cleaned things up.

By 10 am we were on the road home to get Brigham to a birthday party. Finally at 2 pm Caleb and I were able to lie down for a much needed nap. Hopefully we will be rested enough by the time Father and Sons comes around next year.