Last Friday night was the annual Father/Son Campout with our Ward at church. We did not get to go last year since we went on a family campout with some friends that weekend, so I was looking forward to going this time around. I know that Nate always has a good time camping and being with his buddies. Also, it was exciting this time because for the first time William was able to go with us! Will loves camping, too, and we even got Grandpa to join us so it was a true Father/Son experience.
So this year the camp was not too far from home - at Little Avalon park near Lake Lavon. It was really only about 15 or 20 minutes from the house, so not too bad. We got there and began setting up the tent right away. It wasn't until it was all set up that Nate spots some poison ivy nearby. Then we started looking around and noticed more..... and more ... and well, you get the picture. It was ALL OVER the place near our tent. There was two grassy areas at our camp site, separated by a driveway. So I walked accross the drive to the other grassy area and noticed there really was not any poison ivy over there, so I decided it would be worth it to take the tent down and move it. Since people were still just arriving anyway, I figured we had some time.
So after setting the tent back up, we cooked dinner. We just had some burgers and hot dogs, nothing too fancy - after all, it's camping right? After dinner, the scouts put on a program with some skits and a spiritual message. It was quite nice actually. The only bad part was having to sit and get swarmed by mosquitos the entire time. Man, the mosquitos were bad! All of us got chewed up, even after putting on a bunch of repellant.
But the real fun came that night after we went to bed. We didn't put the fly on the tent because it was so hot, I wanted to allow some air to flow. Also I had checked the weather the day before and it was not supposed to rain until the next day in the afternoon. So I figured we were safe. We went to sleep around 11pm and all was good .... until about 3am. The noise of sprinkes woke me up and then I felt the drops on my face. Great, I thought. So I went outside and strugged for a bit trying to get the fly on the tent in the dark, as the rain started to come down a bit more and the winds were picking up. I finally got it on when the winds and rain really picked up and one of the stakes holding the tent down came out since the ground had gotten so wet. Since the stake would not stay in the ground, the fly was not very secure on the sides of the tent and water started coming in on the sides. I struggled with this for about an hour, getting drenched outside because by now it was DUMPING rain and we were in the middle of a classic Texas thunderstorm. Finally I got it to stay somewhat secure and came inside. It continued to rain the rest of the night and into the morning. The kids stayed dry luckly, as the water coming in really only got the floor of the tent wet around the sides. There were a few drips coming down from the top but we managed to avoid those areas.
Come to find out the next morning, several people left - those who were looking up weather reports on their iPods and saw what was coming! I never really thought about leaving, though, especially after it had already started raining a ton and it would have been more work to take everything down in the rain and try to get the kids to the car. Raechal called during the storm to check on us and scared me for a minute because she said the worst stuff was coming, and I noticed the wind pick up a bit after that but luckily the tent stayed in tact! I wasn't going to leave unless it blew over or something. Besides, it was kind of fun. It was a fun experience and gives us some memories we can look back on and laugh about.
I wish I had some pictures to post but we did not take the camera. But it was a great experience to spend some time with the boys and my Dad and we really had fun just hanging out for a little while. I'm not sure how many of the wet campouts I want to go on in the future, though!
So this year the camp was not too far from home - at Little Avalon park near Lake Lavon. It was really only about 15 or 20 minutes from the house, so not too bad. We got there and began setting up the tent right away. It wasn't until it was all set up that Nate spots some poison ivy nearby. Then we started looking around and noticed more..... and more ... and well, you get the picture. It was ALL OVER the place near our tent. There was two grassy areas at our camp site, separated by a driveway. So I walked accross the drive to the other grassy area and noticed there really was not any poison ivy over there, so I decided it would be worth it to take the tent down and move it. Since people were still just arriving anyway, I figured we had some time.
So after setting the tent back up, we cooked dinner. We just had some burgers and hot dogs, nothing too fancy - after all, it's camping right? After dinner, the scouts put on a program with some skits and a spiritual message. It was quite nice actually. The only bad part was having to sit and get swarmed by mosquitos the entire time. Man, the mosquitos were bad! All of us got chewed up, even after putting on a bunch of repellant.
But the real fun came that night after we went to bed. We didn't put the fly on the tent because it was so hot, I wanted to allow some air to flow. Also I had checked the weather the day before and it was not supposed to rain until the next day in the afternoon. So I figured we were safe. We went to sleep around 11pm and all was good .... until about 3am. The noise of sprinkes woke me up and then I felt the drops on my face. Great, I thought. So I went outside and strugged for a bit trying to get the fly on the tent in the dark, as the rain started to come down a bit more and the winds were picking up. I finally got it on when the winds and rain really picked up and one of the stakes holding the tent down came out since the ground had gotten so wet. Since the stake would not stay in the ground, the fly was not very secure on the sides of the tent and water started coming in on the sides. I struggled with this for about an hour, getting drenched outside because by now it was DUMPING rain and we were in the middle of a classic Texas thunderstorm. Finally I got it to stay somewhat secure and came inside. It continued to rain the rest of the night and into the morning. The kids stayed dry luckly, as the water coming in really only got the floor of the tent wet around the sides. There were a few drips coming down from the top but we managed to avoid those areas.
Come to find out the next morning, several people left - those who were looking up weather reports on their iPods and saw what was coming! I never really thought about leaving, though, especially after it had already started raining a ton and it would have been more work to take everything down in the rain and try to get the kids to the car. Raechal called during the storm to check on us and scared me for a minute because she said the worst stuff was coming, and I noticed the wind pick up a bit after that but luckily the tent stayed in tact! I wasn't going to leave unless it blew over or something. Besides, it was kind of fun. It was a fun experience and gives us some memories we can look back on and laugh about.
I wish I had some pictures to post but we did not take the camera. But it was a great experience to spend some time with the boys and my Dad and we really had fun just hanging out for a little while. I'm not sure how many of the wet campouts I want to go on in the future, though!
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