Fathers and Sons Campout

This past weekend was the annual Fathers and Sons camp out at our church.  For various reasons Scott hasn't been able to go to Fathers and Sons with Matthew before.  He's been out of town, on vacation with the family, broken legged and one time in Okinawa the camp out was rained out.  But this year he was able to go and he took Matthew and Grant (Grant is just barely two).  They were all very excited to go.  Here they are getting ready to head off.

And Anna giving them a send off.  Anna had a list of Mommy/Anna things she wanted to do while they were gone, including going to get our nails painted and getting YoYogurt.  It had already been a busy day - we had Matthew's field day, swimming lessons in which Matthew and Anna have lessons, I swim with Grant and John goes in the YMCA child watch for an hour...then I madly dress everyone, go pick up John and go home.  I was tired, but Anna and I did go get our nails painted, then to YoYogurt, then to Wendy's and home to watch a short movie.  Then I had a nice shower and went right to bed.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains of southern Colorado, Matthew and Grant waited while Dad put up the tent in the dark.  I hear they tried to help, but may or may not have been too helpful as flashlight holders.

The guys all brought snacks for the "cracker barrel" and then got to have a snack fest just before bed.  Matthew said that was his favorite part.  I do feed him.

 I think Grant was excited to go on a big boy outing.

 Matthew had lots of fun playing with the other boys

He's in the camo jacket here.

And in the sleeping bag.  They used the lantern from Grandma and Grandpa Keeler!  It was very useful.

Grant reportedly had some trouble going to sleep.  I was hoping he would be extra tired after our busy day.

 Matthew getting snuggled in for sleep.

He was nice and warm in his sleeping bag.

Grant eventually went to sleep.

 In the morning they played around some more and had breakfast

 Here's the tent.  Easier to see by daylight.

 They had a nice feast of pancakes, peaches, bagels and bananas.  Yum.

 There was this big pile of sticks that a lot of the boys were playing on.

 Here's Grant playing

 And here's Matthew with one of his church friends, Jojo.

 Here's Grant helping clean up camp

 And Matthew...he found a big stick I guess.  :)

On the way out they saw some different wildlife, including this fox and her babies (extra points for spotting the babies in the bottom right corner).  The boys had a great time camping and I'm sure they will be excited to go again next year.  Anna is already planning what us girls will do next year too.