The Hurst Family Adventure

 On May 11-12 Jet and I went on a Father and Sons campout.  At first I thought he was a little young for it. But I said
what the heck and knew that one way or the other would create a memorable experience.  While I was at work, Amanda packed the car with our tent, chair, stroller and other things.  We drove up Spanish Fork canyon to a place called Wanrhodes.  There was a great turnout and some ward members even brought their horses.  We started the evening with some great dinner. We had beef stew and cheesey potatoes. Then for dessert we had dutch oven peach cobler and ice cream.  After that we sat around the campfire and Jet got to pet a dog and go look at the horses. After that I thought I should start getting the tent set up.  I later found out that we were the only ones staying in a tent.  Other people mentioned sleeping under the stars and others brought travel trailers.  That was okay, I was up for the adventure.  The only problem was that there wasn't very many places nearby with flat ground.  I found a place that was 20 feet from the fire and 10 feet from the horses.  This later turned out to be a problem. After that, Jet got to roast his first marshmallow over the fire, although he wasn't as interested in roasting it as he was just eating it.  We did go down to a little river for a bit, but I soon thought he would get dirty and or wet, so I took him back up away from the creek.  I changed Jet's diaper in the tent and we started to make for bed.  Jet was a little bit scared I think at first, maybe a little claustrophobic I don't know. Then he didn't have too much trouble going to sleep. It was a little bit colder up there than I thought, so he slept in his jacket and other clothes.  I couldn't get to asleep, partly because I was on my back and the other part because people were talking around the fire for another couple hours, also someone had a lantern on and so there was plenty of light coming through the tent.  I didn't have it in me to ask people to be quiet or turn the light off, or go do it myself, so I just relaxed for a while in the tent.  I must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew I was waking up and it was only 1am.  I had to go the bathroom and it was really cold.  The other problem was that the air mattress was losing air.  So although I didn't want to, I knew it would be better if I went the bathroom and put more air in the mattress.  In doing so, I woke Jet up. At one point we did get the stars out and it was very beautiful.  At another point I remember bear hugging Jet and putting us both in two sleeping bags and trying to stay warm together.  Jet was really such a trooper.  He cried a little bit here and there, but overall I was so proud of him.  He was up for the adventure.  It really was a great bonding experience for us.  I just wish it had been 20 degrees warmer.  So the other problem was that I lost my glasses somewhere in the middle of the night....I had always said that if ever got too bad, we could just pack up and go home.  Well now I had to wait till morning light to find my glasses, because I wasn't going to leave without them.  But we were so cold.  There was litterally frost on the car and tent in the morning. Another part of me wanted to hold out until breakfast.  So we got some sleep here and there, and we waited for light at around 6am and I was like, I am freezing, I don't care about breakfast, I am out of here.  So I backed the car up to the tent and turned on the heater. I put Jet in the car while I was packing up.  I remember it was so cold, that I even warmed up in the car for a few minutes to have a break from packing up the car.  I found my glasses in the tent and then I stuffed everything in the back of the car. I was hungry and thought we'd get a small breakfast at McDonalds.  It was pretty fun, me and Jet on a adventure, 7am in the morning at McDonalds.  I bet we looked like an odd pair.  We got some breakfast and then I let Jet play in the play area for like 30 minutes, trying to buy some time, so that Amanda could sleep in some more before we came home. We came home and showed Mom all our pictures and then went back to bed.  It was a great trip with some hiccups.  I was happy to make some great memories with Jet and be a cool dad for him.  We'll have to do it again sometime!!!