Fathers and Sons Campout

The weekend before last, I took our preschooler and toddler to our ward's father and son campout. A handful of years ago, the church bought a camp a little west of Gettysburg, and that's where our stake met this year. The boys napped while I drove. We stopped to get fast food near the camp, and were the first to arrive from our ward. Some other families arrived and started setting up tents as we ate our (slightly early) dinner. When we were finished, we joined them and got our tent set up.



We happened to have our croquet set in the van -- that was unplanned, it's just been in there since Easter -- so we played for a bit.



Eventually, a camp director noticed our tents, and told us we had to move them from the field they were in over to the pipeline clearing. (It's a little strange to camp on the pipeline, isn't it?) Once we got settled for a second time, we cleared up the game and enjoyed some time by the fire. It was well past 7, so even though it was still very light out and most folks were waiting for later, we made our s'mores then. The boys loved their messy "chocolate sandwiches."



A little after 8 o'clock, they were asking for bed. I had thought they might stay up for the devotional, but it wasn't showing any signs of starting (the bishopric wasn't there yet), so we started getting the boys ready for bed. It was just starting to get too dark to read, so we read the bedtime books by flashlight. After our whole bedtime routine (pajamas, brushing teeth, stories, prayer) the devotional was just getting started. A Young Men's leader and our bishop both gave good, brief talks. I hung out with the adults for a fair bit of time, then headed to bed. I was surprised to find no evidence of horseplay in the tent, so they must have gone straight to sleep. Glad I didn't have to move them to make room for myself in our cozy tent.

Both boys were up by 7. The young men were in charge of breakfast, but I was surprised to find that before 7:30, most campers had already had their first serving! I suppose the early light must have woken everyone up. Well, the boys weren't thrilled by the breakfast. One had bacon, the other had eggs, but neither would try the sausage or oatmeal. The night and morning had gotten rather chilly. Despite it starting to warm up, the preschooler was asking to go home by 8! We packed up our gear (I would air it out to dry at home) and were ready to go in short time. But I told them we had one more stop before we headed home.

I had noticed billboards for a place that ended up being only a mile or two from our camp: Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum and Candy Emporium. Mr. Ed was pictured (we didn't see him, he might not even be around anymore, who knows) as an old man with a white beard. (That's important for later.) We arrived about 10 minutes before it opened, so we took some pictures with the candy elephant statue before going in.


Inside, they had what must have been thousands of elephant figurines. We explored for a while before picking out a generous helping of fudge and a couple bags of candy. The boys had a fun time.


We explored the garden, which had many animal statues, and then headed home.


When we got home, 2nd asked our toddler where I took him, and he said, "Santa, and elephants, and giraffes!" I suppose I can see the confusion with Mr. Ed and Santa.