Father's and Son's Camp Out

Today is going to be a real treat for my faithful readers.  The big highlight of the past week was the father's and son's camp out and since I was not there (as I am neither a father nor a son), I am going to hand the blog to Jeremy to write for this week.  Before I go though, I will say that us girls had a really fun time back home.  We went shopping, out to dinner, and got frozen yogurt.  I didn't get many pictures from the weekend, but here is one of the two youngest girls in the family, Carrigan and Isabel having a blast in the bathtub.

And without further ado, here is Jeremy...

This last weekend was really fun.  It was the first time that I took Merrick on the father's and son's camp out, a yearly tradition for our ward, and much of the church.  We went to a boy scout campsite called Camp Merriweather, just outside of Tillamook, Oregon, home of the world famous Tillamook cheese and ice cream factory, more on that later.  

The camp itself is really cool, these boy scouts up here are spoiled.  My scout camps consisted of endless hours of hiking.  This camp is a short hike to the beach, has a lake, and Adirondacks to sleep in.  As soon as we got there we hiked down to the beach.  We didn't stay down there for long though.  You can't tell from the pictures but it was about 40 degrees on the beach with 20 mph winds.  So after 10 minutes of having our faces thoroughly exfoliated by the all the sand fling around we went to the lake.

At the lake we ran into the other members of our ward that had come up early.  The story that they told us was that there was a row boat that was half submerged on the beach and my nephew and his friend, both about 12, decided to flip it over, take it out in the water, and row across the lake to a cabin they could see through the trees.  The cabin was unlocked and was really a big shed where all the kayaks were housed for the camps.  So, naturally, being 12, they decided to ditch the row boat and get a few kayaks.  When some of the adults saw this they decided to get some as well, even though they knew this would eventually lead to the scout camp employees telling them they couldn't use these because they were for the scouts, and liability reasons, and all those other crappy excuses that professional scouters use to make sure no one has fun, which they did the next day right before we left, but I digress.  When Merrick and I showed up, Merrick really wanted to go out on the row boat to see his friend on the other side of the lake.  So we hopped in the row boat and paddled out through the lake.  That is when I snapped this picture, which was my favorite one of the weekend.

That night we roasted hot dogs and s'mores.  I had a fun time and as we went to sleep I wondered why we don't camp more.  Then the wind and cold temperatures reminded me why we don't camp more.  I love being outdoors, I just don't like sleeping outdoors.  In fact, one of the reasons that I work is so that I won't have to sleep outdoors.  Needless to say, I did not sleep well.  But, Merrick did.  And, even after not going to bed until about 9pm, an hour and a half past his normal bed time, he was up at his regular time, just before 6am.  All the other kids got the memo that they were supposed to sleep, so Merrick and I were the only ones awake in the whole camp of about 40 people.  One thing you may not know about Merrick is that he doesn't really have a volume control on his voice so we decided to go down to the lake so he didn't wake up the other campers.  When we got down there he wanted to get in the kayaks, I was hesitant at first because I didn't want to get wet at six in the morning.  But, I let him talk me into it and I was glad I did.  It was one of those experiences that made wish my phone hadn't died so I could have taken a picture.  But, at the same time I am glad I didn't have a phone because it just let me enjoy the moment, and I don't think a picture would have done it justice.  We paddled out to the middle of the lake, which was as smooth as glass without the wind, and I stopped paddling and just floated.  I had myself a bit of a moment as it was just Merrick and I on the lake, the birds were chirping, and the sun was just coming up over the trees.  It was a great moment and one that I think embodied the spirit of the father's and son's campout, and I was glad to share it with Merrick.

Afterwards, we went to Oceanside, another beach nearby, where thousands of jelly fish had washed up over night as you can see by the picture.  Then we made one last stop at the Tillamook cheese and ice cream factory for a nutritious lunch of free cheese samples and ice cream.  It was great weekend and we both are looking forward to next year's camp out.