For the first time in the 9 years that we have lived in this ward we finally had a Father’s and Son’s campout out. It was held at the Francis Cabin, otherwise known as the Francis Central Utah Mountain Resort. I tried to take pictures of others at the campout, so don’t be surprised if you pick out one of someone you don’t recognize or may be related to though you’re not related to me.
I started out preparation by going to “help” pick out food for breakfast at the campout. My help basically consisted of making sure everything I wanted for breakfast was purchased and that there would be enough of it that I wouldn’t be hungry the next morning. Since we had a confirmed 26 people coming for the campout we naturally bought enough pancakes, syrup, bacon, sausage, hash browns, butter, eggs, and punch to feed 150 people one serving. Mission accomplished.
Andrew, Ben, and me set out the next afternoon to pick up Uncle Angel and head down to the campout. We had decided that dinner would be a pretty easy hotdogs and chorizo: no preparation, easy to cook, no clean up. The 3 keys to campout cooking. We decided it would be time to obtain our own roasting sticks and stop bumming them off of other people, but as we walked into Lowes we saw a hotdog roasting cage that could cook up to 8 hotdogs at once on clearance for $2. Bonus. It had to be a sign. We grabbed it and ran. Well, we paid for it, but you know what I mean.
We were the first non-Francis clan to arrive and got our pick of the tent sites. This was of course after we were the first people to fly by the turn-off at 60 mph before pulling an illegal u-turn and approaching it at a much more reasonable speed. Things were going pretty smoothly until we sat down to cook and eat dinner. We whipped out our new multi-hotdog roaster only to find that it DOES NOT come with the rod necessary to hold it out over the fire. There is not even any mention of this until you rip out everything, stare at it for a couple minutes trying to see how such a simple object could transform into what you know it must look like, and finally consult the instructions to find out that the rod is not included. Argh! So of course we just bummed roasting sticks off of someone else like we always do.
Despite the constant potential for life threatening situations present under my care with open water, rattlesnakes, and such Andrew did really well by only wading into the creek up to his knees. In fact, his little buddy made me look pretty good by stepping on fire barefoot and casting himself into the pond (separate incidents, pun intended for those who know). Angel even out did Andrew by diving head first into the creek while attempting a tackle in the pitch black during a very intense game of capture the flag in the dark.
After capture the flag everybody still standing gathered around the campfire to watch Kyle and Sam beg for my last two chorizo and then roll them around in the ashes. Guy Francis claimed this was the best way to cook things. I don’t think Guy eats very well. Anyways, I can’t remember how it came up, but I related to the young men that every glass of water they drink contains a molecule of water that passed through the bowels of Abraham Lincoln, not to mention every other person that lived in his time and before. Actually, now that I think about it, somebody was probably saying something profound and I interjected with “hey, did you know…” Either way, they figured out that this was equivalent to someone peeing on them every time they showered. To which I added, that it was really like millions of people peeing on them every time they got wet. As you can tell, I’m a hit at parties and I’m completely available if you’re having a party.
Andrew, Ben, and Angel were all particularly fond of the paddle and row boats available on the pond. This was unfortunate for Papa who demonstrated his love for his grandkids is greater than his despise for paddle boats. Ben also enjoyed the rope swing and Andrew had his own designated car on the tractor train.
The next morning after a very satisfying breakfast (not quite sure why it turned out so well) we broke camp, played on the lake, and inspected the water wheel house. Andrew got to ride on an ATV, and I took Angel over to shoot some skeet with Uncle Alex’s shotgun. To top it off we even got to eat lunch with Grandpa and Angel at Burger King on the way home. I say we do it again in a week or two.
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