Father & Son Outing

As the President of the Elder's Quorum in the Lubbock 1st Ward, I was again responsible this year for organizing our church's annual "Father & Son Outing." Last year, we had it at Caprock Canyon State Park and I thought it was a beautiful place to go camping, so we went there again this year. Last year I hauled lots of equipment up to make it comfortable and convenient and it worked, but the logistics of rounding everything up before hand and then putting everything back afterward was stressful. So this year, I took a minimalist approach and only took the bare neccessities. It wasn't as convenient (try cooking breakfast burritos on a propane burner without a table sometime, and you'll know what I'm talking about), but the trip, overall, was a lot less stressful this time.

This year, I decided Lyndon was old enough for me to brave taking him on his first campout. To this day, I'm surprised that he behaved as well as he did. He really got a kick out of roasting his own hot dog and marshmallows. He slept in his sleeping bag in the tent better than he sleeps at home. Even though the wind kicked up in the middle of the night, he slept right through it. Here at home, sometimes he'll wake up two and three times a night and crawl in bed with us. Not to mention the fact, that it took him all of two minutes from the time he hit the pillow to fall fast asleep.
My oldest brother, Shane, brought up Lincoln and Savannah from Midland and joined us on our campout. It was Savannah's first campout too (I think). They too had a good time. Lyndon and I drove to the campground with Adam and Jeffry Tate. I always enjoy Adam's company. We have a lot in common, and he's one of the wittiest people I've met. That, coupled with his sense of humor, made for a very entertaining trip. Jeffry and Lyndon had a good time in the backseat egging each other on to say "poop" real loud. Why are kids fascinated with Crapper vernacular? I digress.
The next morning, I got up and, with the help of Charles Peach, fixed breakfast for the whole gang. We probably had over thirty people attend the outing. After breakfast, and after we broke down the tents and packed everything up, Shane, Adam, and I, and our kids all went on a nature hike up a dry river bed. We saw lots of different animal tracks in the dried mud and enjoyed some surprisingly stunning vistas from the riverbed.

When we got back to the base camp, we loaded into the cars and left to find the official Texas State Bison Herd there at Caprock Canyon. We couldn't get close enough to the Buffalo to be able to differentiate them from cows, but we did see some buffalo.

The kids crashed on the ride home; we wore 'em out. Thankfully, Adam kept me awake on the trip home or I might have joined Jeffry and Lyndon in taking a nap.
We had a really good time. Unfortunately, this was the last Father & Son Outing we'll have the opportunity of participating in here in Lubbock. Next year we'll be camping closer to Dallas.