I’m reposting this entry for posterity and so it won’t be deleted later.
My father-in-law and brother-in-law and myself just got back from taking Thomas on his first campout! What fun!
Last night we got to Pine Mountain Campgrounds a little after 7PM, set up our campsite and started a campfire. Thomas LOVED the fire. He had never seen a large open flame before; at least not by my reckoning. At first he didn’t know what to do with the campfire. He would just stand there staring and pointing, saying, “ooooooo.” After it got bigger and hotter he finally got the gist that fire is hot. I know this because he would point and say, “hot!” Of course he calls ice “hot” too. Which makes me think that he regards any change in temperature as “hot.” Cute.
Thomas was mezmerized by my Maglite and wanted to hold it. He had a great time shining it all over the place including my eyes. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I’d say he was trying to blind me. For those of you who don’t know, Maglites are very sturdy flashlights. They’re made out of aircraft quality aluminum and are moisture proof, shock proof and generally regarded as being nearly indestructible. I think Thomas was disappointed at this fact because after pounding it on the ground, putting it in his mouth (which was cute because his cheeks lit up bright red), pounding it on the picnic table and noting that it was still shining he decided that he was going to break it once and for all and promptly threw it into the fire. I should have seen this coming but alas, my paternal foresight wasn’t working and it caught me by complete surprise. So after mumbling something to myself I quickly reached into the fire and pulled forth my mighty Maglite. It still works, kudos to Maglite. I also found out that Thomas was quite right, the fire really is “hot!”
Thomas had a ball watching the tent go up. Once it was pitched he would walk in and out of it and play peek-a-boo with the door flap. At first he didn’t seem to like the idea of sleeping in a strange place but once he got tired enough he fell right asleep and slept the whole night through. He woke up at 8:00AM, which is late for him, and he was ready to go. The look in his eyes seemed to say, “Cool! My daddy, grandpa and uncle are all here!”
This morning Thomas had his first taste of campfire bacon and eggs. The bacon was more to his liking than the eggs. I don’t know why he didn’t like the eggs, I thought they tasted fine. After breakfast we walked around a bit, played a little frisbee and then headed home. This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had camping. It’s something that we all decided must be repeated every year.
If you would like to see some of the better pictures that were taken on this trip, view my photo set.