Whoa! Nice toothbrush!

I wanted to add a little to the drama of the ward campout. This weekend demonstrated once again why buying toys for Brody is dumb. He ran around the whole night and day exclaiming “big stick” and picking up that big stick to “hit twee.” That was his entertainment. Well, that and playing swords with Brad and I. For some reason he would pick the biggest stick he could find for Brad to use and then pick a small one for himself, so of course all of the onlookers would see a large man picking on a little boy and root for Brody. I think it was all part of his master psychological warfare plan – and it worked. Before long he had Brad pinned and crying like a…, well, like a toddler.

Brody also enjoyed making smores. In fact he liked making them so much he didn’t bother eating them. Brody has a bit of an eating quirk; if there is anything hanging off the spoon/fork, or over the sides of a sandwich (like gooey marshmallow) that will spill over onto his cheeks, he wont eat it. He gets mad and frustrated. That’s why we have to cut his spaghetti into itti-bitti pieces, and that’s why after trying to take a bite out of a delicious smore he said “Dad eat?” and then he retreating back to the comfort of dousing “moshtees” in fire.

Let me tell you, there is nothing so comfortable as a cool autumn night under the stars, camping with your boy and enjoying nature. Let me also tell you that that is not at all what happened. It poured rain all night. And when the rain wasn’t drumming on the roof of our tent there were some strange animals making strange noises and when that wasn’t happening Brody was tenderly stroking my face with his fist or gently nudging my body with relentless kicking. It was wonderful. I got so much sleep. The other joy of the night was hearing Erica move on her plastic water-floatation-device-made-into-a-bed. Ah yes, the sweet sound of sweaty skin skidding over plastic. Music to my ears. Thanks Erica!

Speaking of Erica, when we all woke in the morning she decided to show off by pulling out her bag of wonderful toys. She reached her hand into the magic bag as we all watched in suspense and pulled out….stay tuned for next weeks edition!

“Whoa! Nice Toothbrush!”

That is what Brody said when she pulled out that very normal looking toothbrush. It was quite funny. He acted like it was the coolest thing since “big sticks.” Kids say the darndest things!

After a breakfast of pancakes and meat cooked on rusted grills by Chefs Erica and Brad, we all decided to take Brody swimming in the superbly clean waters of the lake. Superbly clean is a bit of an exaggeration, I guess. In truth I was afraid to open my eyes or mouth and felt like I was swimming in fish excrement; and I probably was. It was fun though, and Brody enjoyed looking for the fish and watching the ducks and flying through the air at and break-neck speeds.

It was a good weekend and I’m glad we were able to go – even more glad that we had good friends there to hang out with and make good memories with.

As a side note, some of the occupants of the campgrounds found me too irresistibly handsome and couldn’t keep their paws off me. They also couldn’t keep their mouths off me, and I have the itchy red bumps all over to prove it. Sometimes it’s difficult being so attractive. (Perhaps you know what I mean. Perhaps you have no idea.) ;-)

Jess and I began working on some family History projects for the church. It is really easy and quite cool, so if you haven’t already started on your own you should go to www.familysearchindexing.org and start as well. You’ll like it.