Every year,
my former church does a father-son campout at Wishon Lake. It’s an awesome campsite, in close proximity
to two lakes, lots of hiking trails and some rock-climbing sites. The site has several tent pad surrounding
four or five fire pits. There’s a
kitchen area in the middle, along with a pair of bathroom stalls, and several
water spigots sprinkled throughout the camp.
I went once,
six years ago, with my dad. Dad drove up
for the weekend and we had a pretty good time together, but my dad doesn’t
enjoy not being able to take showers, and we capsized a kayak, nearly drowning,
so we decided not to repeat the ordeal.
I’ve always been a little bummed not being “eligible” to attend, but I
figured one day my turn would come again.
My friend
Tiffany is a single mom to Kyle (9) and Josh (7). Last year Tiffany’s brother took the boys,
but wasn’t in town this year, so I offered to take them. I’ve been Josh’s Sunday School teacher, and
Kyle’s VBS leader, and have hung out with them on a few occasions since.
So this past
weekend I took Kyle on the trip. Josh
didn’t want to be away from Mom, but Kyle wanted to go. Both boys are a little hyperactive and have
some behavior issues, so I wasn’t sure whether or not just having Kyle was a
good thing or not. On one hand, there’s
only one boy to keep track of, but on the other, there’s no sibling to
entertain him on the drive (2 hours each way).
I picked up
Kyle at 2:30 on Friday, and Tiffany walked me through his luggage so I would know where
everything is. Before we loaded up the
car, we let Mom get all her pictures in of her baby’s departure.
My friend
Cory sent me a text as I was leaving to ask if dinner was provided on
Friday. Her husband Bryan and their two
boys Cole (9, Kyle’s best friend) and Quentin (7 on Saturday) were 30 minutes
en route. Thankfully that prompted me to
realize that it wasn’t, Bryan and I each stopped to pick up respective dinners
for us and our kids.
The drive
was uneventful. Kyle and I talked for about
half of the drive. He filled me in on
what he’d been doing for the summer, I explained a little about my job and what
I’d been doing, and then he filled me in on everything he was planning to do
this weekend (hanging out with Cole, going to their secret hideout, playing
spoons and playing airsoft). He read for
a little while, and without too many “are we there yets?” we arrived.
We ate
dinner with the Bryan, Cole & Quentin and then set up our respective
tents. Todd arrived shortly thereafter
with Derek & Griffin (twins, 6).
Bryan had brought a hammock, so we were not wanting for comfort.
Apparently
Tiffany pulled Kyle’s airsoft gun out of his bag without him knowing it,
because Kyle was nearly despondent over not having it, but he wasted no time in
convincing another kid to lend him a spare gun.
Kyle is nothing if not resourceful.
I took the
time to catch up with the other dads. I
miss this group of guys now that I’m no longer at CBC, but I’m grateful for opportunities
like this to reconnect. I met Alex, a
guy visiting from Brazil, who will be staying in my house while he takes
English classes for the next month. CBC’s
executive pastor Matt arranges these situations with a friend he met while
doing a missions trip in Brazil years ago, so that Brazilian’s can come to
America, take some English classes and do some touristy stuff while
visiting. Matt arranges host families
for these guys/girls, and asked me to host the guy who was visiting this time.
Later in the
evening, Kyle organized a game of spoons with the other kids in our firepit
area. I know he’s good at this game, but
I’m reasonably sure he was cheating. But
since all the other kids seemed to be cheating as well in one form or another, there
was no money on the tree stump, and none of us dads wanted to bother to police
every little detail, we let it go.
We sent the
kids to bed around 9. I prayed with Kyle
and then crawled back out to talk with the other dads. Two other families had set up tents in our
area. I crashed for some short-lived
sleep a little while later, and then was wide awake for most of the night. Ugh, oh well.
