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Father & Son’s

May 25th, 2008 · 3 Comments · bridget, dave, family

Friday Night/Saturday morning was the West Point, Utah Stake’s annual Father & Son’s outing at Camp Woodland. Tina’s parents are part of that stake and her father, R.J., annually invites his son and son’s-in-law. This year, I decided to bring Bridget with me.

Bridget at Father & Son's Outing

Bridget at Father & Son's Outing

Now, I don’t need people telling me that Bridget is not my son (perhaps you should tell her that — after watching her buddy Josh stand up to go #1, she is convinced she is a boy so that she can, too).

Side note… Whenever there is an activity of this nature, there is the odd family that brings a child of the wrong gender. The instance is typically few and far between, but it happens. Well, year after year, a particular family in the stake (with a number of female progeny) was bringing his girls to the father and sons. Year after year, the 2-year-old that got brought turns into the 5-year-old, then the 7-year-old, then the 12-year-old, etc. Well, last year, it got out of hand. This guy with upwards of 4-5 girls ages 3 – 15 and his wife went to the father and son’s outing. You can see how the inappropriateness of a 15-year-old girl at an outing like this would be too much (especially since they typically open one bathroom for use). The stake decided to shut this guy down, except in a non-rude way, by telling all families in the stake that absolutely no females would be allowed to come… Then, I show up with Bridget. She was the only girl with the hundreds of father-son families at the entire camp. We felt a little out of place. Since everybody knew the reasoning behind the message, they really didn’t care about Bridget and were all really nice to her.

We had been getting Bridget excited about going camping for about a week. She was only mildly upset that Mommy would be staying home. To defer any upset-ness, I would name the family members that would be showing up:

Dave: “Grandpa will be there…”

Bridget: “And Grandma?”

Dave: “No, Grandma will be staying home. But Uncle Donny will be there…”

Bridget: “And Aunt Hollie?”

Dave: “No, not this time. Uncle Barry will be there, though…”

Bridget: “And Teyler?”

Dave: “No, but Uncle Barry might bring Ethan…”

Bridget: “I think Uncle Barry will bring Teyler, too!”

Dave: “Well, we’ll see…”

Mendenhall Representation at Father & Son's Outing

Bridget sure had a ball playing with her cousin, Ethan.

Bridget playing with Ethan at Father & Son's Outing

Here’s us eating our hoagie dinner.

Dave & Bridget's Dinner at Father & Son's Outing

If I had a shirt commemorating Hurley from Lost, I’d wear it everywhere!!!

Dinner at Father & Son's Outing

I never realized that putting hands in pockets to keep warm was something I’d have to teach my kid. As the day turned to night, the temperature began to come down and it got quite chilly. I could see that Bridget’s hands were getting cold, but she wasn’t putting them in her pockets. I showed her that if she did, her hands would stay warm. We then walked around and pointed out all of the boys with their hands in their pockets keeping warm. Bridget did likewise the rest of the evening.

Bridget Hands in pockets at Father & Son's Outing

Bridget at Father & Son's Outing

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3 Comments so far ↓

  • Mother of the Wild Boys

    My dad was always the one that brought his daughter (me) to stuff like that. He’ll tell you that he was also the first single dad to bring his kids to the Singles Ward in Vegas. 🙂 After bringing us regularly for a while, a lot of the other single parents started bringing their kids too. Ah, fun times.

  • Mother of the Wild Boys

    PS-The Hurley shirt cracked me up! 😆

  • Amber

    Chris hates camping, so I’ve wondered if maybe I should take the boys on the father/son trips – but then you mentioned the one bathroom and I had to rethink that idea. Besides, one woman and a bunch of guys…awkward!

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