The Ward Father-Son Campout nearly blew us away!

Ever since we were not able to make the ward Father-Son campout last year, Jacob has been anticipating this year's campout.  We drove up to Camp Post with a friend and his 4 sons and, though late, were still the first ones there.  Others soon followed, though not as many as I had expected, and we made our way to the campsite.  When we got there, what we found was an abundance of life that I don't normally see in Texas, including a snake.  One of the other brothers caught it so that the children could have a closer look.  Jacob was NOT shy.  I, personally, was content to take the picture.

We set up the tents and none too soon.  It immediately began to rain.  About 45 minutes of rain and high winds, and it stopped.  Afterward there was a beautiful double rainbow to remind us of God's majesty.

In typical "guy" fashion, we ended up with pizza and chips for dinner.  Junk food of champions.  But it was a good bunch and some good conversation.  The kids had fun talking together and I got to know some of the dads that I didn't usually get to associate with much outside of church.

During dinner, our entertainment was one of the better lightning storms I have ever seen.  Got a little bit of it on video to share, but by this time, the battery on my phone was running out, so it's not very long.

Dessert was, of course, smores which is ALWAYS a kid-favorite.  Even with all the rain, both what we had already had and everything that was to come, the fire stayed going

The rest of the night, was an adventure.  Starting at about 11:00 PM, the wind picked up and it started raining.  Our tent might as well have been a sail.  The rain flap was about vertical and, as those of you who have spent any time camping in "modern" tents know, the ceiling of the actual tent is not solid, but mesh (to let out the body heat because the nylon of the tent would trap it and make the inside a suffocating, humid, bucket of suck.  Mesh, however, has no problem letting rain in, so we started to get wet.  I spent some time, half in the tent, half out, trying to tie down the rain tarp so that it didn't blow up as high as it was.  It took a bit, but I was moderately successful.  At that point, the ground was saturated enough that the stakes of the tent started coming up, collapsing portions of the tent on our gear.  Naturally, when that happens, the gear soaks water through the tent so it got all wet too.

The wind got even stronger, and as nice as those tents are, the fiberglass poles that bend and dome so well, do not stand up well to Mother Nature when she gets serious about blowing something down.  So in an effort to allow Jacob to hopefully get some sleep, I stayed up and attempted to keep those poles bent the way they were intended: in a dome OVER us.  I was mostly successful.  This lasted until about 4:00AM, when the wind finally died down, and the rain slowed down enough that I did not have to fight the tent anymore.  I managed to get about an hour of sleep (maybe a little less), until the wind and the rain picked up again at about 5:00AM.  This lasted another hour and a half or two hours where, once again, I did battle with the tent and Mother Nature.  Things finally calmed down around 7:00 in the morning.

Despite the lack of cooperation of the weather, and much of our gear getting soaked, Jacob seemed to have a really good time spending moments with me and with some of his friends that were there.  And that was really why I went: to spend time with my son, even if we did it in a man-made water container.

He seems happy enough in the picture below.  Of course, that could just be the look of a boy wolfing down a smore.  Either way, I'll take it and call it a success.

Perhaps one day, we'll be able to go camping without a "weather-related incident" causing havoc (tornado alley, I'm looking at YOU).  Until then, I guess I'll take whatever I can get.  The kids are growing up fast.  Both Sarah and I are trying to make as many memories as we can and are capable of with them.  They'll be on their own soon enough, and when they are, I want them to be able to remember fondly how their parents loved them and wanted to spend time with them, even in the rain.

- Josh                     

Snowmageddon 2015

As Sarah had mentioned in a previous post, Lubbock, Texas is a location of the "not so much snow" variety.  A fact that brings me no end of joy.  I HATE snow.  With a raging passion that dwarfs the fire of 10,000 suns.  Now, even in Lubbock, we get SOME snow.  Usually, what this means is that the ground is covered in a quarter- to a half-inch of "white stuff", then the temperature goes up to something like 60 degrees Farenheit, and it is all melted by 12:00 PM that same day.  I can't tell you how gratifying that is to me.

Now you might ask what happened during my childhood that scarred me for life and made me hate winter so much?  The answer: absolutely nothing.  As a kid, I loved snow.  The problem came when I grew older and, well, bigger.  My circulation got worse, and it became ridiculously easy for my fingers and toes to get cold regardless of how many layers or the kind of protection I put over them.  Once cold, it takes an inordinate amount of time for them to warm up again, so I tend to avoid them getting cold in the first place.  That means, when winter comes, I figuratively get out the wooden stakes, crosses, and garlic and hide behind a rushing river.

This past winter we had planned to take a vacation to a slightly different climate over the break between Christmas and New Year.  For the first time since we have been in Lubbock, I did not need to be physically present during year-end inventory at work, so some friends of ours invited us to head north to visit a resort property they had a time-share at in Oklahoma.  We had planned to leave yesterday.  As usual, the best-laid plans of mice and men...

We were greeted with this:

This morning, the sight that welcomed me as I opened my front door was an extremely ominous one:

The views down either direction of our street.  And yes, that IS our van parked next to that snow bank.

Yes, that snow bank gets up to half the height of our front window...

...and the one in the back is every bit as big.

If you're looking for sizes for reference, we parked our kids in the highest part of the drift and told them to find the ground.

Then there's poor Shadow's house...

But like most kids, Meagan and Jacob were excited at the prospect of playing in the snow, and got their gear on to head outside.

Jacob can be seen making the obligatory snow angel.

The kids had a great time playing outside and I was glad for them from inside my warm house.  As for me and my body, however, we will dread the clearing of the snow from the driveway because we still need to get on the road to the afore-mentioned vacation - two days late.

- Josh