8/26 and 8/27/16 Camp at Usery Park

     This morning Joseph was my big helper for watering Gram and Papa's tree. The tree is almost as big as he is. 

   A big part of today was preparing for a camp out at Usery Park. We found out about the camp Thursday morning. The troop tries to go camping once a month. This month was about to slip by.  

      One mistake I made was telling David about what I later learned was meant to be a surprise. We were going with another troop whose leader is David's science teacher (also a local reptile expert). He was going to show us how to be safe in an area where there are snakes. The surprise was that we would go "hunt for snakes". In the end this meant driving around the park at night looking for a snake warming itself on the road. We only saw one and boys who felt nervous could stay in the van. David did this. I wrongly thought that telling him about it early would be less scary than having it sprung on him at camp. Instead he could not sleep Thursday night and almost would not go camping. I promised him that I would not let him do anything I thought was unsafe and that we could come home if he was too scared. 

      The picture above is from a short hike we did Friday night picking up trash. 

    In the end we made it through. David was brave. He set up his own tent but joined me in the night when he heard coyotes making a racket. Heidi reports that she can't sleep with coyotes around either. He cried a little and thought about going home in the morning. He worried he'd be too tired for the hike the next day. 

    In the morning he learned that almost no one had slept well either. He realized that he wasn't so out of place and he decided to stay. 

    Next we cleaned up camp and ate Costco muffins for breakfast. We went on a slightly longer hike to clean trash along the trail. 

    Mr Morris even showed us the den of a desert tortoise. 

      After that we went to the visitor's center. They had a couple of snakes on display. David felt much better about seeing snakes through glass. 

      I'm proud of David for sticking it out and being brave. He may have even had some fun. 

      This weekend Heather also kindly gave Rebecca a pair of shoes she found on clearance. Her last pair had holes, she had loved them so much. Lauren came over and played with Rebecca and Sarah.