Camping With Papa

 Papa.  That's what my kids call my father.  And they adore him. You'll soon see why.

We recently went camping with him.  Well, he was hunting and we joined him for a couple of days. 

The kids loved it.  They got to sleep in a tent.  They got to have a campfire and roast marshmallows and decide that they like them better not roasted.  They got Pop Tarts (a little camping tradition I can't get rid of). 

With James in school all summer, this was the first time we'd gone camping in months.  In fact, James wasn't able to come with us because he was... in school.  

 My dad taught them to fish.  Logan was so excited about that.
(I remember Dad teaching me to fish when I was a kid.  I remember those very same tackle boxes.  I remember Blue Gill and Large Mouth Bass.  I remember having fun on the lake with my dad).  

 Now here we are, my dad teaching my children to fish.  All eager to learn. 

Taylor even held the pole for about two minutes.

Then she was off to walk around and see how close she could get to the water before I got after her.  She looked in the water and discovered dozens of tiny fish.  Then she and I went on a walk and let the serious fishermen carry on.

Logan loved fishing and didn't want to stop.  We saw a fish jump to the left of the dock and then felt it jump under the dock.  Logan was determined to catch a fish because he knew there was at least one out there.
 

 He was getting pretty good at casting by the time we left. 

 Then Papa taught Logan to shoot a bow and arrow.  Logan thought it was the best thing ever.  That's all he wanted to do, the rest of the time we were camping. 

 We went over some safety rules for both shooting the bow and for fishing.  After that Logan kept saying he couldn't shoot the bow and arrow without "safety vision.  You know when a grown-up has to be with me."   (Supervision)

 We all learned to shoot the bow and we all practiced enough to get pretty decent too. 

 Logan, the Archer.  He kept asking if we could "do archery."

 It was beautiful weather while we were camping.  Cold though, partly due to the fact that we didn't really pack well for cold weather camping.  Snow was forcasted for that night or next day.  So we decided, much to the kids' disappointment, to cut the camping short by a day.  

 This is what camp looked like the next day or so.  Glad we missed it. 

 It's beautiful though.

Anyway, you can see why the kids love spending time with Papa.  He's always busying doing something and usually it's something really cool, like camping or chopping wood or fixing some broken thing or another.  

They also love him to read stories to them and sit on his lap or just talk to him.  They love him to show them how things work, such as one of his clocks.   

Thanks for being the best Papa in the whole wide world! We all love you more than anything!  

Love you Dad!!!