Summer Roughing It - Bryce Style

Bryce and I camped across the Kern River from each other during the same week. Bryce, my baby, was the youngest scout to go off to camp this year. It was to be expected that there'd be a few tears. It wouldn't be surprising to have a few restless nights as he overcame homesickness. Maybe he'd even be a little more reserved or shy since this was his first time and he was the youngest and all... .

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uh, yeah, not so much. He left with a jaunty, "See Ya!" and never looked back. I think even his intrepid leaders (who have been doing this awhile and have pretty much seen it all) were surprised by his, um, lack of reserve. He was into it.

Thank goodness for riding lessons with Grandma Nancy...

Dining with the peeps.

The water was 14.5 degrees as reported by the boys... Bryce is in the white tshirt waist deep in the water. Evidently it didn't bother him too much. The calm before the rapids.

Because the water was so cold, our boys opted for "Wilderness Survival" instead of swimming. Apparently, it was...miserable. Ahh, but all the better for post-camp storytelling! And let me assure you I heard about it for awhile afterward. The stories were always told with equal measures of awe, disgust and pride.

They had to build a shelter.

And spend a night "in the wilderness". But, seemingly, they did not sleep in the shelter because this is clearly lumps of boys sleeping without benefit of shelter.

Trying to keep warm. The night air in the wilderness was said to be even colder than the water. Yes! Back to camp and a decent fire!

A little mischief.

And the covert mischief makers. (well, so much for "Leave No Trace") Bryce came home with his own sharpie mustache...

A happy scout is a dirty scout!

Look, ma it looks like I have glasses on even though I'm not wearing any!

(click on the picture for the full effect)

(This message has been approved for distribution by Bryce with the following Bryce disclaimer, "I really despise that last picture!" I really tried to get him to spin the stories in his own unique Bryce style, but he was not into it--better luck next time!)