Fathers and Sons Outing

Fathers and sons outing- never have a bunch of words brought excitement and dread into my thoughts. Excitement, yes, because the girls and I get a night to ourselves and we plan to really enjoy it (after, of course, we feed the missionaries. Oops, goofed on that one) But then, on the other hand, last year's Fathers and Sons was quite an event I do not want repeated.

For all of those who know Joey know he is one in a million. He is cute, charming, has a very active imagination, and can get into trouble as well as he can breath. Last year, he was playing war with Zach and another friend in a big field next to camp. Zach and the friend soon bored with the game and went back to camp, leaving Joey where he was, swishing his pretend sword and making his fellow pretend pirateers walk the plank. After his devious laugh and a few more swishes of the stick, he noticed he was all alone, so he took off the opposite direction of camp, you know, to look for camp.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, the men are sitting around, talking while the other boys run amok through the camp.

Back to Joey: He found a nice trail and decided to follow it for a while. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. No camp in sight, but he continued walking. After about 45 minutes, he came to the highway ( a pure miracle!!!) and began to walk down the road.

Back at camp, Travis finally notices Joey is missing. All of the fathers and sons begin to look for him. In desperation, one father calls Search and Rescue to inform them a little 5 year old has been missing for about 40 minutes. They will send a sheriff to the camp site.

As Joey is walking down the highway, a police car stops him and asks his name and tells him they will take him back. Joey thinks this is pretty cool because he likes cop cars. (He was probably disappointed that the officer would not use the sirens) They find Travis a mile and a half down the road. Both guys are very excited to see each other. The officer took them back to camp and all is well. Then they decided to tell me. Very smart move on their part. And, just so you know, our ward now has the Joey Rule: they wait no longer than 15 minutes to call search and rescue if a child is missing. (I am so honored! A rule was named after my son!)

So, here is my delimma. Do I trust my sons going on the Fathers and Sons outing, or do I enjoy the girls night out? A mother once told me if we knew what happens at the fathers and sons, we would not let our boys go. Words to ponder on.