Fathers and Sons campout

On May 13 and 14, 2011, Chad and Grant were finally able to attend a Fathers and Sons campout. Every year before this either Grant has been too little or Chad has had to work. We debated sending Cole but decided it would be more fun with just Chad and Grant. It enabled Chad to hang out with his friends and Grant to run free with his without either having to worry about Cole. Cole will go next year.
The campout was held up by White Horse Lake in the White Mountains. While packing up the car, Barry hopped in and made himself comfortable, under the assumption that he was going camping also. Poor Barry. The organized portion of the campout did not include fishing but Chad decided to do a little with Grant. Grant was very excited about this. We even bought him a new Transformers fishing pole. Sadly, the pole didn't make it on the campout because it broke while being tested the day before. Grant was forced to use his Barbie pole but didn't seem to mind.
Chad reports that Grant had a great time running around with his buddies from church, Breck Burk and Luke Raber. Grant still talks about how cool it was that Breck had a pocketknife of his very own. Grant also learned a new rule about camping that he loves. When you're camping you can do whatever you want and eat whatever you want, whenever you want. This rule came to be because Chad got tired of Grant asking Chad if it was ok to eat everything offered to him. Grant lived it up on treats, particularly marshmallows and hotdogs with chili and cheese. There were no fires allowed so Chad teamed up with Sean Henrie and his boys to cook hot dogs and chili on the propane stoves. Both Mellen boys came home sufficiently dirty and tired to call the campout a success.