By Dave Ybarra:
We headed out after my phlebotomy test at about 7pm Friday evening. We stopped at the gas station to get chocolate milk (because Cruise loves chocolate milk) and then at Little Caesars in Springville to get pizza for dinner. On the way up, Cruise watched Wall-E and almost fell asleep in the car, until I told him we were going to the mountains. He got excited and started to say, "I want mountain please!" That kept him awake.
We got up there and the first thing he did was bolt straight for the playground. He got a balloon at Little Caesars, which ended up popping pretty quick on the swing set (but he didn't care...he thought it was funny). After 10 minutes of playing, he wanted to go to the river. So we went down there and at first he wanted to take off his clothes and go swimming (mind you, it was freezing outside and the river was overflowing). I had to hold him back so he just threw rocks in. When he couldn't find anymore rocks, I would pull rocks out of the river and hand them to him so he could throw them back in...all while I am holding the strap on his pants so he wouldn't jump right in.
He then saw the smoke from a nearby fire so he crossed the bridge and ran over to somebody else's fire. He kept pointing and saying out loud, "FIRE! FIRE!" I told him, "Yep, you like fire." And asked him if he'd like to come see our fire. He said, "I want fire please." So we crossed the bridge again and went up to our campfire.
There were a lot of boys playing around the fire, poking sticks into it, so he did that too. After awhile he got bored of that and so I convinced him to go down to the car to help me unload the tent and air mattress. We set up the tent and the sleeping bags, and then the program started for the evening.
They were watching a movie and playing, "Aaronic Priesthood jeopardy" and Cruise kept making shadow puppets into the projector. I ate some cobbler and fed some to Cruise. After awhile he got bored of the movie and ran down back to the fire. The fire had burnt out so we got it going again. Once the program ended, the boys came down to poke the fire and roast marshmallows and hot dogs. Cruise kept saying, "I want hot dog please," and the little boys kept telling people, "I think he wants a hot dog." One of the fathers gave him a marshmallow to roast; so he ate that and then asked for chocolate milk. So I took him down to the car and got him his chocolate milk and a piece of pizza.
We went back to the fire where he ate his pizza and drank his milk. Then some of the older boys decided they wanted to play 'Steal the Flag'. They all took off running to the open field and Cruise, of course, ran after them. By this time it had started raining but no one cared. Cruise chased the boys around as they played. At one point, some boys were hiding in the shadows near the flag, so he ran out and jumped on them, thinking it was part of the game.
Eventually the game ended so we went back to the fire. Cruise wandered around and looked at people's tents and who was in them. After that, he said, "Time go home!" and started walking towards the car. I redirected him towards our tent and got him into his pajamas and put him in his sleeping bag. I gave him a flashlight so he could explore inside his sleeping bag and seemed pretty occupied, so I zipped up the tent and ran back to the car to grab the DVD player.
I got back to the tent and he was already almost asleep. I put on "Up!" and before the first music sequence was over, he was asleep. I turned off the DVD player and tried to go to sleep but it was raining pretty hard so I didn't fall asleep very fast. We were both very warm because we had double sleeping bags, so much so that I had to unzip mine because I was getting too hot. We were very comfortable though, on a big air mattress.
Cruise woke up at about 6am and said, "Shoes please!" So we put on his shoes and headed out of the tent over towards the fire. It was completely burnt out and no one was awake but the Bishop and his counselors. They were making breakfast. We talked to them for a little while and then got the fire going.
Little by little people started waking up and coming to the fire. At one point an older boy (the Head Honcho from 'Steal the Flag' the night before) came walking up, and Cruise ran over to him, grabbed his hand, and walked him to the fire. When he walked up, one of the leaders asked the older boy if he had a new friend; he responded, "Yep, I guess so!" Cruise held his hand near the fire for about 5 minutes or so.
After a little while, Cruise got bored and decided he was going to go for a hike. The mountain was very steep, so we didn't get very far. It got so steep that Cruise was too scared to go down by himself, so he climbed on my back and I slid down on my feet.
By then breakfast was ready; Cruise ate a regular pancake, bacon and orange juice; I had a blueberry pancake, eggs, bacon, hot cocoa, and o.j. After breakfast, he ran to the car and got into the backseat. He just sat there, so I drove the car next to our tent. I took the tent down while he just in the car. He asked for chocolate milk, which I got him, and then I got into the car with him. At that point he said, "I want Mommy please," and I said, "Are you all done with the mountains?" And he said, "All done. I want Mommy please." So we drove home as he watched "Up!"
When we got home, Cruise ran to see Mommy and then I herded him to the bathroom so he could get in the shower since he smelled like smoke. After we were both clean, I passed out on the bad while Cruise and Jett, who missed me a lot, snuggled with me.
