Get Out, Try New Things, Make Memories

This is a post by Tim Red, NFI's Director of Military Programming. Tim served 30 years in the U.S. Army and now heads NFI's efforts to help the U.S. military add fatherhood programming to its work to support military families, pre-, during, and post-deployment. Tim and his wife have four children and live in Texas. Tim shares his memories here of trying new things while camping with his children as part of NFI's campaign to help Dads "Get Out: Hit the Great Outdoors with Your Kids This Summer."

One of the best times I have ever had with my three youngest kids (at the time, ages 15, 12, and 9) was when I took them (just me and them) on a trip to Lake Texoma. Sheppard Air Force Base has camping grounds and cabins on this lake (by the name you can gather that it sits on the border of Texas and Oklahoma). We got a cabin for two nights (arrived on a Friday evening and left on a Sunday morning). The memories we made in those 48 hours will last a life time.

The kids wanted to make smores and I have never done that but we went up to the little store and bought the ingredients. We started a fire in the barbecue pit behind the cabin, untwisted coat hangers, and started cooking marshmallows. They were having so much fun doing this that they were even preparing them for these three young couples (without kids) that were in the cabin next door.

I cooked breakfast for the kids and I had so much smoke from the bacon grease that we had to open up the doors to let it air out (but it was a great breakfast and they loved it).

We rented a pontoon boat (and I don’t know a dang thang about boating – I was in the Army, not Navy, but the kids wanted to do this), packed up sandwich stuff and drinks and headed out on the lake. We'd stop and the kids would jump in the lake and go swimming. I let them take small turns driving the boat (don’t tell Sheppard AFB) and we made sandwiches and floated on the lake while we ate lunch. We took lots of pictures!

We played Uno, watched the deer feeding, played basketball/tennis, scared each other, and slept on bunk beds. There was a TV in the cabin that picked up 3 network channels – no cable – and I think that it may have been on for a total of one hour (if that long) – nobody could have cared less. They were either too happy doing something else or too tired to keep their eyes open.

Then when we had to leave Sunday morning, we cleaned up the cabin before leaving (it’s a military requirement). Everyone pitched in and did that with a smile on their face.

The smiles, the laughter, the fun, the wonder of new things were so special. And as a father, I enjoyed watching their faces light up from all of the different experiences. Just writing this makes me want to go again (but I will wait until it gets a little cooler). Next time, we will have to go star gazing…