YMs Camp Out

The young men decided they should do some winter camping.  (Young men have very little common sense, apparently.)  And Craig never met a camp out he wasn't excited to embark upon, so even snow in the forecast didn't deter them.

As Craig was getting ready to leave, I asked him if we should be worrying about Bentley's BYU admission.  He wasn't supposed to find out until the following Monday, but according to friends of ours with college-aged kids, it's not unusual to find out a few days ahead of time.  So I was getting antsy.  But we have a weird history of getting bad news right before we go camping (seriously, it's happened at least twice!), so Craig said he didn't want to risk ruining the weekend on the off-chance that it was bad news.  So far, Bentley had gotten in to George Mason University, James Madison University, and been waitlisted by University of Virginia, so we figured his odds of being accepted were pretty good.  But those other times we got bad news we'd been assured that good news was a sure thing, so why risk it now?  As they say-- Good news will keep!

So we made sure everyone was very bundled up and off they went to the Snow's farm for a night of camping!

Craig is in the bottom left corner holding the camera.  Ryder is in the center in royal blue, Bentley is wearing maroon in the bottom right corner.  I could probably guess who everyone else is here, but I doubt you care, so I won't bother...

Anyway, as they were all standing around enjoying the fire, Jesse (one of three seniors in our congregation) pulls out his phone and says, "Huh, I got an email from BYU.  Oh-- I got in!"  So then Aaron (the other senior) pulls out his phone and says, "Oh, I did, too!"  And then Bentley pulls out his phone and he has... nothing.  No email.  No word at all.

He stands there frantically reloading his inbox and waiting, trying to not freak out.  Seriously, could there be a worse way to be rejected from your top-choice college than to be surrounded by the other people who all got in???  Aaron could see that this was getting scary for Bentley so finally he forwarded his email to him so he could use the link to log in to his own account where he learned...  he'd also gotten in!!!

I don't know what happened to the email he should have gotten.  It never did arrive.  But he's in.  And in spite of (or maybe because of?) those seven minutes of sheer terror, he's really excited.  He already told them he was for sure coming in the fall and we're trying to figure out which dorms he should live in and all that great stuff.

And I am just so relieved.  I feel like we've been working towards this goal for so long and it's finally coming to fruition.  

Bentley is going to BYU in the fall!

As far as I can tell, the rest of the campout was fairly uneventful.  It didn't actually snow, although it did rain a bit.  They all stayed warm enough. 

In the morning, Bentley hurried home so he could shower and get to work, but I made him take a few minutes to tell me the whole story.  (Craig had been texting me in real time as it unfolded and I'd been as stressed out as Craig was, but I still needed the full version!)  Craig and Ryder were a little slower getting home, and then I got to do about ten loads of laundry.  And then that night was the stake dance that you already read about!  Between all of that AND Kendra's birthday, it was a really wild weekend for us!

I just have to say it one more time-- MY SON IS GOING TO BYU!!!!