Sons of Thunder 2010

It's something we don't really want to talk about, but Brayden only has two more summers left before he is too old to be at Sons of Thunder - the father-son retreat hosted by Camp Tadmor. It is such a highlight of his entire year. While John has done a lot to make "Mens' Round-Up" more youth-friendly, I can guarantee his graduation into that kind of program will be a let-down. Sigh... - at least they are making the best of the three years they have left (including this last weekend). Word is, they all had a blast......

A sunrise shot of John and Brayden.....

This year, the boys played paintball for the first time. Because of Michael's expert strategic advice, they really kicked some butt and had a phenomenal time. This is good, because John's previous experience at paintball when it was his bachelor party had him TOTALLY beat up on, and it wasn't a whole lot of fun. Glad he was able to overcome that!

While the mornings were drizzly and chilly, the afternoons got into the 90's there - which made playing on the "blob" that much more fun. This is Brayden trying his "Wipeout" skills attempting to balance as he ran across this arm.

The center of the "blob" where apparently many of the "dads" took it easy.

One of the "bonding activities" of the weekend was to get in groups of 4-6 and build a raft for your son to paddle across the pond/lake with. John and Brayden paired with Dave and Logan. It was actually quite a difficult project, John was really proud of Brayden for being a trooper to get himself all the way across.

John liked this picture because it is a classic "like father-like son" mirroring of the two of them.

I'm not sure if this was taken after they did the "raft-making activity" or just swimming....

A nice shot of Andrew and Mark.

These next pictures were taken during the low ropes course group-building adventures.




On to the shooting range. John and Dave had a little target-shooting competition - I think John won. =)

Brayden had a lot of fun too - apparently his gun/bullet were so powerful that it went straight through the pop can without even knocking it down.



This picture cracks me up - as it is obviously showing John cracking up. Dave was trying to capture a sweet moment of John and Brayden walking off in the distance together, but Brayden was being a goofball and wouldn't cooperate..... John's giving Dave that look of "see what I get to put up with?" =) We love our Brayden......

Obviously, Dave and Logan know how to pull off the poses......


One of Brayden's favorite things to do is look for salamanders. While everyone else is happy fishing, he's looking for amphibian friends......


Mission accomplished!


Some final contrasting shots - Brayden "seizing the morning" (despite the cold foggy chill)

And a cool shot at nighttime of the lake and lights around Tadmor. What a great place for extraordinary memories.