Packing with a twelve year old!

My youngest son is at a weekend retreat with the youth group from church. They are spending the weekend at a statepark about 30 minutes from home.

Yesterday, I told him that he needed to start packing for the trip....So he did.
He informed me though that he didn't want to carry his sleeping bag, because it takes tooooo long to get it back in the sack it is stored in. He was just going to take "some" blankets. My husband and I informed him that it would be below freezing at night, so he would have to spend the three seconds extra time it took to put the sleeping bag back in its sack.

He comes back a few minutes later and informs us he isn't going to take a pillow either......
We looked at each other a little confused, and then proceeded to ask him why.
He said he didn't want to have to "carry" so much stuff. The bag and the "sleeping bag" were going to be trouble enough.....
I looked at him and said, "You are not climbing Mt. Everest without the help of a sherpa.....Your dad and I are driving you to the door of the cabin and we will help you 'haul' the pillow and sleeping bag the whole fifteen steps it takes to get to the cabin from the car." He wasn't happy, but he caved and took his pillow.:)

As we were getting ready to leave, I reminded him to get his gloves too, because it was going to be cold. He did a big huffy breath and said, "Gloves will make me look stupid, Mom!"...I thought about it for a moment and said,"You're right, frostbitten fingers are much COOLER than gloves. I don't know what I was thinking!"

The one thing we won't have to worry about is his hair. He packed everything necessary to keep his hair looking great! His fingers may be taken over by frostbite, but his hair will be looking fine.:)

So we dropped him off. We even survived the LONG walk from the car to the cabin. It was tough, but we made it.:)We did have to make him put his jacket on though. He was just going to wear his short sleeve t-shirt. We looked at him and informed him that he could either wear the jacket or return home with us.........He chose the jacket.:)


Hopefully he will come home with all his fingers still attached. My husband and I are going to spend the rest of the weekend resting up for the fifteen steps long haul from the cabin to the car with that pillow and sleeping bag.