ELI FRESHMAN FOOTBALL CAMP!

 Eli went away for the first time to a sports camp without us (BYU Soccer camp doesn't count cause we picked him up every night) and he wanted to have a last meal, a celebration of him leaving and kept asking who was going to miss him more. Ha Ha. The night before camp Jared gave him a blessing that he would physically be able to do it all, his happiness would be contagious and he would be a friend to all. We prepped him about not letting the boys talking him into putting icy hot on his balls, or any kind of hazing, Sally and Kati gave us some good football pointers and we sent him with some snacks and a personal battery operated fan to keep him cool at night because the school gym where they would be sleeping in Showlow would be hot. ALA won't let the boys take their phones and their hair had to be short. Good rules. He had to be at the school at 5:45am on Monday morning and we dropped him off. I frequently checked instagram, facebook and twitter looking for football camp updates and hoping to catch a glimpse of Eli. Heavenly Father must have known how much I needed it because literally every day I found a picture of Eli posted, a video of him smiling, a video of him getting yelled at for going the wrong way, a video of him doing some chat, several pics, etc. It was just what I needed. He had the best time, came home so tan and exhausted. He said there was no hazing, some kid tried to buy his fan off of him for 10 bucks, all the other kids thought he was so genius for bringing it and they were jealous, they got fed 3 meals and then the Gridiron club brought in extra meals like pizza, firehouse subs, bbq dinner, etc - so he ate a solid 4 meals a day. They got up at 5:40 every morning and worked on defense, ate breakfast, did offense, ate lunch, did special teams, ate dinner and then had classes and learned plays, etc. They even got to watch the Suns game 6 together as a team. He seems really happy with his decision to play football and so far we are loving ALA even though we haven't even stepped foot in a classroom - ha ha. Go Eli! Can't wait to watch you play in your games!