I do not make the rules, I just live by them. And when my wife says she wants to stay home for Mother’s Day while I take Evie away for the weekend, I do it.

Like most things, it was a bit more complicated than that. I made reservations for us and friends at a state park cabin six months in advance and had no idea that it was Mother’s Day weekend. I did not realize the gaffe until Jeremy, the dad of our co-adventure family, mentioned that Claire might want to stay home and enjoy some time off without the kids. Kymberlee agreed to the plan, so there we were, two dads and three kids doing the dad thing on Mother’s Day.

As you may expect, the weekend was much different than if the Mom’s were around. We did all sort of illegal things to make us feel young and wild. Like letting the kids sit in the bed of the truck on the way to the trailhead.

We upped the danger level wherever we could, including pointing out the native wildlife.

We even got some of the kids to pick up nasty, vile little crustaceans.

Our hikes were filled with tightrope walking,

creek hopping,

and daredevil cliff walking.

We also tortured them with cold water baths,

mud pies for dessert,

and insisted that they catch their own dinner.

In the end, we were the nurturing, soft, modern dads that you would expect in the 21st century. We made sure they had plenty of s’mores.

and bedtime stories.

But in the end, the best part was sitting outside in the fading light of the day, doing our best comparison research. Which one is better?

This was a man trip after all. So what did the women do while everyone was gone? Just what you think they would do.

It was actually a great weekend for all, with plenty of good memories all around. Now how about Father’s Day?