A Scouting We Will Go

Nathan got home yesterday from a week long scout camp. He was filthy and exhausted. When he woke up this morning he was still wearing his glasses. He was so tired that he forgot to take them off when he went to bed last night. Of course, this evening he also informed us that he’d been sleeping with his glasses on all week because he couldn’t find his glasses case. When he got home, he discovered the case in his pillow case which meant that he was sleeping on the glasses case all week. He told us stories about several of the other boys lighting their farts on fire and wondering if the girls do that at their camps. Let me reassure you that girls definitely do not do that at camp….or anywhere. Nor do we belch the alphabet and then cheer. Or attempt to shove our entire fist into our mouth. (I’ve seen this done. Teenage boys are kind of…I’m not exactly sure what teenage boys are but I’d better figure it out because I have a couple.) Or sleep with our glasses on all week because we can’t find the glasses case that is underneath our head. In spite of the eye rolling elements of his camp, Nathan did have a great time. I’ll let him tell you about it:

Monday I left my scoutmaster’s house at 7:15 in the morning. It was drizzling here when we left, so I hoped it wasn’t raining up at camp. The camp we were going to was called camp Steiner. We drove for around an hour to get to camp Steiner. I was told that this camp was the highest scout camp in the U.S. with an elevation of 10,400 feet. When I got there, we set up camp and ate a light lunch. Then, in the pouring rain, I went and started taking the environmental science merit badge. I came back to camp soaked to the bone and ended the day.

Tuesday was better than Monday. The rain stopped and the weather was nice. Went to environmental science in the morning and had nature in the afternoon. In the evening, the camp staff did an honor trail that talked about the scout law. That was really cool.

Wednesday I had classes, but some fun stuff happened. The camp did this thing called chain gang, which was a service project. I was the only one out of my whole troop who went, so the activity director had to put me with somebody else. I got to help prep potatoes for a scoutmaster meal later in the week. As a thanks, I got a 2011 camp Steiner patch. The service was really fun. Wednesday evening I had to go fishing. (That was because I didn’t have any fishing gear and couldn’t be at camp alone.) So, my troop leader was helping a troop member with his pole, so I got to use my leader’s pole. I cast it out and caught a fish! My leader had to put down the other pole, release the fish, take pictures, etc. So I threw the line out again and caught another fish. My leader, after he put down the other pole, helped with the fish again, said: “Dude! Give me my pole so that I can catch some fish!” So I did. I was really happy. :-)

On Friday evening, it rained, then sleeted, then snowed! It was crazy!

The next stuff I will tell I can’t put with a day, so it is probably out of order.

The camp hosted this thing called the Mountain Man Relay. It was just a big race. My troop had three different teams competing in the relay. After the relay, when they called the winners, my troop came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd! It was really fun to get three awards.

At the trading post at camp, they were selling apple beer. My scout leader took a picture of me with the “beer.”

One of the merit badges I took was archery. I didn’t pass the shooting section the first time, so I had to go back and try again. Went back to try again, it was raining and so cold that my fingers went numb. I didn’t pass. (again):-(

I also took basket weaving merit badge. The basket making was really fun.

Overall I think Nathan had a good time. He was kind of anxious before he went because he'd never been away from home for that long, but he got over that pretty quickly once he was there. Next year will be a breeze!

Almost Free, But Not Quite

Kev wanted to have a family play day on his birthday and since National Free Fishing Day happened to coincide with his day of celebration and there just happens to be a regularly stocked fishing pond five minutes from our house, we (And by "we" I mean Kev; I just took the pictures and made sure Matthew didn't jump in the pond.) took the boys fishing. This was their maiden voyage as sportsmen and they both loved it in spite of the fact that all they caught were grass fish.


Nathan got surprisingly good at casting off in a surprisingly short amount of time. There were a few tangled lines to deal with, but nothing to put a damper on the fun.


It was an absolutely perfect day for outdoor activities: clear blue skies, not too hot, blissful weather. Our view from the pond was fabulous.


After fishing and lunch, Kev used birthday money from his mom to take us all to a movie. We saw "Up" and it was okay. Definitely not my favorite Pixar film, but at least I didn't come away feeling like I had completely wasted two hours of my life. And the boys enjoyed it, of course. Total cost for our family fun day was live bait and two cheap fishing poles. An excellent price for a day well spent.