High Adventure Camp

July 7-11, 2015

This was Luke's first year going on a High Adventure Camp with scouts. DH decided it would be a good experience to go with him so he took the time off work and went as well. They went to Moab, UT and camped out in tents and did mountain biking (in the middle of July!). We were very nervous about what the temperatures would be like for them down there! Thankfully it was one of the coolest weeks temperature wise that they have ever had in July! I guess our prayers paid off - DH does not like the heat!

So although they had some nice(r) temperatures for July, they also had a few torrential rainstorms while they were there! They would have a nice morning/early afternoon and then the clouds would come in and it would just pour on them for 10-20 minutes. They did a little bit of hiking, went on a couple of mountain biking trips and went river rafting as well.

We bought Luke a new bike before they left - he had outgrown his old bike several years ago... DH and Luke traded off riding the new bike and an older one that they borrowed from someone in the ward. Unfortunately Luke had a spectacular crash that bent up the bike a little and gave him several battle wounds. Thankfully nothing too serious and DH was able to take the bike into town to get it fixed before their next ride.

There was one storm in particular that caused quite a bit of damage to the campsite and equipment. DH was at camp with several of the boys (including Luke) while the other leaders took the rest of the boys into town. While they were gone a very violent squall hit the campsite and damaged several of the tents and shade canopies. There are some pictures below that can give you a little bit of an idea of the extent of it.  They also had a rainstorm hit them while they were river rafting!

Getting ready for one of the bike rides.

Playing some hacky sack

A storm on the horizon

The squall hits!

Some hail mixed in with the rain!

Some awesome looking clouds!

A morning devotional

Luke in front of an arch

Scout Advancement

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Luke advanced to the rank of Star. He is a little behind where we would like him to be at this point, but if he works hard he should still be able to make it to Eagle.

Winter Klondike Scout Camp

January 16-17, 2015

A lot of the presents that DH got for Christmas this year were warm weather gear so that he could go with the scouts on their winter Klondike camp out in January. He was not super excited about it but I knew that if he had the right gear it would make the experience a little less painful for him! :)

They left on Friday afternoon and setup camp and then there were some activities that the boys participated in on Saturday morning before they left for home. Both DH and Luke survived the experience and no one froze. DH ended up sleeping in our van because they had more boys than they had anticipated and were short a tent. (And if I have any of these details incorrect, hopefully DH or Luke will correct me!)

Here are a few pictures that DH took:

Scout Camp 2014

July 21-26

Luke's scout troop went to Camp Steiner in the Uintah Mountains this year for scout camp.  My dad remembers going there when he was a scout!  Luke had some awesome scout/YM leaders that we are going to miss - as well as several of the scouts too!  Here are a couple of pictures of the group before they left:

Worn out Luke

Wednesday, January 29

This evening for scouts, the Deacons went to our city fitness center and ran the mile for the personal fitness merit badge and then they went swimming for the remainder of the time there.  Luke still needed to pass the BSA swimmer test for his rank advancement so he had asked his leaders ahead of time if he could do it during that time.  They said that would be fine so after Luke ran the mile he went down and was able to pass the BSA swimmer test.  I was really impressed that he took it upon himself to do that on his own and that he actually passed!  He was quite exhausted (and hungry) when he came home and he somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch while we were watching T.V.  I tried to wake him up to get him to move to his bed but he wouldn't wake up easily, so I removed his glasses and he kind of jerked awake for a few seconds but then fell right back asleep again.  He said that he woke up around 1:30 in the morning and went to his bed at that time (it took him a few seconds to realize where he was).

Overnight scout camp

September 20-21

The scouts needed another father to go with them and help drive and chaperone on a camp out so DH volunteered to go.  As far as scout overnighters, this was a pretty easy one.  They went to a cabin owned by a family member of one of the scout leaders, but to fulfill the camping part they had the boys sleep outside on the deck...  The leaders slept in the cabin.  DH had a hard time I think just with the boys in general.  It can be a hard age for boys and we have a couple of interesting individuals in the group - and it is a pretty large group too.  Here are a few pictures that DH took of it.  I only found one that actually had Luke in it.

The green sleeping bag with the plaid in the foreground is Luke's.  He is not in the picture though.

Luke goes to Scout Camp

Wednesday, July 10

Luke missed the 11-year old camp last year so we did everything we could to make sure that he was here for the Scout camp this year.  We were able to schedule our activities such that he went and then a couple of days later we left for our trip to Washington/N family reunion.

Here is a picture of Luke and some of the group right before they left:

They left on Wednesday and stayed 3 nights.  They went to a campground called Wolf Creek which is in the Uintahs.  They worked on the wood carving, geocaching, and shotgun shooting merit badges.  Kyle really enjoyed shooting the shotguns (surprise, surprise).  To earn that merit badge, they have to hit at least 24 out of 50 targets (in this case they used clay pigeons shot into the air).  Apparently Luke was doing really poorly at the beginning and everyone thought that he wasn't going to be able to get the 24 targets, but amazingly he was able to get it together in the end and pulled it off.  Luke was really happy about that!

Scouting update

Wednesday, January 16

Luke just received his Tenderfoot rank at his last Court of Honor.  He is close to finishing up both his 2nd and 1st class ranks but he unfortunately missed a couple of key requirements when he had to miss the summer camp last summer.  Hopefully we can get them finished up here in the next few months.

First overnight scout campout

Friday, April 27, 2012

Luke attended his first overnight scout campout!  It was organized by our scout district so there were a lot of boys involved.  Unfortunately his specific group got there a little too late in the evening on Friday so they missed out on some of the organized activities.  It also turned out to be a very chilly weekend and the temperature that night got down in the 30s.  Before he left I was trying to get Luke to take one of the bigger sleeping bags but he wanted to take a smaller one so luckily I was able to talk him into taking two of the smaller ones so he could double them up if he needed to.  He said he woke up at about 3:00 in the morning and was freezing so he got out the second sleeping bag.  And he and his friend noticed when they woke up in the morning that one of the tent flaps had been left open which didn't help either.  When they got up they saw that there was some frozen ice on the side of the tent where his friend had been sleeping.  I sent him with a tin foil dinner to cook over the fire when they got there (which he wasn't too excited about but turned out pretty good).  Luke was pretty excited that he got to help build and start the fire for breakfast in the morning.  I'm glad that he has some good friends in his patrol (?) to help make these experiences a little more enjoyable for him.  I love camping, but it is hard to do with little kids so I haven't pushed our family to camp very often.  It is just a lot of work for me with the ages that the kids are at.

All I can say is that I didn't sleep too well that night, partly because I was worried about whether he was warm enough or not!  After he left I kept thinking of things that we had forgotten to pack for him.  Thankfully they camp in groups so hopefully between all of them they have everything they might need!  I don't feel like I'm quite ready for all of this scouting stuff!  Hopefully I will have it all down and figured out before Luke graduates from High School!!

Arrow of Light

Tuesday, November 15

Luke earned his Webelos rank advancement as well as his Arrow of Light at Pack Meeting this evening. I wasn't quite feeling 100%, but I was able to make it through the awards ceremony. Good job Luke! We're proud of you and your dedication! I can't believe that he'll be moving up to 11-year old scouts in February!

Pinewood Derby 2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Our last Pinewood Derby!

Luke hasn't been too excited about doing a Pinewood Derby car this year and with everything going on we didn't have a lot of time and energy to spend on one either. We finally got him excited about doing one and he and his dad worked on a design for it. It ended up changing a little bit here and there and in the end he said it was his favorite looking car of the three they have done. It ended up being a shark design and we even found a few stickers that went along with the shark theme. We were lucky to get it finished in time - but unfortunately not without some mess-ups with the paint and then not having time to tweak the wheels for speed at all. Thankfully it was a pretty low-key event this year - only 11 cars in the race. One of the Webelos leaders in the ward has his own race track so he ran the whole thing and did it all at no cost to the pack. Luke's car didn't finish last overall, but it didn't do as well as we would have liked - 9th. And now we are officially finished with Pinewood Derby cars!!

Webelos Camp

July 13-14
There was some discussion this year as to whether to send the cub scouts and Webelos scouts to the formal cub camp held by the Great Salt Lake Council or whether to try just doing our own this year. It went back and forth quite a bit and the decision was finally made to attend the cub camp in Millcreek Canyon like we have in the past. Luke was quite upset when he heard that we might not go back to that camp because he has loved it every year and he was excited to be able to attend the Webelos Camp since that is a one time thing. Luke had a lot of fun attending with his Webelos den and he enjoyed the archery and row boating the most. He also spent some money at the trading post on a light-up sword and two slingshots - one for him and one for his sisters. DH was hoping that he might be able to attend with Luke this year but things didn't work out for that and then he ended up being asked to go to YW camp which took place over the same dates.

Little things

* Having a quick and relatively pain free dentist appointment. I was gone from my home for less than an hour! I was the only patient there when I first arrived and I think there was only one other person there when I left.

* My dad watching my three youngest kids while I was at the dentist. The dentist and his assistant thought I was crazy for asking my dad to watch them for me - especially a 4 month old. I never even thought twice about asking him because he loves kids and does great with them. Kay especially loves it when Bacca comes over. Normally my mom would have come instead of him or with him but she had a concert that morning.

* MJ sleeping the whole time I was gone.

* M&M getting Kitty ready for her dance pictures while I was at a rehearsal on Saturday. She got her all dressed and even fixed and curled her hair!

* Online shopping! I am loving it this year!

* Helping the Bear scouts make tool boxes. Yesterday we finished putting the screws in, sanded the boxes and started painting them. We will finish them up next week.

Bear

Luke received his Bear rank advancement last week at Pack Meeting. He actually had earned it by the October pack meeting but since it was also the Pinewood Derby, we elected to wait another month. It was pretty easy for Luke to earn this award since I am his den leader. I have been in this calling for a little over 2 years now - my longest calling in this ward to date.

Now I need to get to work sewing his awards on his uniform!

Pinewood Derby 2010

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

We had our pack's pinewood derby last week. Luke and DH worked hard on it and it did a little better than last year - he almost made it to the final race. Our ward hires someone in the area to come and put it on for us so it is a pretty elaborate setup. Next year I really need to push them to start the car earlier so they are not so rushed at the end and can focus more on the car's performance. The night of the race DH ended up staying at home with MJ since I am one of the Bear den leaders.

Christmas Caroling

Tuesday, Dec. 15th-
Since our cub scout pack doesn't hold a pack meeting in December we decided to invite the Wolf den to join our Bear den for some Christmas caroling in the neighborhood. We also invited the families of the cub scouts. Luckily we had warmer weather than the week before and we made sure that the kids were all bundled up. This was the first time caroling for all the kids in my family and most of the kids that came with us. They all had a blast though and thought it was fun to run from house to house and sing Christmas songs to the people at home. Afterwards we went back to the church for doughnuts and hot chocolate. We didn't have a huge turnout from the scouts but we had a good size group and everyone enjoyed themselves!

Beautiful evening

Last Tuesday my new co-den leader and I took our cub scouts to the Great Salt Lake. Unfortunately with the changing back to Standard time we only got there just before the sun went down. It was a beautiful sunset though and I was able to get some awesome pictures of it. And then as we were leaving the full moon was just coming up over the mountains in the east. We have had beautiful weather again this week and despite the fact that the sun was setting, it was a fun little trip for our den.

The only editing I did to these pictures was cropping a few of them. The color exactly what the camera captured.

The moon coming up behind the Wasatch Mountains