Scout camps

Being a mother of boys, I am so grateful to have grown up with brothers. My experiences with my brothers have really prepared me for some of the fun and challenging moments in my life. I have a love/hate relationship with scouting. I love Boy Scouts! I love the opportunities it brings to teach my boys about themselves and the world around them. I love that it teaches how to set and reach goals and accomplish hard things. However, when a mom has sons in scouting, they are in scouting. Also, being somewhat over the cubs and webelos as Primary President, it stresses me out, but I'm trying to keep perspective.

All three of my boys have had some great scouting experiences in the last few weeks. Braxton and Evan left with Steve at 4:00am to head up to Camp Napowan in Wisconsin. Evan, only 11 years old, was able to go for 1 night because his dad was there and because it was before camp officially started. Our troop combined with multiple other troops from other stakes for games, church services, and team building activities. They had a blast! I drove up to Madison to meet he and Steve and bring Evan home. How he hated leaving his buddies and brother up there! Luckily he only brought home one tick and a huge desire to be ready to go to Napowan next year.

Braxton returned home after a week with 10 more merit badges. He worked hard up to the very last 15 minutes of camp wrapping things up.

Here he is with a few of the boys.

Braxton ready to eat. Steve said if there was a merit badge for eating, Braxton would have totally accomplished every requirement with ease at camp.
Shotgun.
This one was a challenge at first. He didn't do well the first day, but stuck with it and by the end was able to hit more than 25 out of 30 targets to complete the requirements. After it was all done, in order to use up the "wood nickels" that are the currency to buy ammunition, Steve challenged Braxton to a shoot-off. Braxton won hitting 5 for 5. Steve missed one. He told Braxton that he wishes he would have figured out how to shoot earlier so that we could have saved a few bucks at the beginning of the week. :) Oh, well.

Wilderness Survival.

Braxton had to build a shelter for him to sleep in throughout the night by himself. Evan and Carter laughed when they saw it saying that it looked a lot like Eeyore's house in Winnie the Pooh!

Braxton is so NOT gangstuh!

Pottery

Blacksmith

Public Speaking--yep, this shocked me also.

Wood Carving--he loves working with his hands and is quite good at it! Here he's carved a wolf.

Theater

Lovin' it!

Campfire to the extreme!

Carter attended Webelos Camp for 3 days this past week and had a great time! They got to make tons of crafts with leather, clay, wood, and paper.

Here is a wristrocket station.

Science - Learning about the Bernoulli Principle

Archery--he shined at this station! He got so many bullseyes that he earned silver, gold, and a glow-in-the-dark arrowhead!

BB guns. So fun! On the last day, they got to shoot 5 BBs and even I got to participate. I didn't hit it in the center, but was on the border. Carter was pleased with how "awesome" I did, which made me even more proud of myself.

Playing a water-based relay tag game. Perfect for a summer day!

Carter got to attend with 2 terrific friends, which makes everything more fun. He may have had more fun playing 500 with his old and new friends in the small breaks between stations than listening in the classes, but we both had a great time! I'm so glad I could be with him for 2 of the 3 days. Emma and Lizzie went to the "tot camp" offered for siblings of scouts whose parents were volunteering. They had an absolutely terrific time and are ready to be scouters themselves. As much as I love silly scout songs...hearing your 3 year old daughter singing about having to go to the "john" and birds pooping in your eye gets old quickly. Maybe I should look into a ballet class for the girls. Hmmmm.