Summer Break: Week Six - Scout Camp

Day 1, Monday the 13th: 4:30 am

Kyle and I picked up Tim, our neighbor, and then met the rest of the scouts for the drive to camp. Carter and Nick (some boys from Kyle's Troop) joined us in Papa's truck and we were off. The boys promptly fell asleep and I was on my own for a few hours drive. We met up with Papa Thom and Mama Thom in Cedar for a quick "Hello" at CalRanch because I needed to get some rain gear, "just in case." The rest of the day consisted of checking in, getting camp set up, and then familiarizing ourselves with the layout. Oh yeah and a super corny camp fire ceremony. There were some female staff there and one girl gave this long warning about not trying some special martial art thing with this pitchfork things and then proceeded to loose control of one and send it flying out into the crowd. It was truly awful.

Day 2-4, Tuesday-Thursday:

Kyle and Tim had the same scedules so they headed to the morning ceremony and then merit badge classes. I walked with them to their sessions since they were a little nervous on where to be and when. One day they got a little mixed up on their own and some staff played a horrible joke on them and they missed a class.

I think the high light of the week was the daily "hot" shower. If you were lucky enough to go in the morning it would peel the skin off your body it was so hot. At night it would chill you to the bone. However at around 9am when the boys were in their first class it was quite nice, I found that out the first day and so that worked out just fine with me.

The water facilities, lake/pond, or whatever was a 3 mile round trip from our camp site so needless to say it was a "dry" camp for the first years. I did it once but it was a mile straight up hill on the return and it was a bit much. Kyle and Tim did it one day and got a free ride back up, for those of you that know Kyle well enough can imagine how that happened. He either squeeled, begged, or annoyed someone into giving them a ride, but like Kyle says, "Hey we got a free ride, right." You never know with that kid.

Kyle completed 6 merit badges at camp; Communication, Mammal Study, Environmental Science, Nature, Indian Lore and Leatherwork. He also received partials in 2 more; Weather and Forestry, which we should have done in the next week or two. So eight merit badges in all at camp, a troop record, and he has a few on top of that he will receive at the next Court of Honor, Golf, Citizenship in the Community as well as a couple of others I think.

Day 5, Friday

Kyle and Tim did not have classes on Friday so we broke camp and headed into St. George for some pizza. The Scoutmaster was going to try and get the boys into see Harry Potter 6, but it did not work out.

The boys had a good time, I did a lot of hiking back and forth to make sure that their first year mistakes were minimal. The boys stayed up late telling ghost stories and at one point had 6 boys sleeping in a 4 man tent. I heard them from a couple tents over for at least 20 minutes trying to logistically figure out how they could all fit in, I wish I had taped it.
I went to bed around 10pm everynight and tried to get some reading in. A couple of nights were really cool so I ran a heater, I know totally roughing it. I slept on a cot in a tent that sleeps 14. It was really rough...

I had a great time with Kyle (I think he did with me as well), but I hope he will have some of the same memories as he gets older that I had with my dad with Scouts and camping. He is a really great kid and I am proud of him.

We got home Friday late afternoon and needed some rest. So we took it easy.

Saturday, I pulled the kiddy pool out and let Abbie and Daisy play in it for a bit and then Abbie helped me give Kramer a bath, he was "Stinky" as Abbie would say. Later that night Ali and I took Kyle to see HP6 and we had a great time but were exhausted.

Sunday was church and then back on a plane for me to Salt Lake.... Life is truly wonderful, when you take the time to just enjoy all the many things that Heavenly Father has given us an opportunity to be around.