Pack 101 goes to camp!

Summertime means day camp for the Cub Scouts, wooo!  This year, we attended an official BSA day camp and ended up heading over to Caldwell on a Tuesday and Wednesday earlier this month to participate in the 'Quest for Excalibur'.

We had eleven boys attend and we met at the church each morning to carpool.  Chuck and I bought our minivan last summer with the full knowledge that it would be driven on many a Scout outing, and sure enough, it was used for Boy Scout Camp in June and Cub Scout Camp in July :).

I corralled the Scouts all together at the beginning of the first day for a quick Pack photo; I'd say the results were mixed (movie reference there anyone?).  

Note the water bottles - we managed to pick two of the hottest days ever to spend OUTSIDE, so the boys were subjected to all sorts of hassling as we sunscreened them at two-hour intervals, dunked their hats in cold water regularly, and carefully monitored their water intake.  At one point a camp leader frowned upon my yelling "Chug!" to the boys and proposed I use 'Guzzle' instead, but that didn't seem to roll off the tongue as easily, so we stuck with chug :).  Seth proved to be our best water drinker (we lost track of how many refills his water bottle went through each day) and that inadvertently contributed to our most hilarious moment of camp, which I can't tell here but I'd be happy to regale to anyone in person - ask about the 'zipper' story, haha...

And here are our awesome leaders - Brother Allen, Brother Forrester, Sister Murphy, Sister Smith, and of course Sister Izatt.  Brother Forrester and Sister Smith are brand new leaders who were so awesome to jump right in and volunteer their time to help.  Brother Allen isn't an official leader, but generously offered to come with his son and help.  And Sister Murphy is just amazing; any success or competency I display in my calling is due to her knowledge and guidance!

The boys had SO much fun; the activities each day were really well put together and carried out.

The boys played Knight's Ball (aka kickball) both days.  I jumped in and played real quick the second day and made it to third base before our time there ran out; I was pretty proud :).

More fun - making gargoyles out of a sticky playdough mixture (that resulted in crumbs all over the backseat of my minivan, haha), putting together wooden catapults, playing 'minute to win it' type games.

More activities - using BIG catapults to 'storm the castle', practicing penmanship with feather quills, and sweet Noah hanging out with me.  He had just turned 8 a few days prior, so this was his first Cub Scout experience - what an introduction!

Even more - archery, knot-tying, leather work, science (lever and fulcrum), jousting, and BB gun shooting!  The BB shooting was an activity both days as well, so the second day I decided to give it a whirl.  As you may know, I've had a little bit of experience shooting (much to everyone else's amusement) but I'd never shot a BB gun before.

Christian was my buddy down at our end of the table, and Joseph and Brother Forrester took the spots at the other end.  Brother Forrester and I had a little competition going, and I'm pretty psyched to say my target's grouping was more concentrated that his was... and I now know what that means!

Emily B, this is for you - Tristin was a pro at this 'minute to win it' game where you stack dice on a popsicle stick in your mouth (don't worry, used popsicle sticks were immediately disposed of!).  He got eight for sure, and the ninth stayed for about a millisecond before they all toppled.

At the end of camp each day, boys were invited to come up and tell a (pre-approved) joke or do a skit, so our boys did the 'stiff neck' skit that they had learned a few months ago for a den meeting.  I was really proud of them, and we all got a piece of taffy for our efforts!  (Myself included, I was the stage director).

Much thanks to Chuck who had all three boys on Tuesday and Grandma Pam who came over to stay with the boys on Wednesday so that I could go traipse around in the dirt.  This was my first prolonged absence from Jack so I was so happy to know that he was in good hands.  He did absolutely refuse to drink formula, instead opting to (quite happily) subsist on rice cereal and sweet potatoes during my eight-hour absence each day, goofy kid! 

My mom obliged me with cell phone pictures through out the day - the boys were SO excited for the 'Captain America' and 'Captain Sunshine' shields Grandma Pam made with them :).

I had so much fun at day camp with my little Scouts.  I've worked in Cub Scouts for two and a half years now (first Wolf den leader, then Bears, now Cubmaster) and I really, really love it. Our pack was SO well-behaved at camp - they always stayed with their 'buddy' (which was a feat, considering the number of porta-potty trips that were made) and were respectful to the other scouts and leaders, and (rarely) complained when I made them line up for sunscreen or water refills.  Everybody CHUG!