We have had so much fun since school let out. I cannot believe that it is almost July!!!
While Steve was in Anaheim for his yearly national conference, the kids and I went to cub scout camp and had an absolute blast. Nicholas and Naomi were pixies (non-scouts) and I was a den leader for Jeremy's den. We went non-stop from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day and came home completely exhausted from all the fun.
The first day was spent getting to know the boys and my co-leader, Richard. We were at Lake Norman all day long for various activities. The twelve boys we had were amazing and had a lot of fun just going with the flow and enjoying every minute. This is not to say that we didn't have some times of chaos, but for the most part it went very smoothly. We did canoes, football, conservation, physical fitness, and fishing all on the first day. What made it even more fun was that our den was paired with another den for the entire week. We had a fun competition going with Den 18. We all knew that Den 17 was the best!!!
Day 2 I had to miss some of the time in the morning to take Naomi to have her ear looked at. When I was drying her hair the night before I touched her ear with the towel and she screamed. She ended up needing some antibiotic ear drops. She had an outer ear infection otherwise known as swimmer's ear. This makes sense because she is a little fish. She was much better once we got the ear drops going. Thank goodness for the CVS Minute Clinic (shameless plug for CVS!!) The pixie leaders were grateful that she was in a better mood as well. When I got back to camp the boys were jousting with the knights. It was fun to watch each one of them give it their best. We also did the obstacle course, learned to tie knots, made knights helmets, shot BB guns, shot arrows, but the highlight of the day was lunch. Over lunch we got to watch the knights battle in full armor. We were divided into two groups and each one was assigned a knight. We cheered our knight on and had a blast. In the end our knight was defeated, but we cheered for him even louder when he stood up to take his bow. It was tons of fun.
Day 3 we were back at the lake and it rained almost the entire day, but that didn't stop us from having a blast. We played tennis in the rain and learned that tennis balls don't bounce very well when they are wet. We went fishing and caught several fish this time. It was wet day in the canoes and most of the boys wanted to have splash fights. We spent most of our lunch hour in the restroom wringing out clothing. The pixies got to do several of the things we were doing. On Day three they came to the lake and got to go out in the canoes. I caught a picture of them all in their life vests Naomi and Nicholas were both so excited. The temperature didn't get above 73 the whole day and those who were went were cold. We also got to go on a hike through Jetton Park and look for all the cool things in nature. There was so much to see once we paid attention. We were bused back to headquarters for the final event of the day.
Day 4 was pretty much the same as day 2, so the den leaders got to relax a bit and watch from the sidelines a little more. At archery the boys really wanted me to try it so I did. The adrenaline was really pumping when I shot the first arrow and actually hit the target. The boys were cheering me on and I had a great time. I ended up getting two bulls eyes. These boys are the best and I loved being a part of their den. Just as we were about to leave the archery tent the lady who was running archery asked me if Jeremy was coming back next year as a youth leader. She wanted him to be in the archery tent with her because he is a natural with a bow and arrow. He was also helping the other scouts get the hang of it. That really boosted Jeremy's confidence. He is excited about coming back next year now.
Friday was a fun and sad day. We had a catapult contest with the catapults we had built. We designed "Leave No Trace" posters. There was a pizza party for lunch and afterwards we did our skits for everyone. Afterwards I had to say goodbye to "my" boys. I didn't think it would be that hard, but I was really going to miss them. Through the ups and downs of the week we had really gotten close. I will definitely be back next year to volunteer again!!
