Cub Scout Camp Week

Well, I know this is going to be a long post, so grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable!

Last week was a busy, but really fun week. Jack had his cub scout day camp on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. David took off work to be home with the girls so that I could go with Jack to camp all three days.

Wednesday was hotter than a jalepeno. We got a break from the heat on Thursday because the wind cooled things off. However, there were wind gusts of 40-50 miles per hour so that creates new problems. Drinks being spilled, tents being blown down, and people’s voices being drowned out so that even if they are shouting you might not be able to make out everything. At camp there is also a unique issue – the SWINGING BRIDGE! (You can see the bridge behind the boy holding the large bass.) In order to go fishing, we had to cross the bridge.

There is a sign at the entrance of the bridge that says do not use in high wind. If Thursday’s winds were not high winds, I do not know what would be. I am usually more cautious than other people and so I second-guessed myself and just thought I was being over-cautious like normal. I thought that surely the camp directors (many of whom have worked out there for 12-15 years) would make a decision not to go on the bridge if it were really dangerous. Well, the trip across to the pond was bad, but I was terrified on the way back. It felt as if someone was jumping up and down on it and making it shake and ripple. If fact, I thought one of the dads was doing just that, and when I turned around and saw that there was no one doing that, I felt like I was going to be sick.

Again, I thought I was just being a wimp because no one said anything. However, when I got home and told David about it, he could not believe that we had crossed the bridge in the windy conditions and told me not to do it on Friday if it was still so windy.

Thankfully, Friday was not as windy but it was so muggy and humid that we felt like we had to move the air out of our way just to walk through it – we were wishing for a breeze. Friday was especially fun for the boys, though, because a fire truck came out and sprayed them with the water hose. Jack said it was beautiful because there was a rainbow in the mist that was in the shape of a complete circle, not just an arc. He said he and the other boys were having fun running around and watching it because appeared to move with them.

The boys went from looking up to the rainbow to looking down at the mud puddles that were quickly forming in the grass. Boys being boys, they could not resist the mud. Several of them started running and splashing in them and then some boys had to top that by doing “mud angels”. I was sitting back, confident that my son who has a history of hating to get dirty, would stay clear of the mud. But, my son is now a real cub scout because when I saw him next he was covered in mud. I am not sure why you can’t see it very much in the pictures but he had mud from his head to his toes. At least it was not in his ears and mouth like the other little boy in the picture!



Some highlights of camp:
*Jack made a shot in the innermost ring of the bulls eye on the BB gun range.
*Jack popped two balloons at the archery range (I never hit one balloon the entire week).
*Jack never caught a fish although he got bites every time he put his line in the pond. He was very frustrated, especially because once he reeled his line in and the fish was on it, but it let go.
*Seeing a film about the Blue Angels (the theme this year was “Take Flight”). Jack was watching so intently and later I realized that he was paying close attention to the engineering details of the planes so that he could know how to draw his airplanes and space ships.
*Learning “I'm A Little Teapot” to the tune of “We Will Rock You”. (What will they think of next?!)
*Seeing a real centipede!


While we were out at camp, David was playing Mr. Mom at home. He took Claire and Brooke to visit one of his sweet elderly patients who fed them ice cream and chocolates, he took them swimming, and on bike rides and he and Claire tried to play tennis on Thursday but the wind prevented them from doing so. By Saturday, Brooke was very attached to her Daddy and it was really sweet for me to see her cling to his leg and say, “Daddy, Daddy” when she wanted something.

On Friday night, Jack and David camped out in a tent at the scout campgrounds. When they were putting up the tent, Brooke kept saying, “Brella? Brella?’ She thought all the tents were big umbrellas.