Scout Spring Camping Trip 2018

It's been a LOOOOOOOONG time since I did a real "life" post. I keep telling myself I want to sit down and journal more, but I don't set aside the time. I'm determined to do this more often because although I'd prefer a handwritten journal, this is going to be much faster for me, and I love posting pictures and videos along with my reactions. I want the kids to be able to look back at these posts in a few years and revive these memories.

Last October was Hunter's first ever camping trip with Cub Scouts. Brianna and I stayed at home and let the boys have their boy time, but the truth is, I really love camping, and Bri loved the idea of it as well, so when the spring campout came around, I was determined for our whole family to go. I'm so glad we did! We had the best time! It was the first time I had been camping in probably 15 years, and obviously I had never been with the entire family, so it was a really awesome experience.

Here we go!

Within minutes of setting up, the kids were off in the woods, blazing trails and already creating games. The parents kind of looked at each other, not knowing what to do with our free time. It didn't take us long to figure out we just needed to pull up our chairs, grab a drink, and start getting to know one another with no worries of what our kids were doing.

Ahhh, this is the life! We should go camping more often!

The first evening was really just spent that same way - adults just hanging out, getting camp set up, and kids exploring throughout the acres of camp. Due to us being at a scout camp, we felt pretty confident that there wasn't much trouble they could get into. They were reminded to stay within earshot of the camp site, and I'm pleased to announce we had no issues of kids running off and getting lost (that I know of - but doing a head count wasn't up to me - just kidding!) There were probably 40 or 50 kids, and plenty of acres to occupy their different games and activities.

Once it got dark, we broke out the bonfire. All kids were required to have a flashlight or headlamp, so they could sit by the fire and relax, or continue playing in the woods. It didn't take me long to become comfortable with my 7 and 9-year old kiddos freely running through the dark woods with just a headlamp on. At some point you just have to turn the "what-if" part of your brain off.

It didn't take long for Bri and this young man, Lucas, to become friends, much to Stephen's chagrin. Haha!

Why is my child wearing sunglasses at night? The world will never know...

At 10:00, it was lights out, so we started getting ourselves ready for bed. We knew the next day would be a long one, and we wanted to get plenty of sleep.

Either someone's really excited, or the flash surprised her

After a good night's sleep, we woke up early to the Bears cooking a great breakfast! Pancakes, sausage, and fruit were our fuel for the day.

Bri with her 2 other "musketeers" - "T" and Lucas. You'll notice them in most of the pictures with her.

Getting ready for morning routine which includes the flag ceremony and laying out the plan for the day

After the flag ceremony, we were told for all the younger scouts under Webelo rank it was time to go bouldering. As you can imagine, this excited our kids GREATLY. They love rock climbing, rappelling and bouldering, so this was right up their alley!

After about an hour and a half of this (Brianna and Hunter climbed the walls more than any other kid - probably a dozen or more times), we headed back to camp. It was almost lunchtime, so we actually headed to the truck and left camp while everyone else was eating lunch. We headed back to Warner Robins for Hunter's soccer game! So as if he wasn't already worn out enough from playing and bouldering all morning, now he had a soccer game in the mid-day heat! But he rocked it, as usual, and the Broncos continue their undefeated season!

The camp we stayed at was Ottawa - right in between Cherokee and Natchez camps.

When we got back, the Tigers (that's Hunter's den) were working on some belt loop achievements. We went to find them and they were doing artwork with nature. These may be kind of hard to see, but these are some of their creations:

Bri's was also a stick figure portrait

After the boys were done with their artwork, we headed to a nearby field to play a game. It was up to the kiddos to create a game, and we would play kids vs. adults. They ended up creating some mixture of kickball and soccer, where the adults couldn't do ANYTHING but kick the ball, and kids could do absolutely anything they wanted! I'm pretty sure this game was rigged from the beginning! It was actually a ton of fun and I quickly regretted going for a mile-long run earlier that morning, as one of the kids singled me out and I had to run fast and furious multiple times to get away with my pride intact! At the end of the day it was a great game, and we had an awesome time playing with some great kids.

Soon after that, it was time for "saber wars" which meant the kids created their own light sabers out of pool noodles. It was time for battle! The kids went crazy with the pool noodles in a setting with no time limit and no rules. It was very interesting! After a while we stopped them and had them get ready for Crack the Crackers, or something like that. Basically each kid got saltine crackers taped to their shirt sleeves and sides of pants, and that's what you aim for on everyone else. Whoever is the last man standing with no cracked crackers is the winner!

Making the trek back to camp

After a full afternoon of running and games, we headed back to camp. I think about 3% of the campers took this opportunity to sit down in a chair and relax. The other 97% realized they had some free time, and took off to the woods again. It was so funny to hear some of the games these kids came up with. One night someone was Jesse James and the cops were coming to get him. One kid played an entire hockey game with a stick and a pinecone, while another boy was the commentator for the game. They played football and frisbee, and discovered every possible trail throughout the woods. They played Red Rover a lot, but I think cops and robbers was the main game I heard them play.

We did pull them all back together after a while for a couple of rounds of Tug of War - and the adults got in on it at the end!



Here's Bri's team winning:




 And here's Hunter's team winning:



It wasn't long until it was time for dinner - pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and peach cobbler in a Dutch oven! I'm telling you, I could get used to this camping stuff.

After dinner, the kids played for so long they didn't even ask for smores until about 9:30. We were going to offer them around 8:00, but they were having such a great time, and no kid was talking about dessert, we figured we would let it ride!




Eventually it was time for bed. I know the kids didn't really want to go to bed, but at the same time they were worn out from the day's events. Tigers (Hunter's den) were responsible for breakfast, so that meant early rising for those kids!

Serving breakfast like champs!

Clean up duty means getting in a line and checking every square inch of our camp site after church. Leave no trace!

Time to go home - I was trying to get a picture of just how dirty he was, but it didn't come through here!



The kiddos together and the kids telling scary stories around the campfire (Bri is being her typical motherly self here)



But the adults had it the roughest of all....




Great success, and thank you to all of WR Pack 422! It's been a great year!