Cub Scout Camp 2012

Justice is a Webelo this year, and I knew this would be his last "tag along Mom" camp.  I really wanted to be a part of that, so I volunteered to help out at camp.  Imagine my surprise when I showed up and got my assignment...  

I thought that I'd just be hanging out, helping out here and there with whatever they needed and that they would have all these super qualified scout volunteers to actually LEAD the boys.  That's what I get for thinking.  Don't get me wrong, I am totally "qualified" to lead a bunch of boys around and make them behave, I just didn't see it coming.  It was a lot of fun though, little boys are SO FUNNY.  They truly are chock full of entertainment value.  

Day 1, on our way to camp!

Our Ward had five boys that attended camp this year, and I had the pleasure of carpooling three of them to and from camp every day.  Here's my carpool group;  Gavin, Will, and Justice:

I think one of the best parts of the entire camp was driving these three back and forth.  The conversations that I overheard from the back seat were so entertaining I practically laughed the entire trip.  Arguments over what superhero beats the other superhero, who forgot deodorant that day, and my favorite part was the trip home.  That's when the fish got bigger than they were when they originally caught them, and the number of bulls eyes at the bb range increased, and I learned that one of the boys had wrestled a snake with their bare hands once.   Impressive resume's for ten year old boys.

The theme for this years camp was a space theme.  The boys spent craft time making constellations, looking through telescopes, and my favorite part:  Building a super cool rocket.  At first, I was like "yeah that's nice" until I watched them actually fire the rockets.  Talk about some excited little boys!  And I admit, I thought it was pretty awesome too.

And this is where Justice's rocket landed!  The very top of the tallest tree...

The boys were SO excited about the two "water days" they had at camp.  The first day was a waterside they had put together leading 1/4 mile down a trail.  (That's how long it was on the way home that day.  I have no clue how long it REALLY was.)  You can vaguely see Justice flying down the slide at warp speed.

OK, this slide was gross.  I mean really, really gross.  There was a mud pit at the bottom of the slide to slow their speed down when they got to the bottom.  It was filled with mulch, leaves, mud, and ticks.  The "slide guy" had a pair of pliers handy to remove said ticks if he spotted any.  Gross.  The boys loved it though.  And the air smelled just lovely since the boys were slathering their bellies and thighs with dishwashing liquid to get additional speed.

If you ever send your kids to camp and wonder why they come home with different shirts, socks, and maybe even shorts, THIS is why.  Please don't expect them to find their own shirts after they take them off.  It's NOT going to happen.  And don't be too hard on them either.  Clearly it's a tragic mess at the top of the slide.  As a matter of fact, kids were still swapping shirts back and forth on the last day of camp.  And no, it really doesn't help if you write their name on their clothing.  They don't even look nor attempt to read the labels when they squeeze their size adult small frame into a size youth small shirt.  They just don't care.  See all those stray socks?

The second water event was something called "The Mud Hole".  The kids that had been to camp before were so excited because this year the mud hole had an upgrade.  Slides.  A boy scout put up two slides at the mud hole for his Eagle project.  And he did a wonderful job and the kids loved it.

Gross, huh?

When we were hiking to the mud pit, the lifeguard approached me and the other Den Leaders and told us that they had just seen a 2-3 foot snake go into the pit and it hadn't come out.  They had called the camp director and were waiting for further instruction, so we stalled the boys until he came.  I knew the boys would be SO disappointed if they didn't get to go in, they had been looking forward to it and it was literally one of the major highlights of camp as far as they were concerned.  A few minutes later the camp director showed up and said "you aren't going to let a snake get in the way of going in the water are you?" and let them go in anyhow.  None of them seemed to care, although they were all a little hesitant at first.

Justice is scared to death of snakes.  He won't even look at the snakes at the zoo he's so scared, let alone invite one swimming with him.  He was still a good sport and went down the slide, but check out how fast he was booking it out of the water.

Classic!  He high stepped his way out of that water QUICK when he got off that slide!

There was a rope leading up a muddy hill that they had to climb to get to the slide.  Apparently this is some sort of victory sign or something between Will and Justice after they made the climb to the top.  It was pretty slippery, so I guess they felt like they accomplished something when they got to the top.

The boys shot BB Guns and also did Archery every day while we were at camp.  It was great to see how much they improved from day 1 to day 5.  I was scared to death watching them with bows and arrows on the first day.  Justice didn't even come close to the target, all his whizzed right past the target.    But on day 3, look out!

He had a tougher time with BB Guns, he was so far off target on the first day that I was sure he wasn't ever going to get it.  But again, on day 3, he finally got a bulls eye.  It was smooth sailing after that.  He liked shooting the BB Gun so much that I bought him one when we got home.  He's been shooting non stop in the backyard since we bought it.

Bulls Eye!

And they also got to shoot wrist rockets, using dog food for ammo.  I bet the wildlife was happy and well fed with five days of non stop dog food being shot into the woods.

Justice was obsessed with fishing... and he had a difficult time catching anything.  He wasn't aware of this, but on Thursday he was the only boy left in our den that hadn't caught a fish.  Tragically funny story:  There was a boy in another den that was so petrified of snakes that he refused to go down to the banks to fish because he knew they were in the water.  So he hunkered down up under a tree a good distance from the bank and waited until everyone got done fishing.  One afternoon while he was standing under the tree, a snake fell OUT OF THE TREE AND LANDED ON THE POOR KIDS HEAD.  True story.  Tragic.  I'm not terribly afraid of snakes but I'm sure I would have peed myself at that particular moment.  I can't even imagine how that poor kid felt.

And this is the fish he caught.  Can you see it?  It's about three inches long.  But whatever, it's a catch.  Most of the fish were this size, but a few boys caught some that were a little bigger.  He was so happy, that is actually a genuine smile on his face instead of the awful ten year old fake cheese I normally get.  He ended up catching another fish on Friday, too.

And the skit... The boys wanted to do the "Invisible Bench" skit.  Classic.  It was hilarious, the boy that was the one in charge of saying "I'm sitting on the invisible bench" kept saying "divisible" instead of "invisible" in practice so we had no idea how that would turn out.  Close enough!  It was cute and the rest of the cubs thought it was pure comedy.

And they all fall down...

We also had the opportunity to participate in a flag ceremony after training the first day.

After I got back, someone asked me "how was it?".  And all I could think of was to respond that it was like childbirth.  I dreaded it in the weeks going into it, and during it I just wanted it to be over, but after it was over it was worth every single second of it.  And now that a few days have passed, I have forgotten how horrible it was and I look forward to doing it again in four years when Jack is a Cub Scout.

It really was a blessing to be able to do this with these boys.  I enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them.  And I really loved watching them grow.  We had one boy that literally shook my hand after the first day and said "It was nice to meet you, I won't be coming back tomorrow.".  Of course his parents made him come back, and by the end of the week he had grown leaps and bounds emotionally.  I absolutely loved that part.  I also had a great co-leader and together we made a good team.  The boys had a great time and were exhausted at the end of every day.  I am so thankful for the Scouting Program and what it does for boys, and I am thankful to have been afforded the opportunity to be a part of this experience.