Order of The Arrow

The Order of the Arrow is the equivalent of the Honor Society of the Boy Scouts.  Your troop nominates you, and your troop votes on whether you should be a part of this group or not.  If you are voted in, you must attend what is called an "Ordeal" weekend to be "initiated" into this group.  Justice was voted in at summer camp this year, and attend his Ordeal in October.

He is not allowed to tell anybody about what happened during his Ordeal, but by the looks of his clothing and camping equipment, I can tell you there was a lot of mud involved.

The Coach did not attend the entire Ordeal weekend with him, because he felt it would be better for him to do it alone.  This terrified me, but since The Coach has been through this Ordeal thing, I trusted him.  The Coach did go down for the ceremony and steak dinner that ended the weekend.

I have to tell you how thankful I am for the kind of Father Joe is to Justice.  They have absolutely NOTHING in common.  They couldn't possibly be more different.  But Joe sucks it up and does the things that are important to Justice so they can spend time together and have common things to discuss. I say this because Joe absolutely cannot stand being involved in the Boy Scouts.  He hates camping in a tent, he hates the woods, he hates starting fires with sticks, and he really just doesn't like anything about it.  He does, however, agree that it's a great program and it's been a great thing for Justice.  It's just not Joe's thing.  He has served as a scout leader at our church, and would do it again in a heartbeat if asked, but he just doesn't like it.  And THAT is one of the reasons I love him so much.  

He looks thrilled, right?  Ha.  All dressed up and headed down for the conclusion of Justice's Ordeal weekend.

This is a picture of Justice as he was leaving for his Ordeal.  He has game face.  He was terrified.

I'm not sure I'm supposed to see these pictures.  They look pretty harmless though.

Justice was absolutely starving to death when he got home.  I think that food was very limited and rationed in portions to keep you alive only for the weekend as part of the "Ordeal".

Good grief, that's a lot of nerds in one room.  

Justice, Gavin and Stephen after the ceremony.

Dad of the Century, and his happy little son.