I Heart Boy Scouts

Our family officially started dating Boy Scout troops yesterday. Alex is a Webelo 1. Half way through next year, he (and us) will have to decide what troop he would like to join as a Boy Scout. In order to make a decision it is recommended that you do something with the troops so you can get a feel for the group(camping-out I think is the preferred choice). So yesterday we attended the fall camporee at a nearby boy scout camp. We had a great time!!! The event as a whole was kind of disorganized, but we got a good idea of what the troop is all about. The boys were very well behaved and kind of policed each other. (Some of the other groups we saw were just ridiculous) The adults with the troop were super nice and welcoming. You could tell that the relationships between the boys and adults were good. The food was wonderful!! Here are a few highlights:

• I learned that you can be comfortably warm on a 30 degree night if you have the right sleeping bag and clothes on. I could have used a more level site for my tent and a better air mattress, but at least I was warm.
• Alex is a pretty dang cool kid. He jumped right in even though there was only one other kid that he knew in attendance. He asked good questions. He avoided peer pressure to be obnoxious, even though he hung out with the rowdy crowd. He even told the rowdies to tone it down a couple of times and they listened even though he was new to them and younger. I heard him helping other boys in his tent last night when they were cold or not feeling well. He ended up in my tent by morning, but made it in the other tent until 2 am.
• You can cook pretty much everything in a dutch oven as long as it will fit inside. We had hardtack biscuits and brownies out of them yesterday.
• I successfully made it to the latrine at 1 a.m. by myself even though I am scared of the dark and bears. I walked pretty fast though.