Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Scout Day Camps

Jared and Kaleb both went to day camp the same week but different places. Jared rode the bus everyday at 7:30 in the morning to Lake Pleasant for kayaking certification and merit badge work in Archaeology, Canoeing and Energy. He would get off the bus pretty tired at 5 p.m. ready to eat. With all of the water he carried and the rest of his gear he needed, his backpack weighed 20 pounds. Jared was a blur that week.



Kaleb and I went to his day camp which really ends up being evening camp. His was from 2:30 to 9:30 p.m. This was our second year doing it. The whole object is to keep the kids hydrated inside and out. They had sprinklers going all the time and hoses to spray down the kids. Water balloons were greatly encouraged. A boys paradise. They also had full permission to bomb any adult who looked dry. Of course it was a challenge for most of the kids to tye the balloons, so I struck up a deal with the boys. I will tye their balloons but they have to bring me a handful of blown balloon remnants. I think the other parents thought I was nuts. They always hung back and sat around and talked. I figure you get what you put into it. Our den had a good group of kids. The boys tyed these poles together. I think they were shocked that it actually held together when they picked it up. Kaleb earned his rifle patch and shooting pin.

The last day, the counselors attached balloons to pop with the arrows. The kids did pretty well. It was impressive. They feel so good about life and themselves when they can shoot something and hit a target. It must be the testosterone running through their blood.Kaleb liked the obstacle course the best. Of course I ended up giving quite a few of the boys a leg up to get over the wall. But I had to get the kids to stop spraying the water whenever I was helping. I was pretty drenched. The good thing about Arizona is that you dry in about 5 minutes. Literally. By the third time the boys were going over the wall, none of them needed help. They were so amped they were pratically soaring over the wall. I wish I had brought the video camera. The program really kept these kids moving. I really enjoyed watching. By the third night Kaleb and I had a really hard time dragging ourselves there. Kaleb fell asleep on the way there. There were some major attention defecit problems in our den that night. It was actually kind of funny. I think the boys were just exhausted from all of the fun.

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