We got out to the campsite late afternoon Friday and took care of the most important thing first - setting up the tent. I was so proud to see Nicholas jump right in and start helping instead of running off to play with his friends.
We had a great camp site right on the lake.
There's our little green/grey tent in the middle. I really like the big tent on the left side of this picture though. I think we need something like that for next time!
After the necessary tent assembly was complete, the kids headed down to the beach area to play and explore.
Rachel loved playing in the sand.
She crawled in a spiral circle in the sand and laughed at the pattern she made. She was having fun but I just kept thinking of all the sand getting in her shoes, clothing, and hair.
The boys were combing the beach for sticks, rocks, and dead stuff like this!
His friends found a giant spine from some kind of unidentified critter!
It was getting dark and Rachel and I headed home. It was rather windy that night so Stuart had a hard time sleeping. It was noisy from the wind hitting the tent and the poles of the tent aren't incredibly strong so at times the tent would sag inward.
Saturday morning, Rachel and I made it out to the campsite just in time to have some breakfast with the boys. Then we all headed out to another area of the campgrounds to do some conservation work, aka trash pickup.
As soon as we arrived, this sweet butterfly landed on the van. Rachel talked to him some before he flew away.
We all listened to the plan to cover multiple camp sites in a line formation to ensure that they were free from trash.
I love watching Stuart in his leadership role as Assistant Cubmaster for the pack. He is a great leader and seems to really enjoy getting more involved with scouting this year!
Everyone got gloves and trash bags.
Even the smallest conservationist!
Our den scoured our assigned campsites. We seemed to keep losing our line formation but in the end I think we got the area pretty clean.
Rachel enjoyed carrying her bag around and playing with her gloves.
But she did actually contribute to some trash collection as well.
But eventually she put her bag down and just started running around exploring.
The boys kept at it a while longer though. Overall the area was rather clean when we got there but we did help with picking up little bottle camps, wrappers, etc.
We headed back to our campsite to enjoy some free time before lunch.
We decided to go fishing with some friends. Rachel offered to help Daddy carry his tackle box.
Stuart showed Nicholas how to put a worm on a hook.
Rachel wasn't sure what to think about all of that.
Nicholas tried to do it himself. He didn't quite pinch the worm. It was more like a stretch until it popped but the overall mission was accomplished.
He did great with threading the worm piece on the hook without poking himself.
Then it was time to get the hook wet and try to catch some fish.
Unfortunately, it was windy and the ground was very mushy. Check out this little friend at the edge of the water who sunk down way past his ankles!
We gave up on fishing for the day and cleaned up for lunch.
After lunch, there were several scout activities and games planned but we had to leave to get Nicholas to his hockey game in Arlington. Here he is all decked out and ready to go. When he was picking out his helmet, he was trying to decide between black and white. The salesperson told him that most kids chose black helmets. So Nicholas quickly decided that he wanted white. I love that he is comfortable being his own person and it certainly makes it easier to find him out on the ice in the sea of black helmets!
He did well at the game despite being tired from all that he had been doing at the camp site since the day before.
We got back to camp and started preparing for the evening festivities around the camp fire.
The moon was pretty but we could see clouds rolling in. There was predictions of a storm coming during the night.
Stuart did some fun singing, dancing and acting silly for the show. The other leaders tried to pull an initiation prank on him. They all pretended to act out a skit and had Stuart kneel down and pretend to be a table. The other three leaders ended up putting their drinks of water down on the "table" and then left the stage area. Stuart was stuck with the three cups of water on his back and they told him he had to get up on his own! Nicholas ran in and saved the day by scooping up two of the cups for him. I think the other leaders were a little miffed because they had all had to get wet when they had to do this. But I was proud of my little guy for rushing in to "save" his Daddy!
Nicholas' den did a little song and skit too.
Rachel and I headed home for bed and the boys stayed at the site a while longer. But they ended up leaving the tent and coming home because of rain and wind. They went back Sunday morning to get the tent, fix breakfast for those that braved the weather or had come back out in the morning.
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