This week was Cub Scout camp, and I was pleased at how many different things the boys were able to do. I volunteered to be a leader on the last two days and was exhausted before I ever went, thinking about being in the sun all day with 200 boys from 8 am until 5 pm. It went well and I'm glad I was there to see the camp and help out with some of the activities. I wasn't there at the beginning of the week and didn't get to photograph some of the things they did such as the fishing, woodworking, and more. The boys were able to pass of so many requirements and at the next pack meeting, they will be really excited to get a lot of awards. The camp took place in Round Rock next to Dell Diamond at Old Settler's Park. For their science requirement, they were testing their catapults. They had to make a prediction of how far they thought their marshmallows would go, then test them and measure them to see how accurate their hypotheses were. It was a fun experiment and I got to be the marshmallow retriever for several of the scientists.
Here are Peter, Matthew, and Christopher making their marshmallows go airborn.
Here they are constructing their catapults, which worked really well. Yvette is labeling the bottoms of their masterpieces with their names.
This man on the left is a civil engineer who brought a lot of equipment and lectured the boys and shared his expertise in the field, in order to pass off their engineering requirement.
Christopher and Matthew are great friends and gave a quick pose together. Each pack was given a different bandanna and their pack got the not-so-cool purple ones. The name of each pack had the alphabet whose name I cannot recall...you know...alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, hotel, India, etc. Anyway, Christopher's pack was Mike. But for some reason, I don't think that is accurate for the letter M. It seemed like everything else was accurate, but the "m" to me, didn't seem like it was the right one. I'll look it up later to satisfy my curiosity. The point of this alphabet is to use a unique word that only matches that particular letter, and a lot of words could rhyme with mike. The last group of scouts ended with the T for tango.
Here is Peter at the top of the wall, after he scurried up to the top right like Spiderman.
At the rock climbing wall, here's Christopher getting a turbo boost. It was really hot outside and I'm sure Christopher would prefer to be inside the air conditioned Main Event for climbing. He didn't seem to want to push himself too much out there that day. At Main Event, he goes up and down the climbing wall several times for a long time.
The sergeant had the boys give him five push ups at the end of this exercise. From the top left, there's Christopher, Aaron, Matthew, Matthew, Tyler, Aaron, then bottom left is Peter, Connor, Adam and Chris.
Christopher sat on his knees for some shots and tried lying on the ground for some. I'm not sure which position he preferred.
Matthew was a sharp shooter and was the only kid to hit all of his candies off of the tray. Yvette cringed and told me while we were watching them that she hopes he doesn't grow up to be a hunter as she's not into hunting.
The boys had various targets to shoot at, including a tin foil tray of hard candies, a paper target, and a balloon. Christopher hit his balloon on the first shot. The hard candies were more difficult to hit, although he didn't do too badly.
The camp was well organized and here's a leader giving safety instructions, explaining the care and rules of using the guns.
Christopher did well hitting his target and passed off his archery requirement.
Each morning at the flag ceremony, a different pack presented the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance. Camp Mabry's Air National Guardsmen assisted at the camp all week and drove around in golf carts, supplying the Cub Scouts with ice water, putting up tents, and generally helping where needed. On Friday morning, Andy Bulgerin, who ran the camp, he recognized those who have ever served in the military who were present, and not in military uniform, and asked them to step forward to be recognized and to help in the ceremony. It was a very touching sight to me as I'm always proud to be an American, and the symbol of our flag means a lot to me. Previously in the week, Christopher told me of how they had fun throwing water balloons at the golf carts when the military guys drove by, as it was declared open season to strike any of them or camp leaders driving past in carts. It was exciting for the kids and it cooled the leaders down too. I got lobbed in the chest once as I was riding in the cart and it hit me quite hard, but I didn't get soaked because it hit right where the silkscreen design was, and the plastic shielded me. All leaders were required to wear a camp shirt.
The boys were so exhausted after the water park and afterward were here relaxing and listening to the science "belt loop" lectures. I think they were learning about air pressure at this point.
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