WET camporee!

Well.... what to say? Where to begin? Here is Mt. Norris, overlooking the boy scout camp we attended today. Notice the sky... SOME blue, SOME gray clouds.

This is the lake the campground is on.

See the teeny tent? That is Adam and mom's tent.

The camporee is lots of fun, with Webelos IIs joining the Boy Scouts to see what the next level of scouting is like. We did archery,

shooting .22s at the rifle range,

"longboat rowing" on the rowing machines,

exercises where they learn how to carry someone when injured,

(by the way, in case you haven't noticed from the other pictures, we had a pirate theme, complete with root beer chugging contest, which we did not attend.)

A treasure hunt (our group never located theirs),

giant slingshots and catapults for sandwich bags full of water,

a game of pirate soccer (no rules),

And activities to foster teamwork, leadership, and communication.

For every activity your patrol attended, you were awarded points for teamwork, team spirit, creativity, speed, etc. etc. Here is pirate Stephanie manning the points board.

Remember the first picture? The one with SOME blue sky? That ended permanently at about 3pm. The rain came, and we were some kind of wet! It was in the low 40s, which is not a good temperature for being wet. Adam's smile and enthusiam wained as he got wetter and wetter, and colder and colder.

Here's the shelter where our troop did their cooking.

Here's Adam with some hot cocoa, trying to warm up from the inside out!

Here is Adam before the 7pm boy scout service...it was an interfaith service, so Adam and I discussed it afterward. He has heard our pastor preach about it, and understood as the ceremony was occurring that many things they said were incorrect.

And here's Adam in the tent with mom at the end of a long day.

Now mind you, if you notice, I am blogging this at 11:30 pm on Saturday night... indicating we did NOT stay overnight. THAT is because we found our tent to be totally UNweather-worthy, and when the downpour came, our tent filled with water, and our bedding and clothes were all SATURATED! Not good. Adam was so cold, and trying to warm up, but now with his sleeping bag and blankets and clothes wet, that was NOT gonna happen. So, we got permission to pack up and head home (still earning the outdoorsman badge). Adam was so glad to be in the DRY WARM truck with the heat cranked. He was even happier to hop into his own bed! Nothing like it!!!!

I am falling asleep typing this. Time for bed!