Tiger Scout Camping Trip!

Last weekend was quite busy for us. First thing Saturday morning, I ran an organized 20 mile training run close to our house as my last long run before the marathon. It was pretty good in that it was a race-like setting with water and gatorade stops along the way. I did pretty well and was happy with my run, but no time to linger on that thought! After a quick stretch, I drove straight to Ben's soccer game and watched him play hard. Then it was straight from soccer to football. Ben had to change in the car and I had packed him a quick lunch to eat on the drive over. He had to be at football 45 minutes early to warm up and practice, so that gave me just enough time to run home and grab a quick shower before making it back for the start of the game. I will blog later about football and soccer this season. After the game (which they did so well in), it was a quick stop at home to pack up the car and head out to our first Tiger Scout camping trip!

Ben is officially a Tiger Scout (which comes before cub scouts and then boy scouts). So far he is loving it and Paul is too. Paul has been waiting for this day pretty much since we found out we were expecting a baby boy when I was pregnant! He quickly stepped up with another good friend of ours to be the Den Leaders (seeing as how he is an Eagle Scout, he is well qualified for the job)! And they had a pack camp out pretty much right away. The whole family was invited to camp out (you can imagine my excitement upon learning this) and we all decided to go (some of us more reluctantly than others).  So, first thing we did when we got there was to set up the tent!  By the way, I am using the term "we" here, but I had no part of it really...

Everyone else helped though.  Juliette was keeper of the stakes and would give one to Daddy whenever he needed it and Abbey helped hammer down the stakes.

Hi Juliette!

They had ropes courses set up for the kids to do.

 

And since Paul only had a back packing tent, we borrowed this one from a friend.  It looks a little sketchy, but it worked great for us.  And, my very good friend who knows me too well brought an air mattress for me and the girls to sleep on!  She told me she was worried I would not make it through the night without it and I think she was right!  Sleeping on the air mattress between the girls was fine, but I was pretty cold throughout the night and spent most of the night switching between the girls and cuddling them to make sure they were warm enough and trying to stay warm myself!  I think if I had been warmer, I might actually have slept ok.

So here are the Tiger Scouts and since it was their first event, they were awarded their kerchiefs and slides and handbooks in a little ceremony.

Here is Ben getting his stuff...

The girls had a lot of fun with their friends (again, lots of younger siblings that they know and play with often).

The food was fine, although slightly disappointing to Paul.  In the morning, someone ran out to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  Although the kids liked this (look at their line below), I think Paul was disappointed they didn't do more cooking over the fire...perhaps next time...

There was a fire though and we did do smores the night before, which was fun.

Abbey enjoying her orange juice in the morning!

The girls really had fun.

 

It actually wasn't too terrible.  Don't get me wrong, it's not something I would really choose to do or do often, but if the conditions were right I could go again if my son begged me to :)