The First Campout

Morgan has been camping since he was a baby. You would think he would view it as an everyday type thing, but he doesn't.

In our cub scouts, we do not have camping. It's a policy that the women don't take the little boys out in the woods. Families can camp all they want to, and there is summer camp and district/council events they can go to, but as a unit, we do not camp. Our boy scouts do though. They have scoutmasters they go with, and that automatically makes it "cooler" than going with moms.

So Morgan is 11 and FINALLY his very first BOY SCOUT campout has come up and he got to go. Tommy went too, because at age 11, they should have a family member with each boy. Age 12, that changes, but we're not there yet. The boys went camping. There are only 4 in Morgans patrol right now and only 3 of them could make the campout. Because Dad went too, Jared got to go. He had no idea he was NOT a boy scout too. Go figure.

In this poison ivy infested Land of the Ticks, Morgan took his own tent and had that thing set up (by himself I might add) so fast that he didn't even notice the sticks and rocks underneath him (until he tried to sleep!) and as soon as that was done, he was off and running to the next thing to do. I got Tommy a tent put up and unloaded the stuff he would need but watched for Morgan and Jared as I did. An older boy scout was there to guide and teach them, and as a group, they made a "wood yard" and chopped firewood. They learned too! It was so fun watching them be "grown-ups".

 (Morgan is in the red shirt)

When they had all finished chopping and sorting different bits of wood, they wanted to build a fire. Of course, they are allllll experienced, so they jumped into that fire pit and had a teepee style pile of sticks in no time...and then they struck match after match after match after match. YES.... we LAUGHED!

The scoutmaster recognized a teaching moment and had them disassemble the teepee sticks and start over. He explained the words "fire starter," "tinder," "kindling," and "fuel" and had them rebuild the fire....and only allowed them ONE match. He told them if they couldn't do it with one match, they wouldn't have a fire. These boys were looking at a bag of marshmallows sitting there next to their pit.... the pressure was ON! Even Jared was frustrated and he got into that pit trying to help them build a fire LOL! (Don't be fooled by his young age or small size,... THAT little 7 year old DOES know how to build a fire! And he can restart fire from just coals and no matches! Seriously!)

 (See Morgan's blue tent in the background?)

I left at that point since I had to go to work the next morning. When my boys all came home, Morgan was like a sparkler--- ya know, those little sticks you get at the 4th of July for kids, light them and they just spark and then go out. He can't wait to do it again! Yep, there are 2 more scheduled before the summer is over. They will be FAMILY campouts, so I get to go too! More pictures then ;)