Today we left Zion National Park and headed to another of the BIG 5 in Utah, Bryce Canyon National Park. To get the Bryce, you have to drive all the way through Zion National Park. We probably irritated everyone behind us because we were in no hurry and drove like old people on Sunday, just out for a drive.

Yesterday, during the horseback ride our guide pointed out “holes” in the mountain connected to the tunnel built in 1930. Today, we saw it all up close and personal. An interesting note when the built the tunnel, they started at opposite sides of the mountain and worked toward the middle. When the met, they were only 6 inches off a perfect meeting. That’s pretty impressive for 1930’s technology. This is one of the viewing “holes” in the tunnel for outside.This is the view from inside the tunnel.

After a mile in the tunnel, I was happy to see the light 😎

The change in topography was crazy the further you got away from Zion.

And then a rock tunnel as well

We made to Bryce Canyon! It’s a beautiful day and perfect for hiking at 75°. Supposed to be some thunderstorms later today so we have to see as much as we can before that. Their Visitors Center had a few exhibits explaining the wildlife and Bryce’s famous hoodoos. Hoodoos are former when a large piece of rock erodes at different levels, then ice goes into crevices, expands, melts, erosion, ice, expand, melt, on and one for hundreds of years.I also found these wild animals in the wildlife of a Bryce exhibit 🤪Sandwiches, and picnic packed, water filled – lets go see Bryce! We decided to hike the Navajo Loop which took us waaaayyy into the Canyon. Like 1,000 feet into the Canyon. I tried to mark some of the Trail in blueIt is really hard to describe but it was just gorgeous! The giant hoodoos, the trees that seem to just sprout of from any crevice with moisture, and views!These two again had the best time and scared their daddy and I to death! There isn’t a railing on the hike and my stomach was just in knots until we made it to the bottomWe found the perfect picnic rock and enjoyed some rest before starting that crazy climb UP! We has to take several rest breaks as we climbed up. At one break, the boys built mini-hoodoosThe climb continued…And finally we made it back to the top. Whew!!! Those were hard fought miles!

The shuttle system at Bryce is no where near as good as Zion, but the park isn’t as large or as busy. Our big hike completed, we drove up to the main sights of Bryce, stopping at overhangs along the way. The Natural Bridge was amazing!

We beaded ALL the way to the top of Bryce, Rainbow Point, elevation 9,115 😳

and temperature 53° 🥶As we stopped at different overlooks, the boys began to get tired of my plaque reading and desire to stop at every single stop… to which I responded in a very Mother-of-the-Year moment: “you get your butt out of this car, and come look at nature!” Which resulted in absolute belly-shaking giggles from all my boys, and then from me 🤣😂🤣

Whatever, it was worth it…

Back in the car, and we said goodbye to Bryce Canyon. It was really nice but we all agreed Zion was our favorite.

The landscape continued to change to some hills but a good amount of flat pastures and housing spread miles apart.

We are taking a break from hotels and spending the next two nights at a tiny house in Escalante, Utah. This place is too cute! We are all ready to move into a tiny house… or at least maybe travel in one.

We headed into town for groceries, and a little exploring. Steaks on the tiny house grill for dinner and apple/blueberry dump cake for dessert 😊

Even had my own kitchen crew do the dishes for me🥰We watched a gorgeous sunset from the back porch, and thanked God for all our blessings.We finished the night watching the Astronaut Farmer and enjoying being able to spread out a little instead of a hotel. The boys have their own bunk beds, so pray no one falls off 🤪

We’re heading off tomorrow for a hike to see Calf Creek Falls, pools, and a picnic lunch, and the Escalante Grande Staircase.

The good Lord rewarded us for pushing through 114° temperatures a few days ago with a 74° cloudy day today. It was gloriously mild this morning!

We did something new today, and tried our hand at horseback riding. We now have 2 cowboys on our hands who think we need to have horses running around with the pigs. The boys also may or may not have developed a crush on one of our trail guides, Cowgirl Savannah ❤️😊

We met our guides, Savannah and Lance, at the corral. It was so impressive how they matched each of us with our horses. For instance, my horse was stubborn, hard-headed, and didn’t appreciate being told what to do. So yea, totally nailed that one🤪. Once you got your horse, then your name on the trail was the name of your horse. So Leo was Black Magic, Michael was Fancy, I was Concho, and Mike was Roper.

We started off with an easy steady climb up, crossing the Virgin River, and then began an assent up 600 feet to some of the most spectacular views of Zion Canyon.

Look of these handsome cowboys

The boys were awesome! They listened so well to the guides, and followed all their instructions.

We went up, up and up, but the climb didn’t seem too steep – just more a steady assent… but then Savannah pointed out the road below OH. MY. WORD! Thankfully we didn’t look down until this point, and began our descent shortly thereafter- Whew! About half-way down, we stopped for a water and bathroom break, and talked to some of the folks riding with us. There was a really nice family from New York who were on a trip similar to ours, just backwards… we started in Vegas and end in Colorado, they started in Colorado and end in Vegas.

The boys were a little smitten by Cowgirl Savannah ❤️ She is a student at Southern Utah and works here during the summer and on weekends during school. She was a great guide, and was cute too, which I’m sure helped keep my little cowboys’ attention 😊 As we descended, the sights of the canyon were breathtakingAnd the boys enjoyed trading jokes with Cowboy Lance. Here’s one we learned: Did you hear that Willie Nelson was killed? No? He was playing on the road again. 🤣 Or: what do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh 🤣🤣

Meanwhile by accident, I switched my photos to black and white but they turned out pretty cool…Look at that sexy lawyer-farmer-sawmill operator-cowboy ❤️

Canyon Trails Horseback Riding was definitely one of the coolest tours we’ve done!

After the ride, and after we learned to walk again… on my word, we may all be walking funny tomorrow…

We headed to the car to change into shorts, and then to the Zion Lodge to wash our hands! We made a picnic lunch from our cooler of goodies. However, our picnic ended up as a car-picnic as the rain started to come down. They need rain here like we do at home, so we really couldn’t complain. And after lunch, it was time for ice cream! And then it was on to swimming!

Yesterday we were not prepared for boys to swim in the Narrows or the Virgin River (which we learned was named after Louis Virgin who first traveled along its banks), but today we rectified that!

Yes, it was lower 70’s. Yes, it was raining. And yes, the water was about 60°. But when can you say you swam in a river in Zion National Park?  These 2 had the best time creating this lounging pool from their dam (cue the dam puns)

and skipping rocks… we’re up to 3 skips now!

Mike and I died laughing as they tried to tell us it wasn’t cold (pay no attention to my shivering 🥶)

After we got them into dry/warm clothes, we headed back into the canyon to see all the things we skipped yesterday (Human Museum, Zion Park movie and Nature Center). Due to fear of rain today, we tried to get through anything yesterday that may be off limits due to rain.

The movie was interesting but as we all started to get warm in a dark theater, we started getting sleepy. So off we went for another hike. This time we took the Pa’prus Trail that connects the Museum, Nature Center and Visitors Center. It was beautiful and paved which was particularly nice with the mud. The rain eventually cleared and it ended being gorgeous today.The boys liked the Nature Center and although it was really for a younger age group, they made the best of itWe did manage to find a cool lizard, despite his best attempts at camouflage.

And look, the Virgin River again! This time it was near the South Campground, who’s big selling point is the swimming area created by damming up part of the river. Look behind Michael and Leo in the first 2 pictures below. The water gets about 4 feet deep in the middle of that. Apparently one of the best boy-things ever, is throwing big rocks in water and making a splash because they did it for 30 minutes and laughed their heads off!One more picture and one more rock climb and I think we can officially mark Zion done… until next time 😉Michael wanted to try dinner at Springdale Noodle Pizza, so we headed there for dinner after a quick dip in the hot tub. It was fantastic homemade pizza and was across the street from the Candy Factory who sold ice cream and homemade chocolate 🥰and Mike looked like a hobo walking down the road with the loaf of bread we needed for tomorrow’s picnic 😂🤣

Tomorrow we head to Bryce Canyon before ending up in Escalante tomorrow night.

It was a great day 🥰 I can tell because the snoring has begun!

***overlook any spelling and grammar errors. I’ll edit in the morning, after sleep and coffee***

We woke up this morning in St. George, Utah and headed to Zion National Park. Good thing mom actually had the archaic things called maps (thanks Utah Tourism Department) because the cell coverage in the desert was zero to none…

We arrived at our hotel faster that expected but thankfully our room was ready! So we unloaded, packed sandwiches and snacks and headed out for day one in Zion.

Springdale, Utah is the small town that has grown up around Zion with plenty of hotels, restaurants and anything you could need, including one of the most efficient shuttle systems I’ve ever seen… only Disney could rival these shuttles… and I’m not sure these guys aren’t better.😳

So we hopped on the Springdale shuttle, which makes 9 stops in Springdale. There is a shuttle stop within 50 yards of our hotel,

and we rode directly into the Park. We purchased an Annual Pass to the National Parks for $80 so all our parks through July of 2020 are covered.

On to Zion, WOW! The views! The history! I have to take a moment and acknowledge President Theodore Roosevelt for creating our National Parks System. These places are gorgeous! I can’t get over that we have these breathtaking areas reserved in our country, and that people come to visit and don’t litter, or destroy by taking advantage of it.

We talked to the Park Ranger and since there is a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow, we decided to get some of our big hikes in today. So off we went to hike the Narrows!

Along the way, we had a picnic and fought off some overfriendly and chunky squirrels not a bad view for lunchThis place is little boy heaven, and a parent’s nightmare! The boys wanted to climb everything, and normally, I’m the go-ahead-climb-it parent, and Mike is the worrier but here… with these sheer rocks and dangerous drop-offs and edges – whew! I’m giving Mike a run for his money for most nervous parent 😀We finally found some common ground and they climbed and climbed… not until their hearts were content, but as much as our nerves would stand 😬

Maybe some yoga will help my nerves 🤣

We hiked through about half the Narrows – just like it sounds, they are narrow passages between the giant mountains. Very cool and a little intimidating. The water was fast moving and the rocks were slick so it was slow going at times. There was also a dark cloud with thunder booms nearby. The Rangers warned about flash flooding, and how quickly it could happen, so we were proceeding with cautious excitement 😊

Michael slipped at one point and lost his slide (shoe) then when he went to grab it, and the current almost took his feet out from under him. There was definitely a moment of fear there for a second. I never believed it when people say 6 inches of water could knock a grown man off his feet, but I think we all do now. (Thankfully a kind man down the water caught Michael’s shoes for him 😊)

After we finished the Narrows or as far in as we wanted to go, we caught the shuttle to Weeping Rock. Water comes in on top of the mountains, and is absorbed. And then travels through all the rock, until it ultimately finds a way out… and when it does, it’s the Weeping Rock

Guess who got soaking wet?We then headed to the Lower Emerald Pools (the middle and upper level hikes were closed due to rock slides… and they’re also listed as strenuous hikes – but we were totally going to do the strenuous hikes if they weren’t closed (yea, right 🥵)). This was quite a hike itself so I can’t imagine what the other hikes entailed –

But the views were just amazing!

We skipped the visitors center, movie and museum for today – we can check those out tomorrow especially if it’s raining. We did get wet again while Leo practiced stone-skipping and Michael built the Brown Rock tower in the river.We calculated we hiked about 8 miles total today so we are wiped out – again.

We grabbed dinner at Jack’s Sports Grill near the hotel, and Michael decided to try something new – Bison Burger! It was delicious!!! It was so good that we’re thinking of going back tomorrow and have another one 🤪

I can’t imagine how you see all this and don’t believe that there is a God in Heaven and that he loves you very much. There is no way something this beautiful just “happened”.

The boys swam after dinner and to just put the perfect ending on today, we had a rainbow over the mountain ❤️

Tomorrow is supposed to be significantly cooler – high of only 80, and were headed out for horseback riding if it doesn’t storm. (Never thought I’d think 80° wasn’t hot, but then again the 95° today, compared to 114° yesterday, felt downright pleasant 🤪🤣🤪)

*apologies in advance for spelling and grammar mistakes… I’ll fix in the morning after some sleep and coffee 🤪*

Vacation is one of the few times in our lives, we are early and/or on time for anything. Plus, being on west coast time, means 8am here is really 11am to us. The Best Western in Boulder City was really nice. And the fact that it was a whopping $65 a night with breakfast was even better 😉

We packed up and headed out to the Hoover Dam. Apparently, this was a bucket list item for Mike. The drive and scenery were beautiful. The pictures really don’t do it justice. The Hoover Dam is HUGE! It is just hard to wrap your mind around how big this thing is.

The tour is worth every penny to see not just the Dam but the power plant portion. And the boys thoroughly enjoyed discussing “the Dam Tour” and “how awesome the Dam Tour is.” The guides told us “kids love coming on the Dam Tour” and even point out “the Dam bat” who lived in the Dam 🤣🤣I became hilariously obsessed with this guy who filmed EVERYTHING the guide said! Seriously, everything! I can’t imagine he is going to go home and sit and watch Ben, the tour guide’s speech on water distributions to the 7 states who have water rights at the Dam. We loved the tunnels and looking out of vent grate, that was just a little high 😳.

and watching Mike nervously cross a floor grate that was so deep you couldn’t see the bottom!

Leo found out they were serious that you should go to restroom before the tour starts because there is NO restroom on the Dam tour. The size of the generators inside the power plant were shocking. They alternate which generators run each day, and using the power of water, they generate enough power for a 1.5 million homes. They also have enough water in reserve for 20+ years, although they’ve been in “drought conditions” for the past 23 years.

The Visitors Center had great exhibits on the history of the Dam and how it was built. Turns out despite all the rumors there aren’t any bodies buried in the Hoover Dam… or so they want you to believe 🤨. There were also some “Tony Stark” style touchscreen exhibits that the boys loved.

And awesome views of the Dam.

We spent some time outside looking at the Dam…but OH MY WORD! It was so hot! 🥵 Not regular North Carolina hot. We’re talking surface of the sun hot! ☀️ It was a scorching 114° today 😳🥵 Granted little to no humidity but 114° is HOT!

We left the Hoover Dam and the Dam Tour, headed back Boulder City for lunch. This town was something out of a Hollywood set. Clearly they depend on tourism and they definitely keep everything clean and picturesque.

Lunch was the Southwest Diner recommended by the folks at Best Western. Everything was homemade and the burritos were awesome!We left Boulder City headed to Henderson, Nevada… home to the closest WalMart 🤪 but seriously, we wanted to get a cooler, drinks, sandwich stuff and snacks for the next 2 weeks. On the way we caught sights of a few dust devils.We also passed Nallis Air Force Base. The base is so large that it has it’s own zip code.

It is home to the largest number of squadrons of all US airbases, which the boys happily watched as we drove… including fighter jets!

In planning this trip, I read lots about the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, and it just happened to be only 25 miles off our route 😉

This is the most aptly named place I have ever seen, and as beautiful as the pictures are, they don’t come close to what it really looks like.

Fun fact: The Valley of Fire is the very first state park in Nevada

We hiked and climbed for hours!

you know it’s hot when even the Park Service says the heat is “extreme”

Mike and Michael spotted a long horn sheep

And then we found his girlfriend who held up traffic and refused to move for a while 😂

I hate to post purely landscape photos but the Valley of Fire was just that awesome We drove from one stop to the next, hiking as we wanted (or could stand in the heat… I have a new appreciation for the turkey on Thanksgiving!)

By the time we left the Valley of Fire, and the heat, we were wiped out! We headed on to Utah… said goodbye to Nevada, and hello Arizona – we only clipped the edge of it, but it counts and we’ll be back in a few days

The Terrain was become more mountainous and hilly and then we rolled right on into Utah…

From the cross-country travel, the hiking, the heat…We were wiped out! Monday night excitement was the The Meg on television and Dominoes delivery 🤪 it was perfect! And the snoring soon ensued 😴😴😴

We woke up bright and early in the metropolis of Climax, North Carolina and ended the day in the metropolis of Boulder City, Nevada… with a couple of stops in Chicago and Las Vegas along the way.

We started the day bright and early but so excited! Got the airport with plenty of time, and then received No worries. Remember, we delayed the second leg of our flight, so plenty of time to make our connection in Chicago. Moments, I mean moments, later, we receive a “Oops, our bad. You’re not really delayed” text from United airlines. But again no worries. Plenty of time…

The 1st leg of the flight was uneventful with 2 VERY excited boys and a happy mama and daddy.

Leo says the flying is one of the best parts of the vacation.

Michael really loved me taking his picture… over and over and over

(he loved it 🤪)

We had a 2+ hour layover in Chicago, and that really worked out because Chicago O’Hare is ginormous!!! It took us at least 30 minutes just to walk to our gate. God was looking out for us when He caused us to reschedule last night. Thankful for small mercies 😊

The extra time gave us time to explore…Eat…

Shoe shine – or pretend shoe shine…Self-playing-magic piano…and iPad

We had to rearrange a bit to get Leo and I beside each other. Shockingly the person in the middle seat didn’t object to switching with me to sit on the aisle 🤷🏻‍♀️ and on this flight, I stole kisses from Leo and from my big boy ahead of me

After a very bumpy descent and landing – We made it!Welcome to Vegas Baby 🎲🕺❤️

It took a while to get the rental car and get on the road, but we worked our way to the Strip. The boys love NewYork, NewYork, the Luxor and Paris

They just couldn’t understand why we wanted to wait 20 minutes to see the fountains at the Bellagio… until they started…(and as a side note, I will never be wearing this dress again… I always thought it made me look cute and/or thin… oh no, no, no, instead i can choose between fat and/or pregnant. Um, Nope.)

LoL 😂 their faces with some of the “sights and sounds” of Vegas. Leo said this town was scary, with way too many signs about Hot Babes! Michael want to know why do the women all get their pictures made in either bra or shirtless! 🤦🏻‍♀️ all valid observations, and I can’t wait to remind them of these when they’re a teenagers 🤣🤣🤣

We explored the Shops on the Miracle Mile, especially the Nestle Tollhouse store and the Sugar Factory. Anyone for a GIANT Jawbreaker? A quick stop on the “streets of Paris”

And we were off, and headed to Boulder City, Nevada. The landscape was unreal compared to North Carolina Boulder City is like a little piece of Radiator Springs (remember from Disney’s Cars). It is a really cute town built around Hoover Dam.

We are staying at Best Western which is the only chain hotel in town. Mike is considering this as a camping because as close to camping as he gets is a hotel that’s doors open to the outside. Guess what? The doors here open to the outside 🤣🤪. It’s not fancy, but it’s clean and beds are comfy so perfect for us!

We grabbed dinner at a local joint, Fox Smokehouse BBQ. Surprise we found barbecue 🐖🐖🐖 it was literally at the end of a strip mall off a side road but it was awesome! Brisket, ribs, pulled pork, fries, fried okra, bacon beans (that’s not a typo, it’s not baked beans, it’s bacon baked beans), and mac&cheese!

And yes, they are as tired as they look! They voluntarily skipped the pool tonight and said they thought they’d just go to bed! 😳

We finished dinner and we’re back in the car by 7:45, and it was still just a little warm outside

So the party-down Browns were back at the hotel by 8, all showered and in bed by 8:30… and all but me were snoring before 9pm (but that is midnight EST).

Hoover Dam is on the itinerary tomorrow and it’s also the supposed to be the hottest day of our trip 🥵😬 Pray for shade and cool tempers 😉

Tomorrow is the big day – again! We are heading out for another cross-country adventure and checking 5 states off our goal of 50! This trip will put us to 21 states visited… (and we’re considering counting Illinois since we have an unscheduled 4-hour lay-over tomorrow in Chicago).

I spent the day:

picking Michael up from camp ❤️;getting Sampson settled; visiting the pigs; and packing. CMT put me in a perfect vacation mood by playing Vacation

United Airlines, on the other hand, tried to give me a heart attack.

Originally, we were to leave Greensboro at 7:30am, arriving in Chicago at 8:40am, and departing for Las Vegas at 10:30am with a 12:45pm arrival time. At 7:53pm, we get the following text from UnitedNow I’m not sure how they know 11 hours ahead of time that someone else’s delay will cause my delay but whatever. So now the question is will we make our connection? Um, have you been to O’Hare? 10 minutes probably not enough time to get the 4 of us and our luggage across that massive airport. So we call United, made arrangements, get on a later flight, notify the car rental peeps… all’s well with the world. It’s 8:54pm now. And then we get another text: This text should have just said: “Our bad, we’re not real delayed, just a little delayed. Oops.” 🤦🏻‍♀️ I. Just. Can’t.

If you’ve traveled with me, you have had the joy (horror) of relishing (enduring) my over-preparedness (obsessive compulsion) of details. There are folders and itineraries. BUT I am nothing if not flexible (insert laughter) so if this is as bad as it gets, it’s no big deal.

So Whew! We’re packed, and everyone but me is asleep. Honestly, I’m afraid I’m going to be up all night checking my phone for another text. This one will probably say “never mind, we can’t read a radar, so everything is back to original time.” 😬🤪

Our final day at Weblos Camp was only a half day but we made the most of it with a hike up Mary’s Mountain. Some of us were a little hard to wake up.

We were extra busy before breakfast because Leo’s Den was raising the flag for the day, so he had to be in his full Class A Uniform and we wanted to get our camp broken down and completely packed up. This way when we headed to parking lot to drive over to Mary’s Mountain, we could load up. VBS starts tonight and I’m in the kitchen… so were going to hit the ground running once we get home.

So here we go, looking like Sanford & Son 🤣

The Color Guard did a great job… especially that little blond one ♥️

After a big ol breakfast, we were off on our hike.Leo found a “spirit animal” – can you see the alligator?Leo’s Arrow of Light Den did great, some begrudgingly, but they had fun!We loved the shouting match with the troop at the pool. And crossing the bridges in the trail

I did this hike last year when Michael was getting Arrow of Light. Now they can both say they hiked Mary’s Mountain with their mom. (I’m well aware that they’ll never actually say that but in my “Hallmark Movie Brain” they will ♥️🤪

We were hot and tired, but we survived 😀just kidding 🤪

Once we got home, we hit VBS wide open and I think Leo had the best sleep of his life that night 😉

Well, Day 3 is in the books and I am in the bed 💤 💤💤 oh my word, beyond tired, beyond short tempered and beyond ready to sleep and shower in my house… BUT this little stinker joined me about 3am and reminded me how lucky I am to be here and why … (stupid mama love 🤷🏻‍♀️🤪♥️)

So it was another really early morning since a twin air mattress doesn’t really accommodate 2 people especially when one of those 2 people are snoring (Leo).

After breakfast, we headed off to the Model Camp Site to learn how to make an ideal camp site. The boys loved learning:

How to tie 6 different knots:

How to make a ladder:

How to tie a teepee:

And making foil pack lunches. We especially loved meeting Mr. Mike again. Me. Mike is a 70+ year old gentleman who is an Eagle Scout, and still works with the Old North State Counsel teaching about Native American culture and leading hikes. Today, he taught us about the drum and it’s use in native American culture and the story of the courting flute. he even let the boys play.

And tomorrow, Mr. Mike is leading our hike up Mary’s Mountain. This was a three hour class FLEW by and before we knew it we were headed to the mess hall for lunch.

We did pause to send birthday wishes and silly faces for Bobo and Jimmy 🎉🎂♥️

After lunch, we did a STEM class to build roller coaster prototypes from pool noodles, duct tape. Although when Leo first heard STEM, his first reaction was “What!!! We’re doing math?!?!” 🤣

We went from STEM to the old favorite, Capture the Flag, and then free swim before heading back to mess hall for some resting before dinner… and by resting, i mean, they played Gaga ball 🤪

We ended the night with a campfire at the council ring where our boys performed a skit and we watched a real Native American grass danceThe Arrow of Light scouts were all recognized for their workAnd we closed the night with, of course, a slush puppee from the trading post!

Tomorrow is a final day, and the Woodfield tradition is for the Arrow of Light Scouts to hike Mary’s Mountain in the morning. (That’s the mountain in the picture above ⬆️). After that we head home to get ready for VBS tomorrow night.

So to save time in the morning, and to avoid a middle of the night visitor, We took down Leo’s tent and we are tentmates tonight…

I’m exhausted, tired and just sticky feeling but it’s been wonderful too.

We’re both ready to see the other 2 parts of the Brown Family… who have been quite busy with cooking, movies, “farm stuff” and pigs 🐖♥️

Day 2 started bright and early… like before 7am early… which wouldn’t have been terrible if we’d gone to be at 10. Or if we hadn’t woken up at 2am to go to the bathroom (because we drank over 100oz of water on Thursday) and then had to dodge the black ants that I apparently startled by disturbing the toilet in what can only be described as a glorified outhouse, and then coming back to the tent and being unable to sleep because you had 2 hours sleep and the worlds largest and loudest cricket is singing beside your tent… so yea, 6:40 am came EARLY!

But it was awesome to watch the boys raise the flag at our campsite first thing 🇺🇸♥️

Then it was down the hill and Good Morning Woodfield! After breakfast, we headed to the pool for a few of our folks to complete their swim test… the organization was… well… not like I would have done it…

But whatever, we finally were cleared and off to boating we went. Thank you Jesus for keeping us from tipping over because for a while there I thought it was inevitable. But we made it! It is hard to rationalize as a 10-year old that to turn your boat left, you have to paddle on the right.And after some proper motivation (read: I’ll buy you a slush puppee) we got our rowing figured out.

Then it was off to archery…

We headed to lunch and after a little creative liberties with the scheduling, we worked in an hour of free swim. It was hot! and Leo and I thoroughly enjoyed just floating for an hour. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the range with BB’s and some more archery

And then finally we had some free time to just whittle some of wood with these prized whittling chips. By whittle, we mean, take a piece of wood and sharpen the end of it. 🤣

Before dinner, we watched as the color guard lowered the flag, and mail call!!!! I wish Leo had someone to write him at camp ♥️♥️♥️ – thank you Maw-Maw, Bobo and Nana! You sure made thus boy feel loved ♥️♥️♥️

Laser shooting was on the agenda for the Arrow of Light troops after dinner

And then we spent some time having a slush puppee and, you guessed it, some wood whittling 🤦🏻‍♀️

Our last even of the day was a Flag Retirement Ceremony led by Scuba Steve. Scuba Steve is a retired navy seal who serves as the aquatics director here at Woodfield. He spent some time explaining the history of our flag and places he had seen the flag flown during his service. He also got a little emotional talking about friends he had lost in the service. The boys all love Scuba Steve and were so reverent during this…He then invited and veterans, emergency responders, scout leaders, and Eagle Scouts to come on stage a give one last salute as they retired each section of the flag.

The entire troop sat mesmerized throughout this, I even saw one little guy simply salute.

I’m so so glad Leo and I were able to see this. Most folks won’t even hush during the national anthem, so it was pretty impressive to watch a whole group of people properly retire a flag.

Tomorrow is day three, and the schedule is just as packed 🤪🤪🤪

(I’m just praying the loud cricket has moved the heck on by now 🤣😂🤣)

Leo and I are spending the next few days at Woodfield Scout Preservation for our third (and final) year of Webloes camp. Things started off great – we were on time – actually 6 minutes early 😳. Ready for our adventure!

We loaded up a few cars and headed off to orientation and then… the bottom fell OUT! We spent the next hour in the mess hall getting instructions on how meals would work, where we sat, and even got our medical exams (i.e. turn in forms, and take the boys temperatures).

Once the rain stopped, We headed back to camp to get bathing suits for those who needed it… and then a very dark cloud set in, complete with thunder, lighting and some rain. But nothing like earlier. So swimming was now out of the question, so began to make our camp. The boys, and one girl, all were great – setting up tents, working together and really helping the younger scouts.

Afterwards we headed back to the mess hall for dinner. The boys were pretty sad that it wasn’t the famous Woodfield Salisbury Steak, but the pork roast was pretty good – not Two Boys Pork good, but good. We also found our favorite camp counselor – Kenan! Always happy to see some forward Pack 426 guys! Then it was time for slush puppies!!! It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen $1 make Leo 😁

The boys played Gaga ball until it was time for Campfire and off we went. We met the staff, sang some songs and did a little dancing…

Then it was back to the campsite to finish set up, and then then it was lights out! The temperature hasn’t been awful – a little humid after the rain but compared to last year’s 100°, 80 seems almost chilly!

Tomorrow we have model campsite, boating, and who know what else. No rain the forecast so hopefully we can dry out. 😉