Scout Activities

On Saturday, January 26 the young men in our ward went on their 2nd Annual Brian Head Ski and Snowboard Trip.  Even though Don was not in Young Men anymore he volunteered to go.  They needed him to help drive and he wanted to go skiing so that worked out really well!  They had to get up really early in the morning to meet up with everyone and leave by 5am.  They were able to take lessons in the morning if they wanted and then head to slopes or just ski all day long if they wanted.  Caleb tried snowboarding this time and he said he liked it and was able to go down the bunny hill later in the day.  They headed home around 4:30 and stopped for dinner.  I can't find any pictures of this so I don't think any got taken.

Caleb and Cayden got to participate in the merit badge pow wow that our ward held in February.  There were 3 Wednesday's where they attend different merit badge classes and by the of those they could have 3 merit badges done.  Cayden needed to go to a town board meeting so he went with Sister Boren to one in March.  They both need service hours for their citizenship in the community merit badge and they are taking care of those by volunteering at the fair.  Caleb got his 8 hours done over 2 days and Cayden started his and has 1.5 hours done.  This is really not a hard thing for them to do mostly because they love the fair and any time they can be up there-even when it is not even open yet and even when it is picking up trash or emptying boxes of toilet paper, they are happy to do.  Caleb is really close to having all his merit badges for his Eagle and just needs to finish a few and then figure out a project.

Caleb has been excited about going to YM every week-a fact that I am grateful for.  Right about this age, 14-15, Cody decided that he was done with YM.  It was hard for me not "force" him to go and there were sometimes I insisted but it was a weekly battle to get him to go.  Most of the time I lost.  Caleb usually remembers and doesn't fuss about it at all.  He even goes when it is a deacons activity even though he is a teacher now.  The deacons have a campout atleast once a month and because all the boys are supposed to get their camping merit badge, they all need nights of camping. Brother Barlow invites everyone who want to to go camping with them even it is only his garage or backyard.

Connor has been going to young men activities this year since he turned 16.  That hasn't happened since he was 13.  The youth leaders and others in that ward are very helpful and have accepted him for who he is and he feels much more comfortable there.  He even calls it "my ward" when we are talking about it.  He went to his first campout EVER by himself in February.  This really is a huge deal.  Even when he was 11 and 12 he only went on maybe 2 campouts and Don went with him both times.  Grandpa took him out and stayed with him until about 10 but then Connor stayed the rest of the night by himself and had a great time.  He did most of their cooking on his dutch oven cooking stuff he got for Christmas.  He has been going to some of the Wednesday activities too once in a while.  I really am grateful for that ward in accepting him and loving him and allowing him to be who he is.  That ward is smaller than ours and there are less youth and that makes it easier for him as well.

Eagle Court of Honor

Saturday, June 11 was Cody's Eagle Court of Honor.  The Court of Honor was also for 3 other boys in our ward, Brad Mulcock, Haydn Waite, and Daniel Gourdin.  Getting this together was a long time in coming.  We tried for months to get this together and finally decided that the weekend after graduation would work the best because all the families would be down for the graduation anyway.  We held the court at the Stake Center in the Relief Society Room and then had a light dinner in the cultural hall.  Mark Prisbrey conducted the meeting and Kent Barlow was the speaker.  With the huge help of my brother I put together a power point video of the boys and their projects.  After each boy received their Eagle pins from their moms, and pinned their mom and dad pins on their parents, they were able to give a pin to a mentor. Cody chose to give his pin to Uncle Chris Gessel.  It was very sweet and very unexpected.  After the ceremony we moved to cultural hall for a dinner of sub sandwiches, potato salad, frog eye salad, beans, chips and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  For the decorations in the cultural hall we borrowed Bill Belcher's great flag collection and Wendy Mulcock made the table displays of balloons, flags and red, white and blue table cloths and napkins.  All the moms put this together and it turned out great. 

The Eagle has Landed

So I am getting around to this really slowly because I am so far behind and it just seems such a daunting task to go back almost 2 months and catch up but alas it must be done.
Cody finally decided on an Eagle project and got it approved in September.  With all the work he had to put in for the play and the fact that they were practicing practically everyday he had no time to get the project going.  The play was over the first week of November so the only thing standing in his way of getting it done was
a.  himself
b.  the weather
c. the approaching holidays.
His project was to paint and repaint some circles that the kids line up on on the playground at the elementary school and add some more circles for the PE class and add and touch up some of the four square courts.  He thought that we could get it done all in one day but the weather did not cooperate.  For weeks it had been getting cooler but that morning of November 20 it was downright freezing.  We started about 8am and had about 12 people there on and off until about 12ish.  I ran back and forth to the house and the school and then the hardware store and then Lin's for donuts while Cody and 3-4 of his good friends, 6-7 scouts, his theater teacher Ms. Dalley and me and his dad.  It was sooooo cold and soooooo windy.  Cody had spent a few days prior before making circle stencils and getting paint.  He did get some great donations prior to purchasing the needed items so that was helpful.  After getting most of the circles painted and the PE circles lined out they stenciled numbers on some of the cirlces but by then it was just too cold or windy to continue.

 

We had to wait a few more weeks to find time to finish the project.  There was Thanksgiving, then Cody had an audition in Vegas so it ended up being December 11 before we could get it finished.  We had alot more adult help this time so that was awesome because we had to line out a grid of 63 circles that needed to be painted.  It was so much warmer that morning and Cody had some die hard friends come back to help him finish.  In total it took aver 70 man hours to complete this project.  Thank goodness it is done!