This weekend Alonzo, Colin and I went on a camping trip with the Cub Scouts. This is the first camping trip the boys will remember. The last time we went camping they were both really small and we stayed at Guadalupe River State Park in Texas. This camping trip was full of fun and exciting things and we had one heck of a time.
We arrived at the campsite at 0930 and had our ten man tent up buy 1100. Yes, I said ten man tent. I know what you are thinking, why such a large tent for only three people? Well, we are a family of six and had big visions of doing a lot of camping when we came to Germany. Well that never happened as it was harder to figure out than we anticipated. In fact this was the first time the tent has been set up since we arrived in Germany. How odd, we use it for the first time just weeks before it gets packed up for Malawi. Too funny.
After everything was all set up, it was time to divide the scouts into two groups. One group would go hiking and the other would go fishing. We were in the group that went hiking first. The hike lasted about 2.5 hours and was about 4 kilometers. On the hike we took time to teach the boys a little bit about reading maps, orienteering, and leave no trace behind. The boys had to identify five different types of trees and birds. The tree part was easy. The bird part was much harder. Finding the birds was a very difficult task. We could hear them all over the place but could not seem to see them.
One of the highlights was the lizard that we found sunbathing on a log. Colin being the boy that he is could not pass up the opportunity to try and catch the little guy. The Corwin’s would be so proud. He snuck up on the lizard and bam!!! There he was in Colin’s hand. We took a moment to let the scouts touch him and look at him closely before we returned him to his sunbathing.
The other highlight of our hike was the bikes we saw when we stopped for lunch. There had to have been at least 30 trikes that passed close buy us.
Once we arrived at the fishing hole, the scout learned the rules of fishing and to bait a hook to catch a fish. Alonzo and Colin both caught one trout each. They were so excited. Even more exciting was the cleaning of the fish. I did not think either of the boys would want to clean the fish but they both proved me wrong and stepped right up to clean their fish.
The fish were cooked with a few other items to create our dinner for the evening. While the adults were preparing dinner the scouts were out learning the rules of kick ball. They had a blast. They really worked up an appetite. Although Alonzo does not like to eat fish he was compelled to taste it, seeing that he killed it.
In the evening we had our bonfire and enjoyed roasting marshmallows and making s’mores.
In the morning we gathered around the fire and ate our breakfast.
After we completed our breakfast we headed over to the launch pad to teach the boys how to make matchstick rockets. Alonzo, with the help of the scout leader, was able to get his rocket to shoot about 8 feet. Incase you don’t know what a matchstick rocket is; let me take a moment to tell you. You take a matchstick and wrap it in foil, making sure the tip is completely covered. You place it on a bent paperclip at a 45 degree angle. Take another match, light it and hold it under the tip of the rocket. It you have wrapped it correctly, then the head of the rock will ignite and the rock will launch. The better the rocket is wrapped the father it will launch. I was able to get mine to go about 12 feet.
The boys and I had a blast on our camping trip. Alonzo and Colin both earned the following belt loops: kickball, fishing, and hiking.
Click here to see all the picture I wanted to use.
