I think I will start using this blog for tracking my son's boy scout activities and my reactions to them all. His first summer camp was interesting.... I will get back to that later.
For now, here we sit on the Friday of his Klondike trip. This is when the scouts go camping in the winter. In the snow. This doesn't even sound remotely fun to me, but to some of the boys it is like pure gold.
It started out with my son going on the Thanksgiving trip and declaring it was too cold and that he wanted no part of the Klondike. I thought to myself, "Good, then I don't have to deal with trying to figure out what to purchase to keep him warm and safe."
Fast forward to 2 weeks before the trip, when after the meeting, my dear child hops in the car and says, "OK, I am going!" "Going? Going where?" I ponder. "Klondike! I am the littlest guy and I will get to drive the sled!" I am immediately ticked off because I know that it is my responsiblity to go to the store and make sure that he has all the proper equipment so he comes home with all of his fingers and toes.
I head to the store and find that most of the stuff was on sale. Thank goodness. I got him liner socks, wool socks, thermal underwear both tops and bottoms. I even got the thermals in 2 sizes because the price was so low... that way next year I won't be caught off guard. I got some hand warmers too. My husband was a scout and is an avid hiker, so he had a great sleeping bag for JD to use. Of course, JD had his snowpants, boots and gloves at home. He was set to go.
JD came down with quite a cold on the Tuesday before and I wasn't sure I should let him go. It got so bad, my mom ran him to the doctor for me on the day he stayed home with a fever. The doctor told her to tell me to let him go. I still wasn't convinced and so the compromise I struck was that JD could go for one night. On Friday night, the scouts get to camp and set up tents and hit the sack. I thought that it was a fair compromise. George woke up early Saturday morning and got JD to camp before the festivities began.
When JD came home, we asked him if he had fun and he said it was a blast. When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said, "THE SOUP!"
Seriously? all that planning and shopping and it was the soup. Brother.
