This weekend, Nathan and I (David) went on a scout trip with his tiger
den and Cub Scout pack. It was our first "Spooky-ree" and Nate had a
really good time. We got to see the opening ceremonies in the morning, after
getting up quite early and making the drive out to Covington, GA. He and his
friends enjoyed a nature walk, where a boy scout (over-seriously) told them
about all of the things that you cannot touch; and then went to the “tiger roar”
where, unexpectedly, we got to hear an hour long lecture about morality, and
scouting, and other topics so boring to 7 year old's that I’m not sure how they
kept a riot from breaking out. At one point (I had long since retreated onto my
phone) the boy scout started explaining patriotism and that we had to do good
for the whole nation wide (or something like that). Nate exclaimed loudly “Nationwide
is on your side” at which, all of the adults laughed. When we left, another
group of rowdy tiger scouts was coming in, and I wanted to warn them about the
long haranguing they were in for, but I couldn’t bear to have another group of
parents get by without suffering like I just had.
Nathan and I
spent some time alone and some with the den, We decorated pumpkins, jumped in a
bounce house, and played with the other scouts, but my favorite part of the day
was walking around with him and talking. On one of our walks (My phone said
that I walked 20,000 steps that day. I would be in MUCH better shape if I went
camping like that every weekend) we found the bb-gun shooting range, and we got
to shoot at cans on a string for a while. Nate needed some help to pull back
the cocker (It was a wild west-style bb gun rifle) but he did end up hitting
the can at least once. He was very proud of himself that he got to shoot a gun.
We weren’t
able to spend the night at the end of the day, but I had a really fun time with
my son on our first scout trip. We walked around a lot, got slurpees, shot bb-guns, and played all sorts of games. On the way home, I ate some Captain Ds (a
weakness of mine), and we enjoyed each other’s company for the hour-and-a-half
drive back home. We had a pretty good day.
They were painting faces, and Nathan decided that he wanted his hands painted instead of his face. He thought it was really funny, but it made eating lunch a little harder!
