David's First Boy Scout Campout

David had his first Eleven-Year-Old Scout campout at the beginning of the month. As you can see, he was a natural at camping his first night out.

One of the requirements for advancement is to prepare, cook and clean up a meal on a campout. We had foil dinners (sausage, potatoes, peppers, onions and cheese). David did a great job cutting all the peppers up for dinner.

It was fun setting up the tent and sleeping in it all night (another requirement). We didn't get to bed until after midnight and then we were up at about 6:30 in the morning. Although we were in the desert, the temperature dropped down to about 38 degrees (a little nippy). David ended up wrapping up in my fleece inside of his sleeping bag just to stay warm.

David couldn't wait to get in front of the fire quick enough the next morning (along with the other scouts).

After breakfast ... David spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on advancement requirements. He filled a portable stove with gas, primed and started it, learned and passed off a variety of knots, learned how to sharpen an axe and use a saw, and finally use a compass on an orienteering course the older scouts had set up.




David had a great first campout with the Scouts and is looking forward to the next one at Mt. Lemmon in April. The cool thing about these Eleven-Year-Old campouts is that fathers get to attend. We have a handful more throughout the year before David turns 12 and goes out with just the Deacon Scouts. As you can see in the picture below, he survived the campout (and so did I ... I'm not used to sleeping on the ground ... maybe the couch, but not the ground).
He passed off the remaining requirements for Tenderfoot and he has his Board of Review Sunday after church. He is excited to be a Boy Scout and is working really hard to get his First Class Scout rank before he turns 12. We are so proud of David and all the effort he puts into being a top notch Scout.

Everyone is Sewing but Me

It seems lately that everyone is undertaking a sewing project but me. I guess I am exaggerating, but Machella has been so excited at school because she was taught how to sew in her Art class. She made a pillow and loves it and is so proud of herself. I guess as her mother I should have taught her how to sew before she learned it at school. She is excited to sew more and make more things. I guess I need to dust off my sewing skills and help her with that.


Also, two weeks ago David earned his Boy Scout badge and luckily for me my wonderful husband offered to sew on his badge. I could have done it and I didn't mind, but I thought it was great that Donnie wanted to do it. It truly meant a lot to David that his dad sewed on his badge and I think it brought back memories for Donnie of sewing on his own Scout badges.

Lions and Tigers and Bears ... Oh My!!!

Saturday we went to the Reid Park Zoo here in Tucson. It was a beautiful day (I think it was 85 degrees) and we had a lot of fun. Joshua and Elyssa had never been to a zoo before so they were very amazed at seeing all of the animals. In fact, we decided to forgo the stroller and just let them walk around and explore. They did great with that and really got a lot closer look than if they had been in their stroller. All the kids liked going in an enclosed cage to see the birds. Surprisingly, Joshua was scared of the lions, tigers, bears and jaguars. Elyssa was fine, but Joshua actually started crying when he saw them. He was okay if they were behind glass, but if they were just behind a fence he didn't want anything to do with them.

Joshua loved being stroller-free. He really had fun climbing up on the fences for a closer look.

Hiding Places

Joshua and Elyssa are always looking for places to hide and play in. Their newest place is in the cabinents in the corner of our kitchen. We used to have the cabinent full of plastic storage containers. Joshua and Elyssa loved to get into it and I would find the floor covered with lots of containers and lids. I spent alot of time trying to put them all away. We have had to put locks on a lot of our other cabinents, but because of the way the door opens it wouldn't work with this one, so I finally just decided to empty it out and put the containers somewhere else. Well, I guess the empty cabinent were too tempting to leave alone and not too long after cleaning it out I found Joshua and Elyssa hiding in it. They can actually close the door while they are in it, but then it gets stuck and they can't get it open until I come to their rescue. I guess it is a better alternative then having to pick up all of the containers.

Let it snow ... in Tucson?

On Tuesday we woke up to find snow on the ground. It wasn't alot, but it was pretty unusual for it to snow in Tucson. It was fun until it melted by lunchtime. Joshua and Elyssa had fun playing in it and were very cold and wet. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to have a day off from school, so David and Machella couldn't stay home.

Lockdown???

David came home from school on Monday (Machella was home sick that day) and said that they had a lockdown at their school. In Bakersfield David and Machella would have lockdowns at their school usually because there would be some kind of criminal activity nearby. Well, we aren't in Bakersfield anymore and this lockdown was because someone saw a pack of coyotes near the school. They had to stay in their classrooms most of the day and even had to eat lunch there. We live on the outskirts of Tucson with quite a bit of open space, but I was still surprised about the lockdown.

Saguaro National Park

Last week we took a drive to see the Saguaro National Park. It is only about 15 minutes from where we live. At first David and Machella weren't too thrilled to go on a drive and look at cacti. As we were driving around David and Machella really got into it and really enjoyed themselves.

I took pictures of the kids while we were driving and I thought they turned out cute. I should take more pictures of Elyssa and Joshua while they are strapped into their carseats and can't move around.

We actually got out of the car for a little and hiked on a paved path. Elyssa and Joshua loved to be able to walk around. They called the cacti "Owwies" and "Pokies" so I felt pretty confident to let them walk by themselves. They were smart enough to know not to touch them.

Joshua thought it was fun to rest on the information markers. He would pretend to read them and then rest his body on it.


Overall, it was a great little trip and we plan on going back soon. We are really loving living in the desert and are excited to go on more trips exploring Tucson.