Camp Sheppard

Mark and the boys headed home a little early from their weekend at Camp Sheppard due to IJ's morning retching in the snow...looks like our flu bug worked its way into the older kids.

One of the great things about Camp Sheppard is this awesome sledding hill.  The kids are required to wear helmets and they can only go down on inner tubes.  The boys have all sorts of great stories about kids bumping on the sides of their tubes and catching air.

IJ doing outdoor cooking

Another great thing about Camp Sheppard is the opportunity to knock out several activity badges for Webelos!  IJ has already earned all 20, so he just redid some of them.  Redoing activity badges, especially ones like Readyman (first aid and emergency preparedness), is always a good use of time.  See the bandaid on IJ's thumb in the picture above? Yes, first aid is something that should be practiced over and over-as is knife safety *ahem*  Our pack had four Super 20 Webelos attending, so the camp allowed them to practice some of the early requirements for Tenderfoot, the first rank in Boys Scouts!

Shane makes a leather knife case

Shane got most of the requirements done for Craftsman and completed Readyman, Scientist, and Naturalist.  Other pins that can be earned are Artist, Communicator, Forester, Geologist, Outdoorsman, and Showman. They also had campfire and skits.  Shane has shown himself to be quite the showman!

IJ makes a metal bowl

Most of the trip was paid for by the popcorn sales, but we had to pay half.  We used Christmas money from my parents to pay for their trip.  Now that's a great Christmas present!

Shane makes a catapult.

The boys have so much fun on these trips and Mark does too (of course).  We are thankful IJ didn't get sick until the last day; the only thing they missed was the polar bear hike.  IJ joked that they had their very own polar bear hike getting all their gear to the car in the early morning.  Me thinks the flu bug is finally starting to get Mark and I as well...