Evan's Fall Bear Adventures

Evan has gotten several posts recently because he has been involved in several events and activities in the last couple of months with school, soccer, and Cub Scouts.  After this one, I should be able to get back on track with some of our family adventures lately.  Evan has participated in a few fun activities as a Bear in Cub Scouts this year.  After this year, Evan will advance to the Webelos for two years and then he can be a "real" Boy Scout.  That just seems crazy to me, and I can't believe how fast time is going these days.  Cub Scouts has been so important in helping Evan make friends in his new community.  He is really starting to develop relationships with some of his troop pals.

I haven't taken too many shots of him in his new uniform because so many of the activities and meetings so far have been outdoor adventures where they didn't wear their "dressy" class A uniforms.  I do like the light blue color representing the bears, and Evan looks so handsome all dressed up. Here he was learning to whittle using a bar of soap and a stick instead of a knife.  They wanted to prepare them for whittling their own marshmallow roasting sticks on the first camp out. 

One of his first Bear pack adventures was a little nature hike at Bass Lake.  

Evan and Daddy had the first camp out of the year last month right before Halloween.  Some of the older Boy Scouts even made a scary haunted house for the younger boys, and they had a little tent trick or treat.  Eddie wasn't able to take Evan on the first night of the camp out because he was out of town until late.  Then, Evan had one of his last soccer games on Saturday morning so he didn't get to enjoy the full camping weekend.  I took Brody and Mattox out to spend Saturday afternoon with them at the campground.  For most of the day, the boys just enjoyed playing together.  Evan and one of his buddies had played against one another at the morning soccer game and wanted to continue playing soccer together. 

  All of the boys enjoyed fishing. 

Evan and his soccer buddy, Robert, hung out a lot. 

Brody and I checked out the haunted house since we wouldn't be there that night to see it.  There was a little graveyard with bloody bones scattered around it and some of the boys' fun pumpkin carvings.  

Eddie's only contribution to the pictures was this picture of the lighted jack-o-lanterns that night.  Sigh.  Evan said the haunted house really wasn't scary.  

The boys made pizza to cook over the fire for dinner.  Eddie supervised the actual cooking while the boys played in the woods near the camp.  They had built a cool little fort around a big tree and were, of course, sword fighting.  Evan even built a "cannon" to defend the fort.  Apparently, the Webelos tried to destroy their fort. 

I stayed a little later than planned, but Mattox was cozy and warm wrapped up in Daddy's fleece coat in his stroller.  Brody was having fun playing with a little girl his age and enjoyed his s'mores cone they made.  They put their marshmallows and chocolate chips into an empty ice cream cone, wrapped it in tin foil, and put in the fire to melt.  It was actually quite good and not as messy as regular s'mores. I just love the look of a roaring campfire. 

There was a big ceremony around a big bonfire with skits, some awards presentations, and stories.  Then, the boys went in groups to the haunted house. 

The meeting before Halloween was a little Halloween carnival in which Evan's pack prepared and designed all of the games.  Evan and Daddy were in charge of the pin the bat on the ghost game.  There were plenty of sweet treats for everyone too.  The boys enjoyed a chance to wear their costumes. There is more to see of all of our Halloween costumes coming soon.  If you didn't see it on Facebook, can you guess who little Mattox was? 

And last but not least, we had a fun night at the Raingutter Regatta.  This was the first year that this troop had participated in this event, and I think they were all surprised at how much fun it was.  Evan did very well this time and won his first two matches to go into the semi-final rounds.  He did get beat by an older Webelo but only because he was leaning against the inflatable which caused his boat to turn and get stuck.  They can't touch the boats at all with their hands so it is hard when the boats get hung up.  Our last troup used real raingutters and not the inflatable so that wasn't an issue. 

The boys all enjoyed cheering for the others.