Scout Camp 2016

I sent these three off to scout camp at 5:30 this morning and my heart was full. I am so happy that my three boys get to spend an entire week in the mountains together.

Isaac is technically not a part of boy scouts for four more weeks. But, since Brian is the assistant scout master, he paid for him to join the troop at camp this year. It is Ian's last year before moving up the ranks. I am so happy they all three get to go together this once.

Isaac was so excited. I don't know if I have ever seen him more stoked about anything in his entire life.

Since he turned 8, he has resisted participating in scouts. He has given me so much grief every week about attending the activities. About 6-months ago, I told Brian I couldn't take the weekly fighting anymore that always left us both frustrated and only resulted in him actually making it to scouts about half the time. I told him that Isaac's continued participation in scouts was in his court.

That is when he told Isaac that if he went to scouts every week without a fight, he could go to scout camp. That promise magically turned everything around. Isaac had previously argued endlessly about how there was absolutely no point whatsoever to being involved in scouts so why were we forcing him? After he found out he could go on a week-long camping trip, he went to every cub scout activity without another word. 

He even popped out of bed at 5am and put that uniform on with a smile. 

When Ian turned 11 and joined boy scouts, the older boys were relentlessly mean. The things he would tell me made my mother heart so sad. But, there was nothing to be done because, while the boys were needlessly cruel and bullies, it also fell into the category of "boys will be boys" behavior (which I am learning can be pretty rough). The best thing to do was nothing. My little 11-year-old Ian had to show up and take it every week from those big teenage boys until he became a big teenager himself.

Now, he is the oldest one in the troop and I can tell he has completely reset the tone for the boys younger than him. That Ian has never had a mean bone in his body. I asked him who his best friend in the troop was and he said "everyone." He talked about how they decided as a troop to take all of their merit badge classes at camp together because they were more interested in each others' company than in what badges they were working on.

I know it wasn't easy for Brian to take a whole week off to go to scout camp. He is one of the busiest people I know. He worked all weekend and late into the night finishing up photo and design assignments on his computer. It is going to be a real challenge for him to have no service for six whole days. But, I am so proud of him for just doing it so our boys can have these special memories with him. I love these boys.