Cross Over

It's Hayden's turn to cross over from cub scouts to boy scouts. It seems like he was just a Tiger cub. But alas, he's done with cub scouts. He earned the highest honors in the program - the Arrow of Light and Heavy Shoulder.


Arrow of Light is for those who did more than the minimum to cross over, and heavy shoulder means they earned every pin possible. Hayden was determined to get heavy shoulder because Bayley didn't. The competition among brothers...


The cross over ceremony is called the Blue & Gold dinner. The pack provided pizza & cake for the boys, which made everything go much smoother than when the individual troops did their own thing.

Bayley and his troop were there to welcome Hayden (and five other boys from his den) to the troop. It reminded me of when Bayley and his den crossed over, practically doubling the size of the troop! I think the troop enjoyed bringing Hayden aboard in an official capacity, he'd been the little brother for too long.

 

Service Project - School Clean Up

In Boy Scouts, the boys must earn a certain number of service hours for each rank advancement. As they move up, they're expected to take the lead on some of these service projects. Bayley decided to put together a landscaping clean up at the elementary school. In an attempt to save budget dollars, things had become quite overgrown. Lucky for Bayley, a parent was also organizing a clean-up, so they pooled their efforts.

Bayley struggled a little bit in terms of telling the volunteers what they should be doing. He didn't like the idea of telling the older boys (or even parents) what to do. He had to be coached through that, but once everyone knew the goal, they went to work.

And it was work! Thing were tedious, but the weeds got pulled and the hedges got trimmed. Maybe he can organize another event in the fall for bark and plantings.

Webelos Woods :: Hayden edition

So when we first got there we all met up and got our bootson and everything. Then we went to different tropps. The first was geology, where they taught about landforms and habitats. One was mouth-to-mouth CPR. One was science where the troop had made their own root beer for us to try.

We went to Bayley's, which was nature. He tried to hide when we got there, but I chased him and hugged him. When we left I gave him a candy.

We did bottle rockets. One was air science where we did experiments to make a dime jump and using an index card to keep water in a cup when you turn it upside down.

One was venom treatment so we know to keep the part that was bitten as far away from your heat as you can to slow down the travel of the poison. Keep your blood pressure low by staying calm.

One troop had toilet paper in leaf blowers and they shot toilet paper everywhere at us!

One was shock treatment - how to help someone if they go into shock. First you lay them down on a tarp or table. If you lay them on the ground they'll get too cold. Cover them with a blanket and also put a box under their feet to get the blood to stay in their body. They gave us candy for answering questions. One sign of shock is if the skin is pale. Another is if they are breathing like they are running a marathon.

I got really wet because I was stomping in puddles. There were huge puddles.

At lunch they served mac & cheese, potato soup, hotdogs, cookies, cherry KoolAid and grape Kool Aid. I had two hot dogs, two cookies, a scoop of the mac and cheese and a cup of the red KoolAid. Bayley wasn't with us because the boy scouts eat at their own camp.

The obstacle course was great. We ran down there and then went over and under some tires. There was a monkey bridge and I was kind of scared I would rip my pants.

It started raining, so we went in and got a bunch of candy. Then me and Dad went down to the beach so I could feel the sand on my toes and relx them. Then Dad and I went back in the car and I played Jetpack Joyride on his iPhone.

When we got to Tillamook we went to McDonalds. I had a McFlurry, McNuggets and chocolate milk.

Also, I tore my pants. After I was done at the beach I put my stuff on to leave. I put one boot on, no problem. I put on the second boot and leaned down - RIP! It tore right open. Luckily there were two layers so they couldn't see my skin.

Gilbert Ranch

Hayden's cub scout den attended camp at Gilbert Ranch where they got to do the usual camp stuff - archery, hiking, BB guns - plus wild west stuff like panning for gold, using a washboard, and riding horses.

His den attended with the other Webelos 1 den in Pack 566, so it was double the friends. Hayden is already trying to talk them all into joining Bayley's troop when they cross over.


When Hayden & Jeff packed up for camp, Hayden wasn't so sure about riding a horse. But when it came time, he decided to go for it. And he had fun!

Webelos Woods

Way back in October, Bayley had a day-long camp experience with his Webelos den. And we promptly lost the camera!

It was a very long day since it was held at a camp on the coast, but they enjoyed it even with the rainy weather. Bayley's excited to go back for sleep-over camp this summer.