Scout Camp

Last week, 5 of the VanBuskirk men got to spend a week up at Camp Emerson Boy Scout Camp up in our local mountains in Idyllwild. Which, if you do the math, means that it was just me and the two younger ones home all week, which was not such a bad thing. I cannot believe how much quieter and cleaner my house was with only two kids! Life was so easy! I did a total of 2 loads of laundry ALL WEEK, and two loads of dishes, and spent a grand total of $40 on groceries, some of which we didn't even use. I got so much done - painted shelves, sewed curtains, organized my heart out. And of course, I got to give a lot of extra attention to and enjoy my two little ones!

That being said, I also missed my men a whole lot, so on Wednesday, Luke, Caleb, and I headed up the hill to visit everybody for family day at camp.

It was so fun to see what the boys were up to, hang out with them, and let them show us around their home away from home. We even got to eat there - lucky us! (For the low, low price of $6 each we got one of the nastiest meals I have ever eaten. I think this is what prison food must taste like. Hopefully not. Convicted criminals deserve better.)

Welcome to the neighborhood. Home sweet home for my boys were these army tents with real wood floors. Five star accommodations.

The little guys had fun hanging out and getting dirty at the campsite. Caleb took it upon himself to rescue all the pens and pencils that had fallen between the floorboards in the guys' tents.

The guys gave us a guided tour of the camp.

Yep, that sign really does say "MO SWIMING" - with just one 'M' in swimming. Hmmm. This is obviously NOT an academic camp.

But they do have classes. When we drove up they were all busy taking classes under the big parachute. Leather-work, woodcarving, and such.

Caleb just exploring and enjoying the outdoors. He wanted SO BAD to be a scout and stay all week.

There is also a shooting range at camp, and while we were there they were shooting black powder rifles with balls instead of bullets - just like they had in the civil war.

Yep, that is me shooting that rifle! Am I one cool mom, or what? It is really very fun, and there isn't much of a kick-back, which I liked.

They showed us how t measure and lead the black powder and then stuff the ball down the rifle. It took a while, and I can't imagine trying to do that with arrows and bullets coming at you! You'd better make every shot count.

My boys' cousin, Matt, was up there too, which was great! His dad, Dennis' Uncle Marty, came up for family day too.

A little time to kill before dinner.

Everyone get dressed up in their uniforms for the flag ceremony before dinner.

Then it was off to dinner. By the LONG line winding up the hill toward the mess hall, you'd think the food was fabulous. It wasn't. I think they count on the fact that boys have poorly functioning taste buds.

I just keep thinking that the food at girls camp was a million times better than this slop. When I told the boys about our fabulous salad bar at camp, they boasted that they had a salad bar too. Well, their salad bar consisted of that cheap, metallic tasting salad mix, kidney beans, wilted sprouts, and dressing. Why bother?

There were more classes after dinner. Dylan and Caleb took a hatchet safety class.

Then later, before we drove home, we attended a campfire program with some Indian dancing that the boys really enjoyed.

I was happy to kiss my fellas goodbye, and head back down the mountain to my own clean bed.

Of course, Dennis stayed there the rest of the week - living the good life just like a top notch resort. He even played golf. They made the ball out of duct tape, and the club was just some wood that had been lashed together. It was a good game until the golf club fell apart.

The boys really enjoyed the different kinds of shooting they got to try during the week. It turns out that Alex is quite a good shot!

Nathan had a great time earning his canoeing merit badge.

And they all really enjoyed the archery.

Dylan took the challenge to swim a whole mile. He was the youngest and smallest, but he hung in there and swam the whole thing. Great job, Dylan!

Finally, the all four boys decided to take the Polar Bear challenge to earn the coveted Camp Emerson Polar Bear badge. They had to come to the pool at 5am, hit the cold showers, wait outside with just their bathing suits for someone to hose them with cold water. Then they had to stand in front of a huge fan for 30 seconds, then dunk their whole head in ice water, and repeat 2 times. Then they had several buckets of ice water dumped on them before jumping into the nice warm water. No, the pool wasn't heated, but after all that ice and wind, that pool felt pretty darn warm.

Crazy kids. They earned their Polar Bear badges, as well as about 5 merit badges each while they were there. I am so proud of all of them for working so hard, and I think they had a lot of fun at the same time. I know I enjoyed it!

But my visit to scout camp really got me thinking. Scout camp was just not what I expected. I guess what I expected was something closer to girls camp. The boys camp was much dirtier and dustier than girls camp. Nobody took much stock in aesthetics - but these are a bunch of boys, and that is to be expected. I know boys. Boys don't care. But the thing that was really kind of bothering me was the lack of the spirit that is felt so abundantly at girls camp. And by spirit I mean not only the Holy Spirit, but also just that spirit of unity and love that is so abundant at girls camp. Maybe they are the same thing. I just know that a lot of time and effort at girls camp goes into making sure that the girls get that spiritual experience, and they do! Lives are changed and testimonies are formed and strengthened at girls camp. I didn't see anything like this in the half day that I was up with these guys at camp. That is just not what boys camp is all about.

In the end, I felt bad for my boys that they were not getting that week of spiritual saturation that the girls get, and I felt bad for the girls that they were not getting those amazing opportunities to learn new things and gain new experiences that the boys get. But I don't see why the boys can't get a little more of that spiritual grounding at scout camp, and the girls can't get a chance to shoot and arrow or two. Having all boys, I see that I am going to have to make sure that the boys get other opportunities to get that kind of spiritual boost that they so need at this age.

This week, Alex and Nathan are at another scout camp. I hope that they are having a great time, and that they are taking a shower or two, and reading their scriptures, and making the most of every opportunity to try something new, and have all those experiences that scout camp does offer.