Happy 100th BSA!

Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, and this year they are celebrating 100 years. To celebrate, our BSA council here is SoCal had a huge celebration, a camp out and party for the whole family. It was held at the Glen Helen regional Park in San Bernardino, and there was an estimated 5000 scouts and their families there! What I liked is that we camped on the grass (no dirt!) and that the boys bathrooms were terribly crowded but there was no waiting in the girls' bathroom. When does that ever happen? The boys actually went with their troop, so it was fun for me to tag along and see what exactly they do on a scout camp out. OK, so I was the only female in our group, but that is the story of my life, isn't it?

The next morning we started our day at the opening ceremonies. There were a LOT of people there!
For part of the ceremony they had 100 cub and boys scouts march in with 100 flags in honor of the 100 years of scouting. It was pretty cool.

The first order of business for the day was the marbles tournament. Now, this was not just any old marbles tournament, this was a world record marbles tournament. They were attempting to break the Guinness world record for the most number of contestants in a marbles tournament. The previous record was 600+ people, but today their goal was 900 players! OF course the kids were all excited to be a part of setting world record!

In fact that morning, Derek announced that if he ended up winning the tournament, we would HAVE TO buy the Guinness World Record book. I told him that if he actually won and his mane was in the book, then of course I would get it for him, but I also told him not to get his hopes up with 900 contestants his chances of winning were slim. Good old Derek. Always dreaming.

So they all participated; 300 kids at a time, for to a "table."

By 10am it was already pretty warm, but that was easily fixed for Dennis, Luke and I with snow cones while the guys sweated over their marble matches. Hey, not all of us can break world records.
Caleb and Derek had to wait a few rounds before they had to play again, so we decided to check out some of the fun going on, like this traveling wild animal exhibit. The kids thought it was cool to get up close and personal to some real (albeit dead and stuffed) animals.

There was also a petting zoo with some live, however, not wild, animals.

There was also a traveling Boy Scout museum which had some really cool stuff from scouting around the world.

They let the kids touch the stuff, which surprised me, but that also made it much more fun.

There were also several race cars and vintage cars on display.

Finally it was time for the next round of marbles. Caleb got out, but Derek hung in there and won!

Then they were down to only 20 players. Again, Derek won the round, putting him in the top 5! This is where things got serious. They needed eight people to play in the quarter finals, so they picked up 3 more from those who lost the last round, then we all headed over to a special gaming area set up for the championships on real tables.

At this level of competition, the games are played one on one on special game tables. Derek easily beat his competition in the quarterfinal round, but then in the semi-finals, after a very close game (they were both down to their last marble, Derek lost.) So close! So Derek ended up coming in 3rd place out of over 800 participants. Of course, the part he liked best was that they gave him some marble game stuff as a prize.

And, of course, I promised him that we would buy him the Guinness book anyway.

I was completely shocked that Derek did so well. I didn't even know that he even knew how to play marbles! When I told him how surprised I was he said, "Mom, I did get the marbles belt loop, you know." Yeah, but so did probably half the kids there.

Derek is just one great kid.

Because Derek took so long with the marbles tournament, he missed our time slot at the water park there, so while all the boys were swimming, Derek and I did a bunch of other activities and games that were there. He learned about nature, played games like team maze, and built structures with mini marshmallows an uncooked spaghetti.

There were so many activities to do there that I would not be surprised if they had 100 activities to celebrate 100 years. There was canoeing, swimming, shooting, archery, rock climbing, obstacle courses, and every kind of game you can think of! The National Guard was there with their vehicles and such. You name it, and you could do it here. The best part about it was that everything was open to everybody, scouts, parents, siblings. They had a special, limited edition leather patch that you could get if you participated in several different activities. Caleb was so excited because he earned 3 different patches that day, and he isn't even a scout yet.

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There was even a recruiting tent for the Continental Army. A few of my boys signed over two years of their life to Washington's Army, in return for a twenty dollar note signed by George Washington himself. We wish them well.

A favorite activity for the whole troop was the trebuchet range. A trebuchet is kinda like a catapult. The boys were taught how to use it, and were told that if they could knock over a water bottle set about 30 feet away, then they would be in a drawing to keep one of those trebuchets. They all worked together for a long time trying to get it. They never did. I think they needed Derek's luck.

Derek finally made it over, but he only got to try a few times before it was closing time. I'm sure with a bit more time he would have done it. Oh well.

We all had a great time. I'm glad I got to come and spend a bit of time with my boys and share a bit in some of the great stuff they get to do in scouts, stuff that they might never otherwise get to try.

Happy 100th BSA!

A Fair Affair

On Labor Day we decided to take a trip to the LA County Fair in Pomona. We had heard that admission was only $1 each that day. We had heard that it is quite an affair, so we had to check it out for ourselves! Let me just say, it was awesome! It blew our own Date Festival, and even the Del Mar Fair, which we both really enjoy, out of the water!

It is huge and there is so much to do! It seemed more like a state than a county fair.

The first thing that we saw there was quite unexpected. We saw the "Our Body" exhibit which featured real human bodies. At first it is pretty creepy, but after you get past that thought, it is absolutely fascinating! What amazing creations our bodies are!

Of course, there were less morbid things to do there as well.

We made a visit to the junior arts building. It was a medieval theme and there was a ton of stuff for the kids to do there.

Like dress up like knights.

There was a pretend farm where the kids could pick some veggies...

And a medieval kitchen where they could cook their meals.

And the ones who didn't eat their veggies got sent to the stocks.

They also got to climb Repunzel's hair.

Actually, the "tower" was horizontal for picture taking. Pretty funny.

Nate had only one thing he wanted from a day a the fair - a turkey leg! So we gave him his wish. Everybody crowded around to tear it apart like a flock of buzzards. Not me. It reminded me too much of the body exhibit we had just seen. No thanks.

The fair has all kinds of fun areas. One of my favorite was the Heritage Village where the kids got to step back in time and do and see many traditional trades and crafts, like panning for gold, watching a blacksmith work,

and carding, spinning, and weaving wool.

One lady handmade these little animals from her sheep's wool. I thought they were so cute, and couldn't leave without buying that sweet little lamb with the purple bow who was just begging me to take him home to put in my Easter sheep collection.

There was also a little house set up for the kids to try their hand a quilting on a real vintage quilt. They loved this and I had to drag them away!

Another shop made homemade soaps, and at another you could watch broom maker make brooms. Dennis was so impressed that he bought this little whisk broom.

The boys helped make a really fun rad rug. I wanted to take that home!

There was also a tiny little school house.

We watched a traveling medicine man show. He was filthy and gross, and when he asked Luke to come up and help, I cringed. I had to remind myself that it was only a costume. He was a little too convincing.

He claimed he was a rain maker, and he needed Luke to help him make rain by wearing this feather-covered jacket and top hat while banging an Indian drum and doing a rain dance. He was pretty darn cute up there! But a few times when he was doing his dance with his face covered, he almost shuffled off the front of the stage. The folks on the front row almost had a heart attack when they jumped up to stop him from falling off.

He was so cute!

It couldn't be a fair without cinnamon rolls! These had blueberry topping.

One of the coolest exhibits was a huge building full of life-size animated dinosaurs. It was really cool!

They moved and roared, and the kids loved it!

They even made it look like a dinosaur had broken through a window and escaped with broken glass, rubble, and yellow caution tape. You could see the dinosaurs just outside. Pretty funny.

At the end of the exhibit we saw a real paleontologist do an educational show about dinosaurs. it was actually very interesting. I learned a lot.

Another area that really captured the boys' attention was the Pirate area. We saw some pirate acrobats do some incredible things high up in the air. They got to play with cannons and lock themselves in a pirate jail.

Nathan even found himself a nice wench.

A beautiful day!

Derek about died when we walked into one of the commercial buildings and there were about 30 smashed penny machines! Derek has been collecting smashed pennies for a quite a while now and has quite a collection already. But this was like hitting pay dirt! Thirty retired machines from all over the West. He was literally jumping up and down and giggling he was so giddy!
We all got busy pressing pennies for Derek until we got them all!

Pennies from heaven!!!

There circus area was also fun.

Photo ops galore!

Then came the Gypsy Camp

where was was a very interesting and informational reptile show. I learned a lot and the kids got to touch a bunch of snakes and an alligator, which of course, the boys thought was great!

Dylan got it into his head that he wanted to ride a bull. He actually did a pretty great job. He kept holding on, so the guy kept making the bull go faster. He gathered quite a crowd of onlookers.

Buy the time we were done, we were so tired of walking. I felt like my legs were going to fall off at the hip! Caleb had been bagging all day to use one of these foot massagers, and finally we let him have his chance. I was so jealous!

What a great fair! We had done so much and there was still a bunch of stuff we never got to. We are definitely going to have to do this fair again!

Moving Day

Last Sunday we had the opportunity as a family to re-dedicate my Father-in-law's grave. While his funeral was over a year and a half ago, and we had a beautiful grave dedication then, we actually had to do it again. Why? Because he was somehow mistakenly buried in the wrong plot. Apparently this summer a woman came to visit her husband's grave and discovered Dennis' dad was buried in her own plot next to her husband! Can you believe that? How can a cemetery make such a huge mistake? Incredible! So they had to exhume Grandpa and move him to another plot in the next row.

Dennis' mom handled the whole thing beautifully. (This is a picture of Dennis' mom, Teresa, and her brother, Marty.) It was actually a really nice opportunity to gather as a family, visit Grandpa, and give our respects and love to him again.

It was a lovely evening and Dennis did a beautiful job with the dedicatory prayer.

In the end, the whole mistake was actually a blessing. The people at the cemetery felt so bad about such a huge mistake that they promised Teresa her burial for free, which of course, we really appreciate (though we don't plan on taking them up on the offer for a very very long time.)

We love you and miss you Grandpa!