Showing posts with label Trail Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trail Life. Show all posts

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Trail Life Camping

Nate will be moving up to the Navigator level in Trail Life in the fall.  They are more independent and do many more weekend activities.  His grade was invited to go along on a campout this past weekend in Georgia.

The troop master took some photos and shared them!

They took a five mile hike, learned about edge tools, prepared their own food, and of course camped.

Nate is on the left.


Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Lately

Nate and Ellie had a book club Zoom call for The Penderwicks in Summer—a book we love around here.  They made Churchie’s gingerbread.

Later we visited a Civil War hospital (a house in our area that was used for that purpose).  The Confederate soldiers who died, and were not subsequently moved by their families, are buried in the yard, near the family and enslaved persons of the household) after reading The Perilous Road.

Ellie list her two front teeth!

We’ve been trying different prom hair styles—hard to believe that gal is heading off to prom soon!

I was able to make a baby quilt for a friend who is expecting a new little one.

We had finals week and finished up school super early this year.  We couldn’t go to the pool last summer, so by July we started doing school days here and there when the weather was poor and nothing fun was happening.  We skipped fall and spring break, since Justin’s schedule was the same.  There were a few groans during the year as we kept going straight through, but everyone is happy we did that now!

We wrapped up the last regular AHG troop meeting of the year.  We’ve been outside due to Covid.  One of our amazing families let us set up in their yard all year long.  We kept our supplies in a trailer on site and would pull out our clipboards, name tags, scissors and tables.  It was and adventure.

We are hoping to be back inside for the fall, but it was a year we won’t forget!!

We loaded up to go camping at two different locations—the girls with AHG and the fellows with Trail Life.  We’d never both gone the same weekend before, so the logistics were a bit tricky...like who gets the French press!

Lucy got to go spend the weekend with our friends and their dog Brandy.  We hear she minded her manners.  We’d never left her before, so that was good to hear.

It was a wet weekend, but the girls had a good time.  Katie and some of the other older girls taught a badge, Gabby spent the day at archery.  Ellie rotated through: earning Archery, Toys & Games with Katie and friends, and Hiking.  I taught the kindergartners the AHG Joining Badge with a good friend of mine.

I don’t have pictures of the fellows, but they did knot tying, relay races, and orienteering.  Justin managed to cut himself setting up one of the courses, but thankfully didn’t need stitches, and a couple of the other fellows bandaged him up.

Our (very, very muddy) campsite

Thankfully the fellows had less mud, despite similar rainfalls.

Our elementary girls started walking back and forth quacking.  The once dirt road became a mud slick.  It was a bit challenging, but we made it through!  The only way to get gear to our site was to be hauled up by a Gator.  If we’d managed to keep the mud off anything, by the time the Gator went through the splattering mud taking us back to the car, it wasn’t clean anymore!  The last of the laundry is finally in the wash—six sleeping bags, six camp pillows, extra blankets, rain jackets, winter coats, and every item of clothing anyone took was damp, even if it wasn’t worn.


Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Fall is for Camping

 In the fall we generally have two campouts, one for AHG and one for Trail Life.  This year we got the two rainy weekends in October!

For AHG, with thunderstorms moving in for Saturday night, we packed up on Saturday afternoon, so we wouldn’t be stuck hiding at the bath house for it to pass.

Ellie helping set up a friend’s tent

The older two wrapped up their outdoor cooking badges:

Gabby with our one pot spaghetti dinner

Katie with dessert: peach dump cake

Little gals praying on Friday night

My crew

The fellows, however were at a multitroop event that Justin coordinated without the lightening, just a never ending drizzle, so they stuck it out.

The theme for the boys campout was Highland Games.  They had stone putt, hammer throw (which I believe was cast iron skillets), caber toss, and catapults!  I hope someone sends out pictures at some point, since Justin didn’t get to take any.

Here are some of the prizes he put together:

The Barbie for the ‘prettiest’ catapult, Elijah Ghost Pepper sauce very for the highest shot (since Elijah was taken up), and leather bookmarks for the Robbie Burns Award (best presentation at the campfire, which ended up rained out).  The ball was used in the catapult.

I did get a picture of them loaded down with all their gear plus all the things to run the event.  They were packed full!

The girls had hoped to attend, but with numbers limited, they gave up their spots a went ‘glamping’ instead.

The last things are almost dry now.

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Walk Worthy

One of the things we love about AHG and Trail Life is the fact that there is a Christian spiritual component built in, along with the way it is woven throughout the program.

Nate is in the Mountain Lion level (4 & 5th grade) of the Woodland Trails (elementary aged).  He has  spent the past year completing branch pins from the eight areas that they emphasize, like Life Skills, Outdoor, and Science & Technology.  He has also been working on the Worth Life program.

He spent twelve weeks (there was a 10 week requirement, but the study we chose had 12 weeks of lessons) in Bible Study, then taught us all about the Armor of God.  He even made sure to write questions that fit each of his sisters to be sure they learned what he taught.



He read the books of Mark, Galatians, and Joshua, writing a note for each chapter.

He needed to memorize 3 Bible verses, but we challenged him to memorize the Armor of God passage (several verses) plus two more, so he did.

He kept a prayer journal for months.

He kept track of his church attendance too.  We missed one day for travel, so the thought we should keep track for longer, many of his days ended up marked as online, but he was there watching, and returned at the first opportunity.

He helped at an AHG Daddy Daughter Dance, handling coat check.  The tips he made were given, on his behalf, to a local food pantry where he sometimes volunteers.

It was a good bit of work.  Then last night, he met, via Zoom, with a Trail Guide to review his work.  At the next ceremony, he will receive his third Worthy Life award, having earned it at Fox and Hawk as well.

Congratulations Nathaniel!!!

Monday, July 6, 2020

Lately

The older two gals got the chance to go horseback riding.
Trail riding

Working in the covered arena

Learning one handed bowline

Nate shopping for ingredients for a cookout, first time he had been in a store for months.  He’s NOT a fan of mask wearing.

Sahara Dust

Rainbow




Slack line

Making a pie for friends who were shut in with Covid, for porch drop.

Peeling

Dicing

And canning peaches

Not pictured...meeting our friend at a Sonic, to sit at separate tables and chat over slushes, ice cream, and Sonic ice.

Some more Ancient Egypt study.

Watching Hamilton with the older two...Katie took charge of the remote and skipped over ‘the scene,’ if you are familiar.





Tuesday, February 25, 2020

This week was full of AHG and Trail Life.  So much good.  So much busy.

A Life Skills lesson on Manners for the fellows on Tuesday.

Thursday was full of much AHGing.  We baked over 100 rolls.  Really.  For a Daddy Daughter Dance.  Then off to a troop meeting.  The older two studied meteorology—fronts and home made instruments for a thermometer, anemometer, barometer, and rain gauge (to see how they did in the week since they made them).  The younger girls cleaned toys, door handles, and other surfaces to cut down on the mid-winter germs at our charter.  There was also much moving of chairs.  We were able to do some dance prep by moving 484 chairs...really.  MOPS was meeting ahead of the dance, so we prepped for them, but they let us stack the rest of the chairs out of the way to cut down significantly on our day of preparation.

Then on to a dance.  Super fun to be had by all!

Food

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegetarian Food


Prizes

Tinkerbell, Little Red, Elsa, and the wolf

Photo bombs

Dancing

Photo gifts


And then a wild cave tour and over nighting in the cave for Trail Life.

Which led to this laundry! 🤣

Monday, December 23, 2019

November

Of course we didn't slow down in November...

A trip to the Parthenon in Nashville

 
To see the statue of Athena

We saw a train being restored

and visited the inside of a previously restored passenger (and dining) car(s)

 We went hiking in a park.

 
 Nate read the map and led the way.

We went out on our first date night in 14 years that didn't require a baby sitter!  And the house was still standing when we came home.

 Ready for our parade

 Ready for their trip to a living history village

 A Veteran's Day Parade

 Gabby planned a joining ceremony and badge awards night.

She made all the uniform style papers to attach all the badges, patches, and service stars.  It was a whole lot of work!

Here are our girls with their awards: 12 badges, 80 hours of service, and a bunch of patches too!

The older two attended a book talk by a favorite author in a nearby town.  The original plan was to have their books personalized, but after the full weeks of book signings, she had to switch it to a photo op at the end.

Sven, I mean Katie, and his her friends dressed as the cast and went to see Frozen 2.  They said it did not disappoint.


 We visited my parents in Kentucky for Thanksgiving...where Gabby didn't want her picture taken.

 And Ellie enjoyed the puppies and Gam's pictures.