Saturdays With My Boys

*update at bottom

So I took the advice of Janeen and didn't use my free time last night to clean. Ok so I did do my floors but I spent the rest of my time relaxing. It was wonderful. Thank you blogging friend for speaking up rather quickly!!

Of course there was the small fact that I had to run the sleeping bag, left in the dryer to the campout last night, luckily only 20 minutes away. Other than that I really enjoyed the time I had with no one around but me the dog and the cats. Even this morning was pleasant with no one to cook breakfast for, let me say that again I DID NOT HAVE TO COOK FOR ANYONE THIS MORNING!! I did however forget to turn off hubs and my alarms so I was up early and then had a surprise 8am visit from a family member who I will leave unnamed.

Call me crazy and guess where I went today--
I went to the camp out.

Crazy?

Crazy about my boys!!
After all this is not just any campout but the spring camporee!
And we're the reigning champs!
The troop to beat!
Top dog.
The big boys in the neighborhood.
So I made my way to the campout and this is what greeted me as I entered our troops campsite.
"Permission to enter?"



Pretty impressive huh?
This was all done by tweenage and teenage boys.
On their own.
With 40 lashings and a whole bunch of trees that they carry around to make cool things like this gateway out of.
My original plan was to leave around mid-afternoon and come home to prepare the office for my dad's visit this weekend only I was having too much fun, and hubs tent and airmatress is comfy and a great place to read, so I stayed through dinner.
Which was fabulous.
And cooked by the boys.
And cleaned up by the boys.
Did I mention why I love scouting??

I did get some more cool footage of the boys and I got to hike, yes hiking here in Florida is pretty much walking in the woods, but I'll take it! I am so thankful for this wonderful land God has given us and the sunshine and the nice weather!

To sum it up today was a blast and I'm reminded of how much I like my kids, and I think how much they like me, I think. I'm thankful for the unique bond God has given my boys and I- I'm reminded of His grace in my life through my children. I'm reminded of how important my time with them is, it's short and one day there will be no camporees, no gateways to brag about and no little boys to kiss goodbye (yes they both kissed their mama goodbye, in public, with their friends around), so until then I will enjoy every single minutes I can.

update: the boys finished in second place or as someone quoted Dale Earnhardt we got first loser. They understood everything except why the judges gave them a 7 out of 10 on the "kid built" portion of that awesome gateway you saw above? No adult helped build it, and it was the only gateway that 5 teenage boys could climb on at the same time.

One young scout said it best when he said "some troops would die to finish 2nd place, we're just use to first place, we'll be back in the fall!" they are all so sweet and good 2nd place finishers too!