Webelos Badge

Asher worked hard this year in his Webelos den.  This boy planned hikes, memorized information, camped, taught others, arranged for speakers for his group and so much more!  He was especially proud of achieving his Arrow of Light and his Religious Knot.  It's been a fun and wonderful scouting year for him, and he's excited about becoming a Boy Scout (new oversized tan shirt and all).  I think the camp outs might be the big draw.  Congrats on a great year Ashman...and Eleven Year Old Scouts, here he comes! Here are photos from his year including his hikes, day camp, advancement badge nights and his crossing over. 

Welcome 2017

This New Year's was destined to be a mellow event. We didn't have any family in town and we didn't go anywhere this year for the holidays.  After a little thinking, I decided mellow didn't have to mean 'not fun.'  We ended up having a great time at home with our little crew of 5.  Dawson headed to bed at 9, but everyone else endured until the anticipated strike of midnight and the dropping of the ball in Times Square! (Side note:  Asher and Beckett wanted to know why they drop a ball...good question, and I have no idea.  Come to think of it, it's a little weird, isn't it?) 

 

To keep us going, we worked on our Balloon Puzzle (version 2.0, post Dawson's puzzle attack), which totally saved me.  We ate yummy snacks (cookies, chex mix, fruit kabobs, veggies and dip, homemade egg nog) and watched Elf.  The boys hadn't seen it yet and were cracking up!  They also chose to watch several episodes of America's Funniest Video's which kept us all laughing and talking.  We rang in the New Year early (9-ish) with some silly cartoon countdowns for Dawson.  Everyone wore hats and had little horns with streamers to blow on.  Things got a little crazy, so hats and blowers weren't around for the actual New Year's countdown, but they were still fun to have around for at least the first one! 

New Year's Day, we all woke up about an hour later (ha, that's all the late night bought us) and had waffles.  Church was nice, and we finished up our puzzle.  On Monday, we had fun at home playing laser tag, Wii, and then hitting Gravity Park later that night with some friends.  Lots of fun.  It was Dawson's (and my own) first time jumping and after the initial nervousness passed he was fearless (and scary) so Corey and I took turns making sure he wasn't too Kamakazi.  I found out I could still do backflips (but was greatly humbled by waking up the next morning with a very sore, limpy ankle...no clue what happened there), and Asher and Beckett zoomed around and came home nice and sweaty.

We set some family goals for the year and are looking forward to 2017 and all it may bring.  Happy New Year!