The Summer of Scout Camps

The weekend school got out, Jourdan and Jonathan drove to Camp Pioneer to participate in a Brotherhood ceremony, which is the second step in the Boy Scout's Order of the Arrow (considered to be the "honor society" of Boy Scouts).  Jonathan was a member of the OA as a scout, so he was able to advance through the next level with Jourdan.

Jourdan attended 4 weeks of scout camp this summer.  In July, he went with a friend's troop (without his friend) to Camp Baldwin near Mount Hood.

While he was at Baldwin he got 4 merit badges: Horsemanship, Animal Science, Fishing, and Rifle Shooting.

August brought 3 scout camps back to back.  The first week of August, he went with his own team (and his dad) on their High Adventure trip to the Oregon Coast. They camped in Florence and Newport.  The week included hiking, horseback riding, sandboarding, and deep sea "fishing".  (More on the deep sea adventure later!)

 Jourdan and his buddies had quite a spacious tent that they called "home" for the week.

 They stayed at a regular campground in Florence, and they weren't alone.  The place was packed with people enjoying the cool weather at the coast.  Jourdan even got a chance to play teatherball.

 Jourdan and his friends played Risk in their tent on a nightly basis.  He must have been in his own private heaven.

 Horseback riding on the beach:

 Climbing on the sand dunes:

 Giving sandboarding a try:

 He crashed often and decided that sandboarding wasn't really his sport...(as if there is a sport that he LOVES).  It was fun to try though.

 Jonathan even got in on some sandboarding action:

 On that last day of the High Adventure trip, Julia and I drove out to the coast to join the boys on their deep sea fishing trip.  Deep sea fishing is something that I have always wanted to do, so I thought it would be a good time to go since the boys were already taking the trip.  The scouts chartered a 6 hour fishing trip out of Newport for salmon fishing.  We went out to sea....this was our view:

Those pictures probably say enough about the beautiful (sarcastic) August weather off the Oregon Coast.  There were 12 people on board, 6 ended up "feeding the fish" (Jonathan and I included), and 3 others were completely green.  The waves were constant and the boat was pitching back and forth quite a bit.  It was hard for me to stand up straight with all the rocking.  Anyway, about an hour into the fishing charter, the captain came to the deck and announced that the salmon season had just been called off.  He then instructed the crew to toss out the fish we had already caught.  This didn't make any sense to me...if the season had JUST ended, one would think we could keep the fish we had already harvested and just stop fishing.  (When we got home, we did a little research and found out that the salmon season in the area had actually ended on July 31...and our charter was on August 3.  So the charter company had really messed up by taking us out!)   So, even though we only were fishing for 1 of our 6 hours, MOST of us were thrilled to be headed back to the dock.  One of the leaders even said, "If I jump overboard, will the coast guard just come and pick me up?"  The charter company refunded the money for the charter, but not the licenses.  We were really just so excited to get OFF that pitching boat that we really didn't care about the refund, but it was a nice bonus to be back onshore.  This ended up being my worst birthday ever.  I had been so excited to go deep sea fishing, but that was all foiled by major sickness that lasted all weekend, causing me to also miss the air show that I usually look forward to attending.

The next weekend, Jourdan went with the younger boys in his troop to their scout camp at Pioneer by Detroit Lake overlooking Mount Jefferson.

 

 

While at Pioneer, Jourdan earned 5 merit badges:  Nuclear Science, Energy, Plant Science, Lifesaving, and Archery.  (Clearly, as you can see in this photo, Jourdan NEEDS more merit badges....the back of the sash is empty....for now.)

We drove out to the coast near Tillamook to take him to his 4th camp on Sunday afternoon.  His final week of camp was at his favorite camp Meriwether.  He went to this camp as a rover (again this year) which means he went without a troop.  They make a provisional troop out of all the boys who come to camp as rovers. 

Jourdan worked on his shotgun shooting merit badge at Meriwether:

 Jourdan with his shotgun instructors Dan, Joe and Russel:

Jourdan with his rover scoutmaster Mr. Piper: 

(He was Jourdan's leader last year too.)

 

He earned 4 merit badges at Meriwether this year: Sculpture, Shotgun Shooting, Metalworking, and Astronomy.  He wants to go back next year as an SIT (Staffer in Training).