More Camping!

Today the Mackay household was filled with bustling and rushing - to get things packed and ready to go! There are two more kid camps coming up - girl's camp this week and Scout camp next week.

Once we got home from church Erin was dabbling around with this and that, then all of a sudden it seemed like a switch was thrown in her head that indicated she better get a move on because she leaves for camp tomorrow morning! From then on it was "Where's this?" and "I need that!" and "I must have this mended before I can leave!" among other things. I helped her make up a tin foil dinner for her first night's meal while she made a sack lunch. How we ever got everything lined up to fulfil all the must-have's I'll never know. But she is set and ready to go for Monday morning. Then we pick her up on Thursday night later this week.

Tyler on the other hand goes to Scout camp for the first time this year. He has a pack check on Wednesday to make sure that the gear they are taking is appropriate for the camp. We had to find him a backpack, but then he pretty much took it from there. Granted he still has time before they leave (Monday the 4th of July at 6:30 am), but I was amazed at the diversity between the two as they prepared. I'm not saying I love Tyler any more than I love Erin, because I don't - but I will say that her packing style makes me tired. I think I need another nap to recover.

A Camping We Will Go

Whew! What a weekend we had, filled with camping and more camping! It was quite a time. On Friday, Conner had his first Day Camp experience. It was held at Lake Lowell's Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge in Nampa, Idaho. The theme was the Wild West, so the boys had activities geared around cowboys. The day was great - not too hot and not too much chaos. I was one of 6 leaders for our group of 30 boys.

I was glad to be there with Conner as he participated with the other boys going about the activites of the day. There were 14 boys from our pack in my group. We had some Wolf, some Bear and some Webelos Scouts, so it truly was a mixed bag. Conner really didn't like the football part of it, but I think he rather enjoyed the crafts and the BB gun shooting. The picture shows him holding the ends of the rope making machine. The boys got to keep a bit of the rope that they made. It was pretty neat.

At another station, they boys got to run the Pony Express mail route. This next picture shows Conner dressed in the vest with the mailbag and the stick horse.

We left the cub day camp early so that we could be on our way to the father and sons camp. Don't ask me how they came to be scheduled on the same day! That really makes for some worn nerves, too. I mean after spending the day with 14 boys ages 8, 9 or 10 you get to spend the evening with 100 boys of all ages! I was beat and went to be early. The father and sons camp was at Herrick Reservior near Cascade, Idaho (about 75 miles away). Great setting and not too many bugs yet.

Dylan Boer (one of my former Scouts who just turned 12 a few months ago) was giving rides in their side-by-side ATV. I don't know if you can really tell in the picture, but Conner is grinning from ear to ear! He had so much fun and it was great to see that Dylan was so responsible too. I like to think that I had a small part to play in that, what with being his Scout leader for two years and all. Maybe he was actually listening to what I was trying to teach to those boys all those weeks. Who knows? I will keep doing it because I want them to have a good (even GREAT!) experience in Scouting beacuse I remember what a fantastic time I had as a youth in Scouts, so hopefully these boys are having a great time too.

After breakfast we packed up and came home. Then I took a nap to recover.

School is for the Birds

With only 2.5 days left in the school year, the kids have had enough already. I know that they are tired of school and things seem to be somewhat more tense around the house as Jason and Erin are studying for their EOC exams. I found out last year what EOC stands for: End of Course. That kind of lead me to reflect on why is it that we need to have so many acronyms these days? I mean why must it be called EOC, when "final" is so much simpler? Is there anything wrong with simple? I had final exams when I was kid, but I digress...

Saturday when Jason was mowing the lawn, he told me that he got the crap scared out of him by a bird flying out of our maple tree. He looked a little closer at the tree and noticed a nest built in the crook of a few branches. It must have been the mother bird vacating the nest that had startled him, he said. When he took me out to see the nest, I saw the mother bird in it - she is a robin. Kristin and I had noticed this year that there always seemed to be one or two robins in the backyard - way more than normal, now this explained it. They were making their nest and hunting for food.

Later when the mother was gone doing something, I grabbed the ladder from the garage and got up high enough to snap this picture. The kids did not believe me when I told them that robin eggs are light blue. But now we have the evidence; you can clearly see the 4 little eggs in the nest. I don't know how long they take to incubate, but I imagine that in a few weeks we will be hearing the little chirpings of the babies when they are hungry and begging for food.

Growing Anxiety

So the Mackay family on all levels is experiencing some growing anxiety. Well anxiety is not the right word, more like eagerness or excitement almost. We have been enduring a cooler and wetter than normal spring this year, but the past few days have been mostly sunny and in the 70's - much more like normal. I think this has caused the kids especially to be longing for school to be out. Their last day is June 8th, so it is still a couple weeks away. So the kids are not all that excited that the weather is getting nice and they have to go to school and keep studying.

I think that Erin especially is having a hard time dealing with this. She is at the edge of moving on to high school, and I think that the teachers are helping them get prepared by giving them finals and all that. Jason is just done with school and wants to be done. Tomorrow they have the yearbook distribution and usually they let the kids have a signing party in the football field. There is a 70% chance of rain in the forecast, and in that event the signing party will be moved to the gym. According to Jason, the gym is too small to accomodate the crowd. He is hoping for no rain tomorrow. Tyler and Conner are still having fun at school, but I know that they are eager for it to be finished for the year too.

Kristin has her growing anxiety because of her knee. For the past four weeks she has pretty much been bed-ridden. She cannot put any weight on the knee yet and simply despises using the crutches. She is getting tired of watching TV all the time, can you imagine that? I guess I understand that there are only so many re-runs and DVR shows to watch, heck even SportsCenter repeats itself every hour! I will be glad to see her on her feet more, just because I think she will be happier and not so frustrated with sitting on the bed all day with nothing really to do...

As for me, my anxiety has mostly passed. Today I played the organ for all 3 hymns for the first time. The hymns were "Do What is Right," "There is a Green Hill Far Away," and "Choose the Right." I was really nervous for the Sacrament hymn. I especially wanted to have it be a good setting for the Sacrament. I didn't want to detract from the ordinance, and wanted to do well. I made a few mistakes, but hopefully none that distracted from the mood. Overall, I got several compliments on my playing, so I must have been mostly successful in my goal. Our ward chorister texted Kristin after Sacrament meeting was over (we have Sacrament meeting first) and she told Kristin that I was "born to play the organ." I will admit that I have a lot of fun playing and hopefully that can be seen by the congregation too. My sincere desire is that I can hopefully add to the spirit of the meeting and help other people feel God's love for them through the music.

Hopefully next time will be a more lively post, but for now I will sign off.

Campouts & Callings

In our ward, I am the Assistant Scoutmaster with specific responsibility for the "new" 11-year old Scouts. I don't like that in LDS units, this is a no-man's land for scouting... but that is a subject for another post. One of the numerous regulations on the New Scout program is that they are only allowed 3 campouts per year. This past weekend, I took the boys (with additional leaders, of course) on a camp to Garden Valley, Idaho. At this particular site, there is a spring of hot water that emerges from the earth that someone in the past tried to collect into a pool. I tried to explain this to the boys, but it was clear that they were thinking swimming pool, not wading pool. The spring runs into a "pool" about the shape of a queen size bed. It hits me at mid calf for depth, so if you want it to cover you, one must pretty much lie down in the pool - which naturally means that no-one else can enjoy it with you. With that reference point, it was pretty entertaining to see that some of the boys had brought swim goggles with them - like they were actually planning on enough water to float in...

Overall the camp experience went fine. We had good meals; no one forgot to bring their share of the food. We just didn't have great execution on how we were going to cook the food and then clean it up afterwards. No one remembered to bring water, so it was difficult to make hot chocolate, but you only really needed it in the morning when it was cold outside. There was frost all over the tent, so I imagine it got down to 25 degrees or so that night. I was pretty cold, so I didn't sleep so well, but I don't usually sleep well when I am away from Kristin.

There were a few minor injuries, mostly as a result of trying to close the pocketknife and getting a finger in the way. But there was one tent of 4 boys who thought it would be more fun to stay up laughing and carrying on until 3:30 a.m. while everyone else was trying to sleep. We had them run up and down the mountain for good measure. It was a pretty steep mountian and somewhat treacherous footing coming down at high speed. One of the boys biffed it but executed a perfect front shoulder roll and landed on his feet and never broke stride! One other boy biffed it hard and it looked like he was going to snap his neck. He ended up with pinecone scratches all over his back and sides - and a large headache - but otherwise not too much worse for the wear.

Then on Sunday, the event that Kristin had been warning me about actually occurred! While I was playing the prelude music on the organ, the First Counselor came up next to me and asked me if I would accept a calling as a ward organist. I told him "I am not giving up Scouts!" and he said that they would like me to continue in Scouts and supplement with the organ playing. Our ward has 4 organists now, so playing once a month should be do-able for me. I can have time to practice for 4 weeks - so that should be OK.

Spiritual Feasting

After having viewed all the sessions of General Conference this weekend, I can say that my spirit is full. I enjoyed the sermons - although I could not pick a favorite. I can tell you that I need to re-read Doctrine and Coveants Sections 20, 88, 121 and 134. I also have the increased desire to do my duty, be a better husband and father and make sure that I am truly penitent to fully leverage the Savior's atonement in my behalf. I know that is why we have Conference; everyone gets something different out of it. Since we are all at different stations in our lives and have different growth rates, Heaveny Father does not expect the same messages to affect everyone in the same way. I know I took from the sermons the things that will help me to be a better Christian in my life right now. If you ask Kristin, she will tell you a whole different set of things that she was impressed by.

General Conference for me growing up was not as strictly enforced as Kristin and I have tried to make it. I remember that my parents only "made" us watch the Sunday morning session, and when I was old enough to recieve the Priesthood, I attended all the Priesthood sessions with Dad as well. Kristin and I have implemented the policy that until you are 12 years old, you only have to sit and listen when the Prophet speaks. After 12 years old, you must sit and listen to all the sessions. We have tried to help out with having activites like Conference Bingo to help keep our attention focused; and we have tried to make it fun by having "Conference Candy" as a special treat. Conner was up at 3:00 in the morning on Saturday; we think mostly because he was so excited about conference candy. I told Kristin that its pretty strange that he is more exicted about conference candy than Easter candy. She laughed and suggested that maybe it's because we don't give the kids very much candy on Easter. We focus more on the Savior and His resurrection than on giving the kids candy, eggs and gifts.

Ok now changing gears - we have our traditional final four championship meal coming up tomorrow night. We always get a bucket of KFC for the championship basketball game. No-one in our family picked either of the teams playing in this game, but I think the consensus is that we want Bulter to win it all. In any case it should be an exciting game and that is what makes the tournament so much fun.

Had Enough Yet?

Here we are at the end of March already! This month seems to have flown by... Maybe its the wind. There certainly have been many more "lion" days than "lamb" days so far. There are still a few days left in the month, hopefully they become more lamb-like. I could use a little bit more sunshine outside. The crocuses are doing great - I don't think we have ever had so many before. The daffodils are starting to show their bloom pods, but have not yet blossomed. The tulips are still growing their leaves, so they are a while off yet. I love to see our Dutch bulbs flower in the spring, they are so beautiful and bring joy to my heart.

Here's another thing to bring joy; I won our family bracket! I know that there is still one more weekend for the tournament, but after the upset wins this past weekend, no one in the family can score anymore points. I had Ohio State, San Diego State, Notre Dame and Duke in the final four. I actually scored 36 points, Kristin had 35, Tyler had 35 and Jason had 30. If Kristin had gone with her gut, she would have scored 37 points. For me to win is a pretty rare occurance, so I will enjoy it until I get thumped next year.