Pedernales Backpacking Campout

Brian and I joined the Reyes and Manceaux family on a backpacking overnight at Pedernales Falls State Park. It got pretty darn cold, but we stayed relatively warm and the boys were awesome carrying their gear. We weighed Brian's back when we got home and it was 30 lbs, and his was probably one of the lighter ones!

Zilker Park Trail of Lights

We joined the Table for 19 at Zilker Park for the Trail of Lights. Our flexible dinner plans kept us out a little late at Matt's El Rancho.

Brian's Roald Dahl project

Brian had an autobiography book report for school, and he chose Roald Dahl's 'Boy.' Brian did his report by acting as Dahl in an imaginary interview session. Sean helped a great deal with the video. They both did great!

Dynamo win Western Division

We went to our first pro soccer game, and it was a great, great time. We went to the Western Division championship match between the Houston Dynamo and the Kansas City Wizards. The Dynamo won and will play New England in the finals next week in D.C.

The game experience was really awesome. They had a great crowd (the largest for the Dynamo in history at 30,000+) and many sang and jump through the whole match. There was a fun little fan zone outside the stadium, and we also watched the pre-game warmups and the Fox Soccer Channel anchors do their show.

The game was great too. The action rarely stopped, and there was some really great play. (It's funny, I just searched on YouTube for game action and I found the "National Anthem", which was done by three tenors in orange kilts. At half time they sang "500 Miles," which was a hoot.

Brian's Austin Rock Gym party

Brian invited the Table for 19 boys to the Austin Rock Gym for his birthday party. They all did bouldering and rock climbing with Cory and I belaying them. Everyone had fun, and as Brian said, "Everyone did a little better than they could."

Brian's Birthday

Brian celebrate his 11th birthday despite my efforts to make him 12. No matter how old he is, he still likes playing in the box as much as the gift. (Especially since I failed to buy a cord for his keyboard amplifier.) We actually went camping the day of his birthday, and I had planned on making a cake for him in a dutch oven, but the day was too jam-packed to do it. So the following day we joined the Table for 19 at the Roadhouse in Bastrop for a cake mom made. Cake was great.

Halloween 2007

Sean the zombie and Brian the, um, Death Eater? terrorize the neighborhood with their friends in search of candy.

Some Cub Scout Events

Pack 61 Fall Campout

Pack 61 had their Fall Campout at Camp Tom Wootton, led by Chief Dancing with Chickens. Actually, we had a great Native American theme and the campout was fantastic. It was the last pack-wide campout for the older scouts, so they had a really cool ceremony to light the campfire.

Den 8 Dragons at Krause Springs

The Dragons had their first camp out at Krause Springs in Spicewood, and the boys had a ton of fun. They earned their Forestry activity badge, cooked a wonderful camp stew from scratch, and did lots and lots of running around. The campgrounds there are wonderful, and it's nice and close to Austin.

Den 8 Dragons at Bowie vs. Austin High

The Dragons worked on their Sportsman activity badge while attending the Bowie vs. Austin High football game. Bowie ended up winning the game in thrilling fashion in overtime, though we were long in bed by that point. Go Bulldogs!

Den 8 Dragons at TPWD Expo

The Den 8 Dragon patrol spend a couple of hours at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo in Austin. It wasn't nearly enough time, but they had fun with bugs, helicopters, cooking, rope making and more.

Den 8 Dragon's Zoo trip

The Dragons invited members of Den 3 to join them at the Austin Zoo to work on Naturalist.

I Am

This is a video that Sean did with our church. During the service, there was a white curtain on stage, and as he steps through the back of the curtain in the video, he steps forward through the curtain onto the stage, he opens his arms and says, "Oh ... there you are."

It's gadget boy!

This has been an incredible week for gadgets. I've had a 47in. Philips LCD TV sitting in a box in my living room for a week, and this past Wednesday we finally got it installed. Along with the TV I put in an AppleTV and a Yamaha home theater.

It blows my mind.

Then, to top off the geekdom, I'm writing this entry entirely on an iPhone.

All of this (well, except for the phone) is part of a home remodel we have been doing. Cory and I decided that we didn't want to be the people who do all the cool things to their house just before they sell it, so we refinanced to pull out equity and put it back onto the house.

We have had the walls painted and then we followed doing the trim ourselves. Our house has been a wreck for weeks, but now we are starting to see the payoff.

Well, this wasn't easy and I don't think I'll be filing blogs via iPhone very often!

Fishing, camping a Beauscher State Park

Pack 61 had a fishing derby at Beauscher State Park on June, and Den 13 stayed over to camp. It was actually Brian's first time to camp without Mom & Dad because we had to work Sunday school the next morning. Of course, he did fine :-)

We Don't Have A Clue

Brian had a week long band camp at his friend Logan's house that culminated in a concert for their camp band, We Don't Have a Clue. Check out the video on the Boy Blog.

Sean's 9th Birthday - Harry Potter

OK, so I'm four months late on this one, but Sean's 9th birthday party was a Harry Potter party, so there was much spell casting, hat sorting and potion making.

Easy Dutch Oven Cobbler/Pie

I make this cobbler at Cub Scout campouts, and it goes fast. Of course it goes best with french vanilla ice cream, so I usually serve it the first night of a campout before the ice cream melts in the cooler.

For each 10-in dutch oven:

Ahead of time:
In a zip lock bag, put:
1 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla

In a small zip lock bag
* cinnamon & sugar mixture

Also bring:
1 stick butter (or squeeze Parkay)
1 package rolled pie dough (2 crusts). Found in the dairy aisle.
1 1/2 package frozen fruit (or about 4 cups?)

Assembly:
Get your coals going. A chimney worth of coals is more than enough for two cobblers. They don't have to be totally ashed to use (in fact, that's too late.) They just need to be well lit. So, get your fire started, mix your fruit into your sugar mixture, drink another beer (unless at a scout campout), then start assembling.

If you haven't already, put your fruit in your zip lock with the sugar mixture. It's good to get that mixed up and melding for 15 minutes or so. Unroll one of the crusts and center it at the bottom of the dutch oven. The edges should walk up the sides to make a bowl inside. Pour your fruit and sugar mixture in this bowl, but don't let it overflow. In fact leave a little room at the top. Unroll the other crust and lay it centered on top, and try to tuck in/squeeze together the crust edges to kind of seal them as best you can. It won't be perfect. Put some slits in the top crust for ventilation, cover with the cinnamon & sugar mixture, then drop cut 1/2 teaspoons of butter bits on top of the crust. (Or squeeze a bunch of Parkay in a nice criss-cross pattern.)

Cover the dutch oven. Put 6-7 coals on the bottom of the oven, and 14 or so on the top. It takes about 45 minutes to cook.

--
Christian McDonald

Sean's YMCA Soccer team

Sean played YMCA soccer with John Michael and Matt M.

USS Lexington

Pack 61 took 125 people to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. This was our 2nd tour of the aircraft carrier

Sean's Purple Belt test

Sean took his purple belt test on April 14 and was awarded it right away. Master Cha again gave him the stripe of Black Belt Excellence. He encouraged him to keep his friendship with Joseph and Dylan and to keep his nose out of trouble.

Spring Break trip

We did this fantastic trip to West Texas over Spring Break with four other families. We have tons of photos and lots to write about, but I haven't gotten to it.

Fortunately, one of our fellow trippers wrote about it in the Den 13 Blog.

Quick Cub Scout links

Just a couple quick links to some photo galleries:

• Pack 61 Blue and Gold banquet
• Den 13 helps Pack 96/796 with their Pinewood Derby

Regional Science Fair

Sean's "Solar Sunsational" science fair project was promoted to the Regional Science Fair, there he got a 1st place ribbon. A first place means he met the highest standard of excellence for his grade.

It's really cool to see all the science fair projects from all over Central Texas. 160+ schools compete in this event.

Pack 61 Pinewood Derby, 2007

Pack 61 held their 2007 Pinewood Derby at Southwest Hills Community Church. The derby is one of the best events of Cub Scouting ... the boys and the parents really get into it.

This year, Sean's Cheesecake car won an award for Most Original design. This is kind of funny because last year Brian won the same award for an ice cream sundae car.

Brian's car was a Mario Kart car with a neat Model Magic character he sculpted, but alas it was more than the required 5 ounces. We tried to put Mario on a diet, but he just couldn't lose enough weight by race time, so the car ran riderless. It was a good effort none-the-less.

The year also marked the debut of a new aluminum track and computer timer finish line. The track was very fast and quite nice to look at. Putting it together for the first time proved to be quite an experience.

We had one computer glitch that stalled us for a bit at the beginning, but we ended up racing more than 60 cars in four lanes in about an hour.

Here are scene photos from the derby, and then here are photos of all the winners.

Snow in Austin? Yes ... it happens

Yes, it does occasionally snow in Austin. It was forecast for starting Friday night, but the icy mess didn't actually start until Sunday night. The threat of icy roads forced dad to stay in a hotel downtown for two nights (though I could've made it home and back, I think.)

The kids were off school on Tuesday and Wednesday and have to make them up later in the year. Frankly, we'd rather have had the days off later.

Click here for more Blizzard of 2007 photos!