Because I don't have enough to do ...

Since I rarely update this family blog, nor my blog on online news, I figured why not start another blog that I never update!?

So, here is Thorns and Roses, a blog on being Scoutmaster for Troop 448. I'm using Tumblr, a kind of micro-blogging site that is easy to post to from my iPhone. Hopefully "easy" means "frequent."

I'm starting with a 100 Days of Scouting, starting from the day after Scout Sunday. We'll see how long that lasts.

Camp Cris Dobbins in Colorado

From Colorado

I hope to update this post soon with more detail, but here are photos from our Boy Scout summer camp trip to Cris Dobbins near Colorado Springs.

And here is video of Brian riding, and wiping out, on a mountain board.

Looking forward to summer

The soccer season is closing, the boys are in the midst of TAKS tests, and we are getting warm spells in between the divine spring weather of Austin, which all means the school year is winding down and we are getting excited about summer.

We haven't taken a summer traveling vacation in a while, so we are pumped that we are combining the boys Boy Scout summer camp in Colorado with a pre-trip to see Cory's western flank of the family in Utah.

We will all drive together to Escalante and Salt Lake City, leaving June 13 or so. We are not sure our itinerary traveling or when we get there, but we know we'll leave Cory somewhere in Utah on the 20th when the boys and I head to Camp Cris Dobbins at the Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch near Colorado Springs. Cory will end up flying straight home for some quiet time while Sean, Brian and I frolic in the Rockies.

Our outings lately have been centered around Scouts:

District Adventure Weekend:



Camping 101 was Sean's first campout as a Troop 448 Boy Scout, but it was District Adventure weekend where he really showed his mettle. His Storm Patrol did well in the patrol games and he also was a part of the Troop team that took third place in the troop games competition. Dad also won the Dutch oven cookoff with two types of lasagna: meat and vegetarian. Brian was trying his best to juggle soccer and scouts, trying to make two games that were both eventually canceled over wet weather and fields.

Well, that catches us up. ... we'll update in a couple of weeks after the soccer season ends and Sean competes in the UIL Music Memory and Math Pentathalon events.

So much for frequent updates

My New Year's resolution didn't take long to break. I promised to update blogs more, and this family blog has sat idle since.

That doesn't mean we are not busy. We've been updating photos fairly regularly (OK, more in spurts) but some momentous occasions have been chronicled.

Here are some highlights, though click here for the full stream.

Sean's graduation from Cub Scouts



Sean's first Black Belt



And our Spring Break trip to Park Chalk Bluff



On the bright side, I have written a couple of entries for Technical Bent, though nothing to write home about :-(.

More updates for 2009?

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to update both this blog and Technical Bent more often in 2009. I probably won't, but hey ... I should try, right?

We've had a good holiday so far. I was able to take off much of the same time as the boys, so we spent lots of time together at the house, preparing for the holidays, working on school projects and general fun.

For Christmas, the boys got bikes from Santa and a .22 rifle from Dad. Lots of books, Legos and general fun stuff from everyone and we are thankful to have such good and generous friends and family even during this troubled year. We fell like we always get more than we give, and it humbles us.

Brian and I spent later days of vacation at Winter Camp at Lost Pines Scout Reservation in Bastrop. Typical Texas weather, we started out in the 80s, but it dropped to 24.6 degrees before we were done. We earned the "Polar Bear" badge, given for camping in freezing weather. Twice.

Brian worked on four merit badges -- Emergency Preparedness, Personal Fitness, Camping and Citizenship in the Community -- all Eagle-required badges. He is First Class now and lacks only the leadership position to make Star rank. He aims to make Eagle by the time he gets his driver's license. Oh Gawd ... he's that close to driving? Brian's soccer team is in hiatus for a couple of weeks, but will resume practice for cup play before January closes.

Sean will finish up Arrow of Light requirements this week and should make Super Webelo, earning all 20 activity badges. He's not as excited to cross over into Boy Scouts, but I think he'll enjoy it once he gives it a try. He is also nearing testing for his first black belt in Tae Kwon Do. His goal has been to earn that before finishing elementary school, and I'm sure he will.

Want to order Scout Popcorn?

If you missed our personal plea to buy excellent Scout Popcorn, then here is your chance to order online.

Go to this site:


http://www.orderpopcorn.com/Store/Catalog/Default.aspx

and use this code for Sean:

TEV70HM

Sean and Pack 61 thank you.

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.

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 :-)

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

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.