She is growing up too fast!

Annelise is seriously grown up! 16 years old...a junior in high school. She will be leaving all to soon!

It's Fall!

All the kids are now in school and it was time for John Paul and I to go "Off Track". I haven't decided what is more difficult. Having two boys off track that make messes and noise or one boy off track who wants to do something fun everyday...with me. I know, I am such a great Mom!
One of our adventures this "Off Track" was to go Apple Picking! John Paul thought it was great fun to put on the special apple picking apron. The apples were delicious and it was free labor for me.

Day 10-11 Jamboree

parents,sorry about yesterdays e-mail the at&t wifi towers went down yesterday right in the middle of my e-mail and it just came back up so I am going to try and send you some more photos and give you a little update while it is working, but rest assured if I don't send out an e-mail everything is just fine just the fact that the wifi is down. alot of you have been asking what the George Albert Smith award is, so I will tell you it is a special award that the LDS church has created just for the boys and leaders here at the Jamboree, alot of the kids have also earned it, but I am told there is a limited supply of the awards. and they may run out of the awards today or tommorow. alot of the boys are getting into patch trading and things. but it is very hot and it takes all your energy out of you real quick, if you don't stay really hydrated. for the most part most everyone is healthy other than a few of us with blisters on our feet, and some heat rash, we are encouraging the boys to take several showers each day if needed. things are going great, Your boys are the best ever, I had one commisioner from the Western Region come up to me today and mention to me that he ran into some of my boys and they were some of the most polite boys he has run into here at the jamboree. Your Boys are the Greatest!!!! Cal

Day 9-Jamboree

Parents,Things are going great, The boys experienced the first real day of the Jamboree experience with all the action centers, merit badge midway and everything. the boys are having a blast and everyone is healthy and strong. it is hot and humid but today was kind of overcast and we even got just a bit of rain during the afternoon. so it has not been that bad, we also have an arena show scheduled for the morning which we need to get up a little bit earlier for. some of you have been asking for the address to mail packages to, I don't have access to that info right now, but I did send out an e-mail about two or three weeks ago with all the infomation about how to mail a package to us here at Fort AP Hill. it must be sent thru the US Postal service, (no UPS or FEDEX). we get our mail every day here, and there have been a few packages come to boys in our troop already. AT&T spent 5 million dollars puting in cell phone and wifi towers here for the jamboree, but you are lucky to even be getting this e-mail because it has been down most of the day because there are so many people here at the jamboree trying to do all their e-mail and stuff, that I think they made it crash. hopefully I can continue to keep sending out daily e-mails but if I don't it's because the internet is down here.Your Kids are the greatest!!!!Cal

Day 8-Boy Scout Jamboree!!

Parents,
We are here!!!! And I have free WiFi right in my campsite, this is better internet service than I paid $13 a day for at the Hilton for the past 4 days. We have arrived and we have the best campsite in the whole jamboree I am sure, we have a big shade tree right in the middle of our camp, and we are linedting up stuff but we are now taking that to brag but it was a real compliment coming from some one who is in charge of all the troops in the whole western region which is about 6 states. So our troop is really pumped up after he announced that to all the boys on the bus as we were being checked in. We are really envious of all the other troops because of our campsite and they are kind of mad at me, but I am sure they will get over it. Free wifi, a shady campsite, great kids, what more can I ask for.....
your kids are the greatest!!!!!
Cal

Day 7-Washington DC

Parents,
Another great day, our church service with the council was excellent, we had Congressman Sessions from Texas as well as Elder Charles Dahlquist as the key speakers. After that we went and visited the JFK memorial and then we found a secluded private place in Arlington and we secured some sacrament cups and bread here locally to be able to conduct our own troop sacrament meeting so all of us had the opportunity to partake of the sacrament, the 4 youth leaders blessed and passed the sacrament to the troop. The four of us adults leaders all gave a short message and I passed out the letters to all the boys that all of you wrote, at the conclusion of the sacrament meeting I had them all go off in private and open their letters and take a minute to think about their relationship with God, and possibly say a prayer in their hearts. This was a very emotional for alot of us. This will be a sacrament meeting that I think everyone will remember for the rest of their lives.

After church we went to visit a couple more monuments, then we went to the Air & Space museum for the rest of the day. The 3D Imax movie was way cool, and it was the best $300 plus dollars I have ever spent to provide the troop with a 45 min nap. Just kidding but I have to admit there were a lot of heads bobbing around, there are also some rumors that some of the boys are starting up saying that I was snoring during the Imax movie, but I am sure they are just rumors.

Our special secret Dinner that the council provided tonight was exceptional! Our bus driver was the only one that knew where we were going, so it stayed a real secret, and I have to say the Council hit a home run with this one. We ended up at a place in Baltimore called "Medieval Times" it is a Dinner show with horses and people doing Jousting and stuff while you eat your food with your hands. It is just like the place in Vegas at the Excaliber. All the boys loved it and it was very entertaining I give it a A++++.

The Yo-YO thing is getting bigger qnd bigger and all the other troops are very jealous of us. And we have started a new trend for the whole council. At the dinner place tonight there was a toy store, but we were one of the first troops to arrive and Shawn when in there and purchased every YO YO they had so none of the other troops could get them before we get to the Jamboree. So now every one in our troop has one, even all the adults, matter of fact I love to pull out my YO YO in front of the Council people just to annoy them and let them know that troop 607 rocks, and that they have the most cool scouts and adult leaders. Today we also presented our bus driver with his own Yo Yo so he to can be a member of the Troop 607 Yo Yo team. All the other troops keep asking us were we got our Yo Yo's and if we have any more for sale, but I'm sure you know the answer that we give them.

Good news and bad news, I finally figured out how to make the photos smaller so I should be able to send them easier, but after this e-mail I am not sure how I am going to get a WiFi signal at the jamboree, they are supposed to have WiFi available for the scoutmasters, but until I get there and check it out I can't promise any more e-mails so if you don't get one while we are at the jamboree it is because I can't get internet access at fort AP hill and I don't have one of those fancy wireless internet cards on my computer that work anywhere. I am kind of old fashioned I guess when it comes to that kind of stuff. But I will check it out once we get camp set up and and settled in which could be a day or two.

We are going to depart from the hotel in the morning and make another shopping stop at Target to allow the boys to pick up any last minute things that they need before checking into Fort AP Hill.

The troop is really starting to Jell and function as a real troop and us four adults could not be more pleased with how things are going. Everyone is healthy and strong, and we are constantly reminding them to drink, drink, and then drink some more.
Your Kids are the greatest!!!!!

Cal

Day 6-Washington DC

Parents,
Another great day, we started off by turning the kids loose in the natural history museum and the American history museum. They all did real well with staying in small groups and coming back to our meeting place on time. Then we drove to Baltimore for the baseball game, I think most of the kids had a good time, we were only able to stay for 5 innings because of the time limit that we need to give our driver each day and the amount of hours that we need to make sure he is off duty each night.

Tomorrow we have church service in Arlington and then we are going to go to the Air and space museum until the time we have to leave to attend our special secret dinner tomorrow night. There are tons of scouts here from all over the country and I feel sorry for all the other people here in DC with their families because the lines are so long for everything with all the scouts running around on the National Mall. So while the kids were in the other two museums today us 4 adult leaders walked over to the air and space Museum in blistering heat and purchased IMax tickets for the whole troop for tomorrow afternoon for the new Imax movie "Hubble 3D" which was highly recommended by the people here because it is not only Imax but it is also in 3D with the 3D glasses and everything, I am actually kind of excited myself to see this one.

The health of the troop is very good, no illness or sickness going around. We got Cowboy Charlie some Powder and ointment so he is walking much better today.

I did not want to mention this earlier, but we had a few kids leave some of their clothes in some of the previous hotels, I tell them that I am not their mother and I am not going to clean up after them, but I have been contacting the hotels and talking to the housekeeping dept. in each hotel. and having them FedEX the clothes to me and I think we have all the clothes back, or at least all the ones that I know about. the job of a Jamboree Scoutmaster is never boring, it is an adventure and you never know what kind of adventure awaits you each day when you wake up after a minimal amount of sleep.

Don't get me wrong I would not trade this experience for anything, because I love adventure and being able to turn negatives into positives, that's my job....

I'll say it again, Your Kids are the greatest!!!!
Cal