Scouts, scouts and more scouts

On Tuesday January 6th, Michael's den headed to the weather station.  AJ thought it was awesome when he went with his den so he decided to join us instead of helping with karate, which was totally fine with me!!

This is their mascot for their squadron - one of their soldiers was a wood worker and made this, pretty impressive!!!

They started out learning about the different types of weather, how it is formed and many other interesting facts.  Both Michael and AJ were very engaged.

Then he took us to where they watch the weather and report on it.  The TV in front of them is showing the different winds around Europe and Africa.

It is awesome how they can track so much from what altitude the ice and rain starts and stops so it is safe to fly, to what type and where the wind is bringing in weather fronts.

I love the color scheme on the right of the screen!  I think it was showing the different temperatures and if it was going to snow.

AJ was great the whole time and very engaged in all that was said.  It was a very interesting tour and both boys really enjoyed it!!!

The next week on January 13th, we headed to AFN - Armed Forces Network.   This time it was for the Tigers and the Bears.  Thankfully Micheal's den leader was nice enough to let the Bears tag along and take care of one of their requirements.  This soldier was great with the kids and told them all about the outside of the TV studio.

I love how protective AJ can be of his brother.  He grabbed him and held onto him while they were listening.

Next they went into the TV studio where the scouts didn't realize it, but they were being recorded the whole time.  Michael was extremely engaged as well during this tour.  It was a very small studio, but they do record TV broadcasts here.

Here is where they watch over all their electronic equipment.  Out the door in the back is where they have all of their broken computers where the soldier on the left fixes all of it.

This is studio A, where he does his live broadcasts.  Michael was up front and listening to what all the buttons and levels do.

We were told that they are given an hour time slot of music, ads, and whatever else they are supposed to play.  They really don't have much room to make changes because it is down to the second.  Their play list comes from a company in the states that rates what songs people want to hear and that is how the songs are picked.

Here he is actually letting the boys push the buttons.  I am not sure he knew what he was getting into!!  :-)

AJ's turn, I was very proud of the Bears, they waited until all the Tigers had a turn before they started pushing buttons.

Next they were taken into the other studio where a live broadcast was going on.  Again he was very brave.  We had to wait until music was playing, but I think the boys were very excited to be in there!!!

Michael pretending to be a radio DJ - interviewing.  They both really, really loved going to AFN.  It was different than when we went with AJ's Tiger den because this was a brand new building and it was over on Vogelweh.  It was a good time had by all and they both checked off another requirement for their rank!