Twilight Camp for scouts

So we didn't really want to rest very long.  So Monday we spent with two different friends and had fun bowling and having lunch with friends.  Then on Tuesday Twilight camp started for the boys.  With Michael's group because of their age and adult had to stay with them for the full 8 hours.  It ran from noon - 8pm.  So awesome I was able to be with him, but I couldn't be with AJ much since they are in two different groups.  The theme of this years camp was Knights.  They did a wonderful job with it!!  They had king, queen, ladies and knights.

 

AJ checking in for his first day, he was very excited!!!

 

Michael meeting his helper.  He started talking his ear off right away.  :-)

 

All the kids had to wear these shirts to make sure who was in the camp and who wasn't since it was at a public park.  There were a lot of kids there!!!

 

Michael's first session was with the BB guns.  He has never fired one before and he had one bullseye and three others in the black!!  He did awesome!!!

 

For getting a bullseye they were awarded a troll's tooth!

 

The next one was archery.  They were checking out her bow and feel the string that felt like a crayon, waxy. 

 

He did ok the first day but by the end of the week he got a bullseye!  Both boys were doing really well by the end of the week!!  AJ shot bullseye also in both BB guns and archery.

 

They even had a sword in the stone for the boys to try and pull out.

 

I was able to catch up with AJ while he was making "bombs"  They are balloons filled with sand.  They were actually really cool!!

 

Michael and his dragon mask he made in art!

 

AJ hanging with his group getting ready to head to the next station.

 

We headed for the sports field where a knight met us. 

 

The queen came over with a really cool looking caterpillar!!

 

Lunch break - since Michael's group only had four people in it, we went to find AJ to have lunch with him.

 

There was a science station as well.  Here they were putting yeast, a little water and hydrogen peroxide in it and boom it over flows.  They did quite a few fun experiments during the week.  One was a rocket that they shot up in the air.

 

Michael was the last group to go, so they were able to demolish the castles and boy did the have so much fun throwing their "bombs" at it!

 

As a Bear scout you can earn a whittling badge which means you can bring a pocket knife to camping trips.  AJ was one of the boys that earned it while he was there.  I am so proud of him!  Here he is taking the oath about being safe with the knife.

 

They also did cooking each day.  The first day they did hamburger, fritos and cheese in the frito bag.  They kids thought it was great!!! 

 

During lunch AJ's group played a little ultimate Frisbee.  It was so nice that the leaders kept them busy through out the day.

 

During the closing ceremonies they always did fun songs and dances.  The boys started to get into it!

 

Here we did some foil cooking over the campfire and they made one of Michael's favorite foods.....

 

wonderful chicken drumsticks!!!

 

They brought in somebody from the militaries CSI type people and they let the boys mess around with fingerprints and seeing them come right before their eyes.

 

We had quite a bit extra time that day,  so of course where is Michael?!?  Up a tree.  There was benefits to having small groups, they were able to shoot a lot of BBs and arrows, but then some of the stations didn't have enough to keep them busy the whole time.  But that was ok because there were parks around.  :-)

 

Michael was the Tiger that was asked to come up and lead the pledge and scout promise.  He did a great job!

 

The last day Michael was very excited because they cooked bacon!!!!  He said it was yummy!!!

 

 

David was able to show up at the end of the last day to watch Michael earn his first rank as a Tiger, the bobcat rank!

 

Here he is getting his bobcat rank.  We are so proud of him and earning his first rank in four days!!!  It was great!!!

 

And they were also knighted by the king while they were up there!!!

 

Each group did a song and a skit.  Here  AJ is doing his song with his group.  He did such a great job!!!!!

 

Michael's group was so small we hooked up with the next age group up and did the skit with them!!  It was a really great four days, but it was long to go 8 hours each day, but the kids did great!!  They also earned so many belt loops and pine and completed lots of other achievements that they need to get down throughout this next year.

Willingen expoloring

On Saturday we had classes in the morning for the strong bonds retreat while the kids had fun with the other children that were there.  After lunch and a quick meeting for David we decided to head out and see what there was to see in the town.

 

We started off by walking to the nearby gondola and took a ride up the mountain. 

 

Aren't we all so cute?!?

 

It was a really beautiful view with cows along the way.  :-) 

 

At the top of the ride was a tower.  In the fall of 2002 the “Hochheide” tower was opened on top of the “Ettelsberg” mountain and is the town’s noticeably landmark ever since. The 59 m high tower at 875 m above sea level is the highest viewing platform of North West Germany.  I made the boys walk up the 241 stairs in the tower.  They weren't very happy about it though.  I let them ride down in the elevator though.  :-)

 

 

A view from the top of the tower.

 

They had a great playground up there on top.   The boys loved that part!!!

 

There was a huge party going on up there and I am not sure what it was about, but there were guys dressed as women, a nun, a big chicken.  Very interesting and couldn't understand any of it.

 

The boys climbing the little tower!  Always my monkeys!!

 

More fun at the park!

 

 

David and I at the top of the hill!

 

Then we hooked up with some friends and off we went walking to find a rodabon!

 

AJ was old enough at this one to ride by himself!!  He was soooo excited!!!!

 

This one was a little different way to get up the hill, they hook up the sled and it tows you up that way.

 

AJ coming down the hill, totally enjoying himself!

 

Michael and Mommy heading down and as you can see that Michael has the stick all the way down so no brakes at all!  So much fun!!!

 

My boys heading for their next ride up and down the rodabohn, all smiles!!!

 

They had a trampoline there too and of course they wanted to jump.  All of a sudden we saw storm clouds a coming.  So we quickly got they out of there and started walking back to the hotel.  Unfortunately it started raining pretty hard and we didn't have coats or anything.  Luckily we are made of sugar so we made it back to the hotel.

 

The hotel was a little different and they had a center that was completely open.  You can kind of see David and the boys on the third floor.  After that we headed for dinner and then we had some free passes to get into a fun water park, so we decided to head there after dinner.

 

 

AJ heading down the first slide with a little push from Michael. Gotta love that brotherly help!

 

Michael and I heading down the slide together.

 

This was a really wide slide and really fast!  The boys liked this one the best and stayed on it the longest.

 

Michael just finishing up the dark slide!  Loving it!

 

The boys liked making a chain.  They tried to have as many people in one chain until they all fell down the slide.  Lots of giggles and laughter!

 

David's turn to go down the slide!

 

One fun thing is that it was an indoor and outdoor pool!  But I have to tell you it was cold outdoor if you got out of the pool.

 

So in Germany they don't have lifegaurds at the top of the slides, they assume you will wait for the green light.  Well when you get four boys up there they don't always wait.  You can see the three right behind Michael, there were all smiles when they crashed into each other.

 

My boys - they are so awesome!!!!

 

This was one of the slides!

 

So after swimming we went down to a club that was a family club.  The bartender was so awesome he made AJ a drink for free, just gave it to him.  He was hilarious also!!

 

The boys wouldn't dance at first, but Michael heard his song and off he went!

 

AJ finally started dancing as well right before we called it a night.  It was really late and we had to be up in the morning.

 

The next day on our way home we saw the viaduct.  The railway line between Brilon Wald and Korbach was built at the time of the First World War between 1913 and 1917. It posed a colossal challenge at the time, with the construction of deep trenches and high dams resulting in enormous costs. A particular problem was the building of a number of railway bridges, most notably the large viaduct in Willingen, which today is the town's most famous landmark. It was rumored that every kilometer of the line between Brilon Wald and Korbach cost around 100,000 Goldmarks, an exorbitant sum in those days. The viaduct rests on ten columns, is 290 meters long and 31 meters tall at its highest point.  It was a fun weekend and we were all pretty tired after the full weekend.