Arrow of Light

Tonight was the big night. It was the last Pack #1 Meeting that David will attend as a Cub Scout. Tonight he "crossed over" to Boy Scouts.

Since we are in a Community Pack, our Webelos Den (yes, that's me as the Den Leader) was a two year den. Unlike other Packs that move boys up to Boy Scouts automatically when they become 11 years old, we graduate the boys as a group at the end of the school year.
So David, along with his fellow Webelos (Garrett Martin, Scott Ferree, and Austin Owens) all crossed over together. Next week, when they start attending meetings with their new Troop, they will be put into one patrol together. This helps the boys transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

The first part of our pack meeting was standard fare, with all the boys in the pack receiving their monthly awards. Because we had our Pinewood Derby event last month, there was also some spiffy trophies to hand out to the lucky winners.

Then the Arrow of Light (aka cross over ceremony) began. The four prospective Boy Scouts, were called up to the front and made to sit on a bear-skin rug. Nice touch. They were surrounded by animal skins, antlers, and indoor campfire. All this created a mood of anticipation for the cubs.

Then the Order of the Arrow (the honor society of Boy Scouts) came into the room, walking slowly in time with the beat of a drum. All the boys were dressed in Indian Regallia. The chief in the lead, was none other than Joshua (aka David's big brother). He's the one in the red headress.

The OA put on a great show. Talked about the journey the boys had made through the ranks of Cub Scouts. Wolf, Bear, and then Webelos. As they told their tale, they laid out stones across an imaginary river, and each boy was then asked to walk across the stones to re-enact their years in Cub Scouts.

Finally, the boys were ready to "cross over" to the other side (aka Boy Scouts). To which, weach boy and his parents walked across a wooden bridge. The parents were included, because they expect the parents to be as committed to Boy Scouts as they were to Cub Scouts. (I don't have any photos of this part because I was one of the parents!)

The boys were then presented with a ceremonial arrow. I must say that these arrows are way cool. They were hand-made by a man who lives in Ogden. He carves the wood himself, paints them, and then attaches a real arrow-head.

After the boys received their arrows, certificates, and their Arrow of Light patch (one of the only patches they are able to keep on their shirt as they move on to Boy Scouts) there were a few more treats in store.

Three of the boys were awarded with the BSA Super Acheiver Award, a special certificate given to Webelos that earn ALL 20 Activity Pins. Those awarded were: David, Garrett, & Scott.

Then, John Matson, our Cubmaster, presented each boy with a set of feathers to be hung on their arrows. This was a personal gift he made for the boys. Each feather in the set is symbolic: blue & yellow (Cub Scout colors), red & white (courage & truth in the Boy Scout oath), eagle feather (to encourage the boys become an Eagle Scout one day), and a piece of deer antler with the Arrow of Light painted on it.

Finally, Jim Johnston, Pack 1 Chartered Representative and OA Leader, presented the boys with beaded chokers he had personally made. Each choker was unique and the boys got to choose the one they wanted. Once the boys made their selection, an OA team member helped them put it on. (Lucky for David... that Joshua was his OA partner.)

Once the boys made their selection, an OA team member helped them put it on. (Lucky for David... that Joshua was his OA partner.)

The final step in the process was for the boys to cross over the bridge to the waiting members of Troop 1. On hand was Tom Hogan (Scoutmaster), Stu Parkinson (Assistant Scoutmaster), Andy Finlayson (Senior Patrol Leader), and Ryan Martin (First Class Scout & Webelos Den Chief). After shaking hands with the new scouts, they helped them take off the Webelos tarten neckerchief and put on the new Troop 1 neckerchief.


It's official now. These boys are now Boy Scouts! Here's a nice shot of all four boys posing with the cubmaster.

After the ceremony... we all celebrated with a Pack Pizza Party. Once Joshua was out of his OA costume and into regular street clothes, he wolfed down almost a whole pizza by himself. Looks like doing Native American Ceremonies can work up an appetite.

LauraLee Ferree (my assistant Den Leader & Scott's mom) honored me at the close of the meeting by presenting me with a big bouquet of flowers. She also passed along a Thank You card from the boys in my den. This was a nice surprize.

All in all, it was a great night. David and the other boys were just thrilled with the ceremony. They are all very excited and happy that they are finally Boy Scouts.

As for me, I have a few more months of "active duty". I have three boys in my den that make up my Junior Webelos (first year in the den). By the end of the summer, two of them may be ready to move up to Boy Scouts. And, in September the Bear Leaders will become the new Webelos Leaders for our pack.

Rocket Day

We were all looking forward to today. Our Youth Group, from synagogue, was getting together to experience a test launch of missile. ATK (a company in UT, that makes rockets for NASA) was scheduled to have a Peace Keeper Static Test. Which essentially means you get to go hear a big BOOM.

We arrived early and got set up to wait for the firing at 1:00 pm. Unfortunately, after a few minutes an announcement came on that there would be a delay until 2:00 pm. An hour wait, we figure we could all handle. Then after a few minutes, there was another announcement delaying the launch until 4:00 pm. Bummer. None of us wanted to hang around that long. Plus we had other "Rocket Day" events to attend.

So we packed back into our vehicles and drove up the road to the ATK Rocket Garden. Pretty cool. Lots of neat rockets & missiles for the kids to look at.

Of course, being kids they couldn't just "look". Here's David ... sitting on a rocket.

Here's some of the other kids playing in on the missile pieces. They kind of look like astronaut hamsters don't they?

Afterwards, the group headed up to Logan for some Aggies Ice Cream. "Aggies" is an incredibly popular ice cream made and served at USU.

Then we went onto the USU Space Dynamics Lab for a personal tour.

I think that they would have cancelled our tour if we weren't family/friends of Dr. David Geller, our synagogue's beloved "rocket scientist" and father of three of the astronaut hamsters in our group. Apparently, NASA was on-site finalizing their purchase of 40 million dollar telescope. So the kids and parents were on their best behavior.

Lucky for us, we actually got to take a peek at the baby before the sale was finalized. The telescope was a state of the art, far infra-red telesccope, that will be launched into space in November. Apparently, the WISE Telescope is so powerful that if you looked through it in India you could read the name off of someone's employee badge in California.

Flowers are a blooming

So while the boys were busy digging my lavender trench, I was busy surveying my flower garden. After pulling out some weeds (well actually, tons), I discovered that I've got a whole bunch of blooming going on.

The daffodils are just bursting with color. Lovely! And, much to my delight, I was able to "tiptoe through the tulips". Yes, it is time for me to stop bad-mouthing the local deer. Instead of eating my tulips, it looks like all they did was eat the outer leaves. Which means that within the next few days... I will have tulips blooming in my own front yard. Hurray!



I also noticed that there are plants starting to bloom that I don't even recall planting. David is convinced that they are something we tried to grow from seed in our indoor grow boxes last year.

He could be right. So that is why this blog may come in handy afterall. Now I can go back through old posts and see if I can figure out what these mystery plants are. I hope they are not just weeds.

Mystery Plant #1

Mystery Plant #2

Lavender comes to my garden!

So on Monday, the doorbell rings and my friend Sally is standing at the front door. She tells me that she comes "bearing garlic and lavendar". I go outside and see that she has a car full of lavendar plants to give away. Her and Mike (hubby & Devon's co-worker) have been busy clearing out a neighbor's garden and are giving away all the unwanted plants.

They ask me how many of the lavendar plants I would like. Hmm? "How about all of them", I answer. After a quick consult, Sally and Mike instruct me to plant the lavendar in the sunniest spot I have. They also pass along a huge bag of garlic plants. Which will please Devon to no end.

Yesterday, I had the boys out digging a trench in front of our garage. This is the sunniest area we've got, plus if the plants take, the purples/blues of the lavendar will look awesome against my beige siding.

While the boys were digging... we could all smell the lavendar. It is absolutely gorgeous. I am so excited that Sally & Mike thought to drop by with these awesome gifts. Lucky lucky me!

Bibliophile Baby

This is our most lazy dog, who can nap and read all at the same time. While it is true that Coco loves books almost as much as I do, she really just thinks they make "firm pillows".

April Showers!

David was sooooo looking forward to today. This morning was to be the "warm-up activity" to kick off next week's official baseball season. The Aggies (baseball team from USU) were sponsoring a "Pitching Clinic" for all kids in Providence.

For the first time, David is going to be playing in a baseball league and he is so excited! So yesterday, David and I went out and got him new sneakers, baseball pants, etc., so he would be ready.

We woke up this morning to an overcast sky. Devon and David still headed out to the park, with hopes that it would clear up. Soon it started to rain! Then, the rain turned to snow!

Despite all of this, a cold and wet boy arrived home smiling. I guess the stoic Aggies decided they couldn't let down the 30 plus kids that showed up this morning, so they carried on with the pitching clinic. The kids got at least thirty minutes of coaching in. After that, the snow was coming down so heavy they could see the ball anymore.

It's noon and still snowing!

Next Saturday (May 2nd) will be the official start of the little league baseball season. The kids will all receive their shirts, meet their teams, and have their photographs taken. I guess we should expect a record heat wave for that event!

Plan B - A Patio for Mama

Spring is in the air. The warm weather is calling us to come sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. Now that our dogs are on the neighborhood hit list "for the nosiest dogs in Providence", we have to supervise our pooches to keep all that barking in tow.

So this week, we dusted off the patio furniture and began to think about how he have no patio to put them on. With the rotten economy, a summer filled with expenses (trips to England, Boy Scout camp, and Joshua's upcoming Bar Mitzvah), we are all in agreement that our plan for a deck will not be happening this year. Or even next.

Enter "Plan B". I got the idea for a small patio that might tide us over for a few years. I thought that we might be able to put in red brick patio using stones like we used to support our outdoor fire place. I talked to Devon about this idea on Sunday and he told me to go ahead and figure out what the dimensions of the "small patio" would suit my needs. The idea was to see if we could keep it to a minimum of say about 8 x 8 feet.


Yesterday, the boys and I spent the afternoon, measuring out an 8 x 8 section in the yard. Whatever size we decide upon needs to be able to at least support a table and four chairs. If we could also add in an area for the fireplace... that would be ideal.


After marking the area, we then tried our "mock patio" in several different areas of the yard. Finally after trying out 3 separate places, we decided on the area that is closest to the house, so that we don't have to walk through the grass to get to it, and, so we have as much privacy from our neighbours. (We're already annoying people with our barking dogs, so we'd don't want to add our noisy fireside conversations to the list.)


When Devon came home from work, he agreed that we had chosen the best location in the yard. In addition, he thought the patio should be doubled in size (8 x16) to allow enough space for our outdoor fireplace.

Our only question now, is whether we build the patio using the red bricks (as originally planned), or should we just put in a small deck using wood/trex. Devon and I are both thinking that "Plan B" might be all we really need. Plus, this way we don't have to deal with ripping out our kitchen window and putting in a new door.



We still want to keep our costs down, so expense is still a factor to be considered. However, we also would like to complete the job with as little amount of work as possible. Not having ever built a patio before, we are not sure how much work will be invovled. We are assuming we might have to dig down several inches and pour a layer of gravel and then sand.

Tulip Festival

Today we had a wonderful time meeting up with Janet & Jack at the Utah Tulip Festival. Imagine if you will, 250 thousand tulips in a 55-acre garden paradise. It truly was spectacular!

We spent hours walking around the garden together. It was such a wonderful way to visit with family.

Janet & Jack are on vacation in Utah this week. They are staying at a timeshare in southern Utah (in Brian Head) and enjoying a week of hiking and relaxation.

Since we live in northern UT, Janet and I tried to think of a place that was "half-way" that we could meet for a day trip. When I heard about the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point (just south of Salt Lake City), we thought it would be perfect. It truly was.

We met up at about 11:30 for lunch, which was awesome. I was a little skeptical about eating at the Thanksgiving Point Deli (usually restaurants at a complex like this are over-priced and bland). However, we discovered that the food was quite reasonable and much of it was homemade. They bake all their breads and desserts (which looked incredible) right on the premises.

After lunch, which everyone loved, we drove up to the gardens. I think we walked for over three hours. We had just missed the official tour, so Janet substituted as our personal tourguide. If she ever decides to leave the insurance industry, a promising career in travel awaits her!

The tulips were spectacular. They were arranged in so many differents groupings, with colors that I never thought would work together. Of course, what do I know? Afterall, I am only a newbie gardener in Providence, UT.

The boys enjoyed the garden, despite the fact that they are... well, boys. David spent some time chatting with Jack and learned a little about 35 mm photography. Joshua spent all his time playing with his puzzle ball. (He loves that silly thing.) Janet and I did what two sisters normally do... talk, talk, and talk.


While strolling through the gardens a family of geese crossed our path. We all squealed with delight when we saw the "babies" in tow. Which set off a conversation of the correct name for baby geese: chicks, goslings, etc. My vote is for "goslings".

Our only complaint with the gardens was that all the water fountains were turned off. I don't know if this is because we've just moved out of winter, or they are not on during the week, or who knows what? Since it gotvery hot that day (70s) it really would have been nice to have a way to refill our water bottles, other than spending $2 for vending machine water!

After we'd seen everything, we headed back to the deli for some ice cream. We got in about 30 more minutes of visiting and then we all hugged goodbye.

It was a wonderful day all around! We are so glad that Janet & Jack were able to fit us into their vacation.

California Adventure

For all kids, no trip to California is complete without at least one trip to a Disney Park. So all the boys were thrilled when we arrived at Disney's California Adventure Park.

While we have visited Disneyland a few times before, this was our first to this theme park. The boys were not disappointed. There were rides galore and hours of fun in store.

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa!!!

The all time favorite ride was the "California Screamer". A wild ride on roller coaster that curves to the left, to the right, and then upside down. I decided to join the boys on this one and was doing fine until the first downhill plunge. As my stomach met my nose... I wondered what I had been thinking to have dared this one? I spent the rest of the ride with both eyes clenched shut!

On "Grizzly Bear Run", a water rafting ride they warned us that we "might" get wet. We got totally soaked and it took hours before we all dried off. It was probably not a good idea to make that our first attraction.

Grandma & Ehman trying to decide where to go next.

The "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" was fun for the boys... but I think they all found it a little nauseating. Joshua was more annoyed with all the screaming girls than anything else.

David & Edan enjoyed the "Maliboomer", a ride that skyrockets you 200 feet into the air in 2 seconds. When the ride was over, Edan bopped off happy as a clam. David looked like he was about to throw up.

"Soarin' Over California" was Carolynn and my favorite ride. It was just awesome to go on a virtual tour of the entire state of California. Using a 80 foot screen, we were whisked away to San Francisco, Yosemite, Bear Mountain, Malibu, etc. Thanks to this ride, I got one last look at the ocean (even if it was just a virtual view). We even flew over Camarillo, so we all looked for Grandma's house.

Edan & Joshua

David

Our longest wait was for the "Toy Story Mania" ride, where we got to do some virtual target shooting at 3D targets. Despite sounding kind of lame, we all loved it! What we didn't love was the lady ahead of us, who for some odd reason picked up about 20 pairs of 3D glasses. It was then that we witnessed 20 of her friends/family get in line ahead of us. Grrrr.

By 7:00 pm, we headed out of the park looking for a sit down restaurant. Surprizingly, the boys felt they'd seen enough and we all had tired feet.

Edan looked bright and cheerful all day.

Ehman & David. Ready to board the tram & head back to the car.

While Carolynn & I much prefer Disneyland, the boys all said that they liked California Adventure better. Go figure. The general consensus of the group is when we next visit California, we'd like to go to Six Flags. Especially since the boys seem to like the roller coaster best.

Today was a great day and a great end to our own "California Adventure". It was so fun to finally be able to visit this park.