Silver Moccasin Scout Camp

Robbie missed the 4th of July picnic because he left early that morning to go to Silver Moccasin Leadership Camp. I love this photo, it totally reminds me Russell in Up. I asked him if he wanted to write a guest post about camp, but he didn't, so now he's stuck with that comparison.

Jonas went to the camp too, and Shawn drove the boys up to East Fork of the Bear, in the Uintahs, around six a.m. on Monday morning (July 4th). Here's a photo of them just before they left.

I sent the point and shoot with Robbie, and was pleasantly surprised to find a few pictures on the memory card when Robbie got back. Here he is with his patrol for the week. From left to right: Connor, Tristian, Robbie, Ethan, Bryant and Houston. Halani was taking the picture. Robbie really liked these guys, and says they had one of the best groups at the camp. They try to separate kids who know each other, so Jonas was in another patrol.

Here's a photo of the lean-to they built and slept in one night. The other nights they slept in tents, but had to change tents multiple times, because it rained every day, and flooded several times.

Rob and the kids and I went to pick them up on Saturday. Here they are hiking out of camp.

Here he is being awarded his Silver Moccasin bead by the head scoutmaster.

It was beautiful up there. I really love the colors in these photos.

Silver Moccasin is not a merit badge camp, it's a leadership camp. I asked Robbie to tell me five things he learned at camp. Here's what he came up with, after some coercion:

1) Neutral position for standing to put people at ease.

2) "Forming, storming, norming, performing" stages of group dynamics.

3) The importance of vision, goals and planning.

4) It's really hard to put up a tent blind-folded.

5) Sleeping in a garbage bag sucks. (Yeah, don't ask. He had a nice sleeping bag with him.)