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Our November campout began just the way you want them to – eventless. It was 6:00 and dark and the boys were ready to start the weekend of camping. We arrived at Camp Lazarus and got all of our gear loaded into our cabins. It was at that point that we realized that the man who changed us from tents to cabins was a GENIUS! I looked at the weather and saw that we would not get north of 30 degrees until noon the next day. We would not got above 35 until we got back to Reynoldsburg. He was a GENIUS!

Friday night some folks played cards, some folks made a fire, some went exploring in the camp, and all had a good time. I stood out with the fire most of the night as boys came and went. I got a good seat for the LARPers that were camping next door. They were up much later than we were 🙂

We had cracker barrel around 9:30. There was cookies, chips, and hot chocolate. I recommend never standing between hungry teenage boys and cookies. Just sayin. I am not usually a hot chocolate drinker, but decided to give it a go. It was instant mixed with water, and it was quite tasty. It is also is quite nice to get warm drinks in your tummy when it is freezing out.

Saturday morning, the boys were up at the crack of dawn. Of course, in November that means like 10:30 🙂 They did get up quite early, especially considering most were up past 11:30 the night before. I started hearing giggling around 6:45 and there was full on conversations before 7:00.

After a hearty breakfast cooked by one of the patrols, the final plans for the days activities took shape. The boys had planned for several weeks to play a campwide version of capture the flag. They set out and I stood sentry at the camp. I watched the fire and listened for the sounds of excited game play. About an hour later, we got a visit from some Webelos considering joining our troop. I talked with them and their dads about this weekends camp and about Lazarus in general. They decided to take a self guided tour of the camp and I let them know that our boys were expecting them and if they saw a team and wanted to join to go ahead.

As the Webelos returned, the rest of the troop returned, and lunch was started. We had grilled pizza sandwiches (like grilled cheese, but with pizza innards). To work off a little bit of lunch many of the boys cut firewood for the rest of the day. With the dayglo safety tape the boys used to mark off their axe yard, it was easy to keep the webelos at a safe distance. After lunch the webelos joined our boys for the game, and they went back out to play more capture the flag. I talked with the dads around the fire, and once again I was reminded how FANTASTIC it was to have cabins.

That evening we had chili and grilled cheese sandwiches. Tasty and just the thing to warm up cold tummies. The webelos left and we invited them to come back anytime they wanted to visit us again. They were a fun couple of boys.

We had a blazing fire, and smores and games. There were board games, card games, and just hanging out and talking. I roamed around and heard lots of laughs and friendly conversations.

When I asked the boys on the way home about what was best about hte campout I heard multiple answers – capture the flag, playing games in the cabins, food (smores, hot coco, chili), and of course watching the fire. This was another great campout with your great kids. We had some webelos over, and I told all the boys that I am going to be asking them more and more to live and behave according to the 12 points of the scout law.

Your kids rock,
John Crider – Assistant Scoutmaster