Camping with the little Mormon Boy Scouts

Last night was the January Camp Out for our scout troop. Myself, Zachariah, Jared, Dave, and seven Boy Scouts headed to a local park for an evening of fun under the stars. Actually, it was an evening of freezing under the stars, but what is a little frostbite among friends?

After eating dinner (a delightful tin-foil dinner made by Kristin) and a rousing game of capture the flag, Jared and I ran to the store to pick up stuff to make Smores. The boys had neglected to plan for Smores. They are responsible for planning and bringing all the food. We decided to split the supplies into two separate bags and tell the boys we only got enough for the leaders. After eating a few smores each in front of the scouts, and driving home the point that they need to plan next time, I told them to go look in the passenger seat of the car and, Voila!, they found another bag of Smores supplies. We all ate ourselves silly, swapping music trivia, and enjoying the warmth of a campfire on a cold night.

I was pretty impressed with how well I did this time. On November's camp out, I hardly slept because my head was freezing cold. This time I wore multiple layers of clothing and had a knit cap and hooded sweat shirt. My head was toasty all night long. The only problem was my nose: it would get so cold I would wake up. I finally figured out that I could put my jacket over my face so I would stay warm. And I didn't suffocate, which is always an added bonus. I figure by the time I've learned all my cold weather camping do's and don'ts it will be spring. And I can forget everything I've learned over the summer.

In the morning we continued the tradition of making donuts over the camp fire. Eleven scouters downed 80 donuts in no time. I was impressed with this showing. That also meant that 80 donuts were hand shaped from Pilsbury Buttermilk Biscuits. Jared and I handled the cooking. He even bent a roasting skewer to make the perfect hook for flipping and pulling donuts out of the oil.

Must say, I missed Kristin, Clara, and my mom, but I'm enjoying this camping thing more and more.