We have had some fun and busy scouting adventures this Fall as Christopher finishes up life as a Cub Scout. Last week, the boys participated in the Anchorage Weed Smackdown -- tell me that isn't great marketing in an effort to energize citizens to help their city by pulling weeds on public lands? Call it a smackdown and the boys were all in. It was a muddy mess and they needed to take an inflatable raft over to the island area of Campbell Creek near Westchester Lagoon -- mud and inflatable boats had the boys excited too. Yes, you can tell by the photo above that a good time was had by all.

The boys had a weekend camping outing a few weekends ago at Trailriver Campground near Seward. Cate and I timed it just right -- we skipped the first night, which just happened to be full of rain, and joined them for the sunny second night/day. Greg and Christopher helped with research for a flag retiring ceremony for an old flag that was looking ragged. It was a flag Greg and I bought when we first moved into our first home and were proud to have a place to fly our flag. The ceremony consisted of tearing the flag into pieces (to render it no longer a real flag) before burning it on a virgin fire that had not been used to burn anything else. Once the fabric had turned to ashes, they buried the ashes. Watching all the little first year tiger scouts get their uniforms I couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten to be the oldest one there so quickly.