This weekend was Keats first scout camp out! It was also his first time to retire a flag. This is a unique opportunity that not all can do. The opportunity is reserved for a few groups like military, Boy Scouts, and veterans. Keat asked that I take a pic of him during this as he sensed the importance of the moment.
They shared this quote by John Adams at this ceremony:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
It was a wet and chilly weekend. The snow levels dropped pretty close to the camp. Still, at all the right times the weather was perfect for the occasions. The boys in our group grilled hotdogs and big greasy hamburgers. We had a fat campfire to eat around. During dinner, the flag ceremonies and the honor trail the rain stopped, but as soon as we all got in our tents it started to dump again. Prayers were answered.
Then the night of pain came! The 1lb hotdog and fat greasy burger along with fudge brownies and hot chocolate was a force to be reckoned with. At 2am Keat woke up and said, "dad, I don't feel good." I grabbed the lid for the bin and said, "if you've got to throw up just make sure you throw up on this!" Well, worried Keat responded, "nooo! I can't be sick, we have all the activities tomorrow!" So in his denial he refused to throw up on the bin. Instead, he threw up chunks of burger and dog and brownie and hot chocolate juice all over me! So I told him to throw up outside. One foot away from the entrance of the tent is the corner where he threw up instead. So I urged him again to throw up outside! Well it was pouring rain and cold and muddy out there but Keat managed to crawl out where he just sat in the mud and threw up on himself.
Wish I could do this moment any justice with words. The tent was nasty. I was covered with Keats red chunky vomit. It was cold and dumping rain outside. Keat's whole face was covered in throw up. I don't know how that happened. Keat crawled back in the tent over the top of me with all of his mud and all of his throw up and then he just sat on our nice memory foam mattress.
Keat was so set on staying up there that his bright idea was to turn the mattress over and go back to sleep. I was paralyzed for a moment but as soon as reality set in, I knew we just had to roll all this filth up into a big wet ball and get out of there. Come 3am we had broken camp and were on the road.
Jenn just about had a heart attack when I walked in the room. I tried to calmly let her know it was me but she was convinced that I was a killer breaking into the house. For the next hour in the middle of the night, I cleaned up all this mess. I pitched the tent and scrubbed throw up there. I washed off sleeping bags and put them in the laundry. After showering I remembered a pair of socks in the trunk that were used to scrape off some of the chunks in the tent. So I'm glad I got those out of the car! That would have created a nasty stench in the car
We rallied the next morning and took Keat back up to all the merit badge activities. It's Sunday now and I'm feeling this whole weekend. Not wanting to repeat this but I am sure we will never forget Keat's first scout camp out!
