Wade reaches an important goal for the year!

Wade earned his Star in Boy Scouts this month--hurray!  This was a personal goal Wade set at the beginning of the year.  We're very happy for him.   I was also glad to know that after many months of being patrol leader for his troop, he's finally starting to enjoy it, haha!  It has not been easy, trying to "lead" nine or ten of his peers, but he has learned a lot from it.

Over the past few weeks his group finished the geocaching merit badge (many thanks to Spencer Hall on this one!), had a Court of Honor, and went on a stake camp-out for young men.  Keep up the good work, Wade!

Scouting fun

Our ward's youth group is pretty small right now, considering the sizes of other local wards.  However, this is not the case with Wade's age group!  We love that he's in a nice big group--they have lots of fun together!  We're very grateful for their leaders--Bryce Perry, David Foster, and Nathan Wright, particularly--for their patience and interest in Wade and the other boys!

Here was most of the group at a Court of Honor in August...

And here they are on Wednesday night this week trying their hand at geo-caching!

Swadey Boy's Scout Campout by Swadey Boy

      We get to the church, pack everything into the truck and van, and go. In about an hour, we get there. It rains for about another hour before we get the tents set up. Then we mess around for two hours and have burgers and fruit for dinner. Then all the troops meet together and discuss fire, knife, and axe safety. After that we all go to sleep.
       We wake up and eat some breakfast. Then we all drive to a place where we can rappel, but it starts raining and thundering, so we cancel rappeling and hike back to our campsite. When we get back we eat lunch and go home.  :)

(Mom's note:  Wade is a heavy sleeper at campouts.  He was the last one out of his tent at this campout and the Father and Sons campout, haha!)

Where's Waldo/Wade?

Geez, I've got a lot to catch up on from the past few weeks!  This post, however, will be all about Wade.  He has been a very, very busy boy!

Over the past month or so, Wade:

1.  Got a hair cut.  After the haircut he looked like he grew a foot taller--weird!  He misses his longer hair and curls, but he likes the cut, too.  (Oh, and his braces were taken off temporarily--he's done with the palate expander but has to lose about a gazillion baby teeth still, so they gave him a break.  The nice thing is that he's paid for!)

2.  Did a fantastic job with 3 other friends in an ensemble recital.  The left piano had a damper pedal stuck during their performance, so we couldn't hear those two boys as well--their piano teacher felt so bad about this that she asked the boys to perform at her ward's talent show next weekend.  Another chance to play a fun song!

3.  Completed the 6th Grade Common Core Accelerated Math library--this is a big deal because he's the first kid to do it this year!  Woo-hoo!  (We had yummy Bacon-Wrapped Little Caesar's pizza to celebrate!)

4.  Made the school's 5th grade basketball team!!!  We encouraged him to try out "for kicks," saying we'd be happy  no matter what and that he needed the exercise!  He went to 3 or 4 practices/try-outs, and then found out he made the team.  The really fun part is that 2 of our neighbors (and Wade's buddies) across the street made the team, too.  He practices twice a week and is learning SO MUCH with Coach Mark and Becky Anderson (some dear friends of ours--Mark is in our stake presidency and Becky does Battle of the Books with me).  The team's first game will be next Wednesday night!

5.  Went on his first for-realz Boy Scout campout.  The only proof I have of that is his packing list:  

Yep, I made him pack ALL of that, and he probably used a 1/4 of it, hahaha!  Jason was able to go and be one of the adult leaders--they both had a good time!

We are proud of Wade for trying new things and doing his best!  Way to go, buddy!