Fun weekend

Very busy weekend here ...

Thursday night was Ben's season-end pizza party for Rock Climbing. One of his teammates graciously opened up his home for the team. They have an outdoor bouldering wall, and a zip line in their backyard, and all the kids had a great time playing together. We had pizza, and desserts, and they showed videos of the kids climing. They all work so hard, and they are all really nice kids. I'm so glad Ben belongs to such a wonderful team. His coach, Jason, was able to come and everyone gets so excited seeing his recovery.
Jason has been a very special coach; he has a terrific rapport with the kids, able to both challenge and comfort them. He's been especially good with Ben, helping him to manage his determination to climb to the top of the wall with his disappointment when he can't. About a month ago, Jason's heart tore open around his aortic valve. 80% of people don't survive this, but he survived 5 days before seeking treatment. He was immediately rushed into an 11 hour open heart surgery where two holes in his heart were patched. He's only 28, and in terrific shape, so this appears to be a congenital problem. Anyway, he's a young Christian man, a college graduate working two jobs, with no insurance. Friday night was a fund raiser at the rock climbing wall at the gym for him, and we're so glad he was able to attend that, too! Ben and Alek both had a great time climbing.
The team is planning an outdoor climb at Pilot Mountain, NC soon, so we went to REI on Sunday and got me a belay device and a locking caribener and Ben a helmet so we'll be ready.

Alek has baseball games every Saturday morning at either 8:30 or 9 am, which is a great time to play on hot days here in the south. One of the dads is a photographer, so he's capturing the boys in motion ... I thought this picture was terrific! Alek made some good hits, and did some good fielding, too. The team is shaping up nicely.
We then spent Saturday afternoon at the pool, then packing for the Cub Scout campout.
The Cub Scouts had their bridging ceremony where the move up to the next rank. Here is a picture of Pack 226, Den 7 in their Bear uniforms (last year's rank) with their Weebelos neckerchiefs (next year's rank).
This has been a really neat bunch of boys; they've been together since they were Tigers (3 years now). And a fun bunch of parents, too! We'll be hosting a second-annual pool party at our neighborhood pool in the next couple weeks. It's a fun way to celebrate the end of the Cub Scout season.

Here the are getting their arrow points and badges. The ceremony and camp-out took place at the Truelove's farm, 10 acres right in Apex, with a wonderful pond and clearing that was perfect for the tents, bonfire, and cub scout activities. Mom & Dad - it really remined me of the lot you used to have! We didn't end up spending the night, but we stayed for dinner and the campfire. The cub scouts do a great job of skits and songs, and scary stories, and everyone had a great time.

Sunday was organizing day .... and it rained. We folded laundry, cleaned house, put things away, ran errands. Really casual, but now I think I'm getting sick. I have itchy eyes, scratchy throat, achy back ... yuck So, I'm off to rest for a bit before the boys get home!