This year our family has become even more involved in Cub Scouts than previously would have expected. The recent shake up in leadership left the Pack without several key members due to the older Scouts and families moving on to Boy Scouts. With that, I found myself being talked into volunteering again… this time as the senior Webelos Den Leader. Since my son Dylan was a Webelo this year, it was nice to be able to lead his den and teach all the boys about the outdoors. Scouting at the Webelos level is a lot of fun and the adventures are more geared towards outdoors, camping, cooking and outdoor survival… all of my favorite things.
Being a Scout leader also requires you to gather the boys and encourage them to volunteer for service projects around the community. This year, with a Webelos Den of 13 boys, I had my hands full, but always found time to help out with Pack events. One of our service projects for the year was to help out at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC during the BSA NCAC National Mall Project. We had a great total pack turnout and at least half of my Webelos Scouts showed up to help with the Mall Project.
Now that my son Dylan is a little older I’ve been meaning to take him to a Nationals baseball game, but for one reason or another we just haven’t had the time. Yesterday my brother called me up out of the blue and said he had a friend who worked for a company that was a huge sponsor of the Nats and that she could hook us up with tickets for the next home game. It was a very last minute thing, but jumped at the opportunity… and everyone had a great time including Dylan who got to hang with the boys at the ballpark and chow down on a huge box full of Thrashers style boardwalk fries!
Here are some photos from our annual Pack 1229 Cub Scout event… the Raingutter Regatta at The Congressional School in Falls Church, VA. Dylan made a really nice boat with a good sail design that did very well in the preliminary heats, but as in years past, the kids with the larger lungs took the top spots to go on and race in the finals.
Today was Dylan’s first day of Third Grade and from the expression on his face this morning, I’d say he was really looking forward to it. After a good breakfast and some photos on the front porch we drove Dylan into school to meet his new teachers and see his new classroom. The River School only goes up to third grade, so his class this year, the Falcon Class, would be this years graduating class. The Falcon Class of 2019! Have a great year Dylan!
Julie’s parents invited the entire family up to St. Michaels, Maryland to getaway for the long weekend and while there, Julies dad arranged a half day fishing charter on the F/V Class Act out of Tilghman Island. It started out somewhat overcast, but as the day went on, the sun came out and the wind died down to make for a very nice day on the water. We were fishing primarily for Stripped Bass, but ended up catching a verity of keepers and had enough for a nice fish dinner for the whole family.
Here are a hand full of videos taken during our recent family vacation at Tucker’s Point Club in Bermuda. I didn’t bother to spend any time editing the videos like I use to… instead, I’ve just posted the raw files straight from my device to my hosting site and then used a widget to embed the iframe source code directly into my journal post. WordPress is constantly making changes to the layout and functionality of the tools, so it looks like this is my best option to get the visual results I want to go along with my theme.
Click the ‘More’ link below to see the rest of the videos associated with this post. Oh yeah, I almost forgot… the last video is a montage put together by my iPhone software. Enjoy!
‘Dylan and friends playing in the surf at Tucker’s Point Beach Club’ – Bermuda, HS
For our second week of two straight, we wanted to do more than just hang out on the beach and at the club, so we made plans to venture out a bit and set up a half day fishing charter. Dylan and I ended up catching most of the fish during our charter, but I think everyone had a good time. It’s hard not to enjoy yourself being on the water in Bermuda. And yes, we cooked and ate fresh local seafood that night! We also tried a little evening fishing from the docks at Tucker’s Point, but didn’t have as much luck as fishing from the boat. We rounded out the week with some golf and more beach and pool time. Use the link below to check out all the photos.
With Bermuda being one of our favorite vacation destinations, this fall we decided to spend two weeks in a row at our home away from home. We also invited my brother to join us for the first week. It turned out to be a beautiful week with perfect weather. Uncle Mike and Dylan had a great time bonding at the beach and pools and we all enjoyed dinner at the beach club. Here are some of the photos from our first week of this trip.
‘Dylan and Julie waiting for the DC fireworks show to start’ – Arlington, VA
Living just minutes from downtown Washington, DC has both it’s advantages and it’s disadvantages. One of the advantages of being so close to the city is having the ability to go to major events like the Capital July 4th Fireworks show which they put on at the mall every year. We’ve gone downtown to see the fireworks on several occasions, but the crowds really aren’t are thing, so most years we just opt to watch them on television.
Another option is to find a tall building in Arlington, just across the river from DC and watch them from the rooftop. This year, since the weather was so clear, we decided at the last minute to drive over to the Ballston Mall parking garage and see if we could see the show from the top parking deck. The fireworks were a long way off, but it was still a good show and it only took us 5 minutes to get home afterwards.
‘Aerial View of the Tucker’s Point Golf Villas & Residence Club’ – Bermuda, HS
We had such a fantastic time at Tucker’s Point this week! The weather was perfect, the food was great and the beaches and pools were clean and warm. I had a chance to take a lot more photos this week and decided to see how my iPhone camera did with some landscape, sunset and evening photography. I’ve posted several of the photos here for your enjoyment, but for all of the pictures from the second half of our spring trip, just use the link below.
