John's Return

John returned home from scout camp at 1:30 Saturday morning. (They decided to come home Friday night instead of Saturday morning, but by the time John woke up Saturday after the late night, it was about the same time he would have gotten home Saturday anyway.) He had a lot of fun there. Here are some of the highlights:

1. John went to "the Crevasses" in Camp Deitler. The crevasses are huge rock things that have big gaps between them and some caves. John went through some of the gaps and climbed a large leaning rock.
2. John made an electronic rectangle. It was made of a circuit board, two capacitors, four resistors, two LEDs, and two transistors. The LED lights blinked slowly when everything was put together and connected to a power source. 
3. John participated in the "Polar Penguin" four times, which means that he got to jump in the lake right after breakfast, when the water was still cold. 
4. He slept in a sleeping bag, inside a canvas tent that wasn't attached to the ground along the edges, so he woke up outside the tent, twice. Once, he was next to a neighboring tent, and the other time he was behind his own tent. The tent was on a wooden platform over 6 inches from the ground, but rolling off the platform never woke him up.
5. On his birthday, the troop sang "Happy Birthday" to him "as loud and obnoxiously as possible". They gave him presents (a disposable camera and a puzzle book we had sent up with his scoutmaster). That evening there was a lake party and the nuclear science teacher gave the scoutmaster a pack of Starbursts for John. He also got some cream-filled cakes and no-bake peanut butter fudge cookies.

After John was home, and after he woke up, and had breakfast and showered, he finally got to open the rest of his presents. He received new scriptures, Apples to Apples (Family Version), a jumping frog game, a miniature pool table, a fly-swatter (brother swatter), a book, two LEGO sets (one was a "Crazy Action Contraptions" kit that brought a grin to his face), a box of nerds. We took pictures with John's camera, but it will be a little while before he finishes the film and we can take it to be developed/digitized.

After church on Sunday, John had the Aaronic Priesthood conferred on him and he was ordained to the office of a Deacon. He is looking forward to being able to pass the sacrament next week.