What a day it’s been! The morning started off with a run, moved into canoeing, and ended with a Court of Honor. No wonder I’m exhausted right now!

I’m thankful for the run Becky and I got in this morning for a few reasons. First off, the weather wasn’t supposed to cooperate per the forecasts we’d seen last night so we thought there’d be no chance. As luck would have it the rain ended a little before our run and all we got was a light misting. Second, I really wanted to just go back to bed this morning. Days like this when I get my but in gear even when I don’t want to are the ones that feel incredibly rewarding (thanks Becky!). Last, nothing like a good dose of exercise to kick off the day!

The Scouts continue to impress me with finding ways to keep the kids safe and socially distant. Today’s endeavor included a canoeing / kayaking trip. We paddled along with them down the Black River and had a ton of fun for the entire 13+ mile ride. It’s been a while since I’ve been canoeing, I forgot the differences between paddling in a kayak versus a canoe and this was a welcome change of pace. Being in a canoe always brings back wonderful memories of trapping with Dad as we’d paddle from set to set. Being able to do this and see how much fun my boys were having with it was awesome. Even though I’ve lived here for a couple of decades I continue to find reasons why I’m so in love with this area. Paddling today was a great reminder of that.

After the canoeing and kayaking adventure was complete we wrapped up our evening with the Scouts at their Court of Honor. Throughout the pandemic they’ve held off on doing them as they’re best done in person. Tonight it was held outside at the fire bowl and everyone sat around with well over 6 feet from the next nearest person. As the Scouts would get called down to receive their awards their masks were on. Handshakes were replaced with elbow bumps. Outside of that everything else was normal… kind of.

They boys have been crazy productive on their merit badges since COVID started. Seeing as there hadn’t been a court of honor since before then they’ve gotten a stockpile of earned merit badges saved up. Tonight they each got 10+ merit badges – that’s crazy! Seeing them receive a huge stack of reward for their hard work made me so proud. I’m so thankful for how much they’ve worked on the merit badges throughout the past handful of months.

Now it’s time for this dude to crash. A morning run, a canoe trip, and a court of honor… I’m grateful for those three big things that highlighted by day and also for all the moments in between that rounded out the day.

Thanks!!!