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Once again I am so behind. My sister Michelle came for a quick visit.  We had fun hanging out, going for a walk and seeing a big black bear two houses away and wrapping in up with a visit to NYC.  We walked all over the place, went to a street fair, visited Empire state building and then of course a show.  It was also the first time I have driven into the city, which I swore I would never do.  Obviously I survived and have managed to do it a couple times since.  Though I still refuse to drive in lower Manhattan.  Chris Jr. has been to two Junior Proms.   Grandma & Grandpa Hendricks, Josh and his boys came for a visit and most exciting of all was Chris’s Eagle court of Honor.  We had lots of fun visiting NYC once again.  The kids got to go see Mary Poppins while Chris and I went to a street fair.  We did a boat trip on the Hudson River and finished up by going to a Yankees game.

It was wonderful to have family here for Chris’s Eagle Court of Honor .  Grandpa Hendricks  gave Chris a really nice eagle charge.  It was a very nice ceremony.  We are so proud of Chris.

We recently decided to have our boys join a community boy scout troop. The last two weeks have been very busy with meeting new people and getting involved with this new troop. We have met some really great people and the boys fit right in with the rest of the troop. They are very active and have a lot planned over the next few months. The boys will be getting ready to go on a 20 mile hike in November. It is great to find such an active scout troop. If you can imagine the boys actually run this troop with the help of some incredible leaders.

This last weekend they had their annual family camp out. So we went with the boys Friday night to Plum Point to go camping. Plum Point is a little park right off the Hudson River in New Windsor. It is supposed to be where the first trading post was in Orange County. We had a lot of fun even though we didn’t sleep well on the hard ground, with the trains rumbling by all night and gun shots (nearby hunters) ringing through the early morning air. Kate thought it was fun to sleep in her own sleeping bag even though she spins when she sleeps and ended up with me in my sleeping bag. It didn’t matter to me, I wasn’t sleeping anyway. On Saturday the boys set up stations to teach some incoming Webelos about their troop and Mason got to help build a monkey bridge. It took a good part of the day to build it but he got to be the 2nd scout across. It was pretty cool so we all took a turn and I think the girls probably did it three or four times. We were exhausted from chasing Kate so we did take the girls home for a bit so she could take a nap. We went back that afternoon for dinner and a bonfire. In the evening around the fire we got to experience a very loud and crazy camp fire program which all the kids really enjoyed. Kate fell asleep and it was getting cold, so after some quick marshmallow roasting we all went home, showered and crashed for the night.

Click here to view all of the photos from our campout!

Chris and Mason were recognized for their Scouting work today at a Court of Honor. They received awards for things they have been working on since the last Court of Honor, which was last September. Mason received rank advancements for both Tenderfoot and 2nd Class, along with some merit badges: First Aid and Personal Fitness. Chris advanced to Life Scout (not far to Eagle now!) and received the Personal Fitness, Personal Management, and Emergency Preparedness merit badges. Chris was also made the Assistant Senior Patrol Leader of the troop. 

They both worked hard and we are proud of them!