Happy Halloween?

So todays Halloween, and I was wondering, why do people say "Happy Halloween"? I mean, Halloween is supposed to be scary, not happy, right? So, to put the true meaning of Halloween back into some people's minds, I thought I'd put the link to the E-Card Rick found on this blog. Uh, have a scary Halloween!

(To see the E-Card, click here).

Jimmy Stratford

Well, I told you I would tell you about the movie Dallin, Rick, Jaren, and I are making, so here it goes:

So, it starts out with Jimmy Stratford (Dallin), and he's short kid who wonders what he should be for Halloween.

He then decides to be a Pokémon Trainer.

So, he goes to school and tries to capture Ballal, the bully, (Rick) with his Pokéball.

But then he gets beat up.

Then, Jimmy goes to a psychiatrist (Me) for some help.

Jimmy forgets about the psychiatrist's advice and finds a clubhouse with his friend, Bob, (Jaren).

But Ballal comes along. Bob escapes by using the zip line, but Jimmy couldn't make it in time, so Ballal comes and beats him up. Then he locks him in the shed.

Then, Jimmy goes back to the psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist tells him to do what he can to get rid of Ballal.

And that's it. Jaren's going to try to put the movie on Youtube. When he gets that done, I can put the movie on this blog!

Brandon's Party

Today was Brandon's birthday party. It was a lot of fun! When I got there, Rick, Rick's brother named Spencer, Alec, and Jaren were there. Then, Dallin, Teddy, and some of Brandon's other friends came.

First off, we played Flag Football. That was fun! Brandon did an awesome throw! After playing Flag Football, we downed a bunch of pizza and cherry soda. We also played Telephone around the table. Whenever Jaren would start the round, Rick would change it completely on purpose when it came to him!

Then we started to play some basketball. I started pulling Brandon's little brother, Josh, around the pathway in the backyard in a wagon. Then some of Brandon's other friends joined in, then Rick, then Jaren, then Spencer, and finally, everybody was pulling each other in the wagon! But then Dallin had to leave. Sad.

Then the evolution of the wagon game we made up became more complex. Spencer and I made obstacles on the paths. We would throw Nerf footballs, or hold a rope in front of them. Then , we made our game into a haunted house! Two people would push and pull the wagon, and one person would ride in the wagon. First, they had to go in between the wall of the house and some thick and bushy trees where some of us would jump out and scare them, or even startle them by jerking something out in front of them, like this one crate we found. I think I even made Teddy jump once or twice.

Then they had to go past the patio, but there's nothing scary about that. Then, they had to go past some bushes and a palm tree. We would jump out of the bushes and scare them. Since the palm tree is right next to the path, they would accidentally ram into the palm tree!

Then, they had to dodge the flying Nerf footballs and pedestrian cones (we missed them a lot). Then, they had to go back to the starting line (the basket ball hoop). Just when it was getting good, we went and had banana splits!

Then, we played Ghosts in the Graveyard. Here's how to play: so, a couple of people are ghosts. They have to find the human people, and if they are tagged, they become ghosts. You tried to get everybody to become ghosts, and that's basically it!

We played it for about 3 rounds, and then, Jaren's dad took me, Jaren, Rick, Spencer, and Teddy home. So, all in all, it was a pretty fun party!

Brandon

Well, today is Brandon's birthday! He invited all the scouts to his birthday party on Friday. Yup!

We Meet Again, Sunol!

Well, we just went on a camp out to Sunol Regional Wilderness...again! Only this time, we had our new scouts: Teddy and Brandon Wilhelmsen (who will join our troop in a week or so)! Also, this was Rick's first time at Sunol.

Brother Spencer, Alec, Rick, Dallin, Jaren, Jeremy, Teddy, Brandon, Brandon's dad, and I met at the church yesterday (October 9, 2009) at 4:00 P.M.

We checked to see if we had everything, then we packed our bags into the car, and off we went!

After about 30 minutes of driving, we got to the boundaries of Sunol.

We parked our cars and got our packs on.

We started hiking on the Hayfield Road up to the High Valley Camp.

Here's a map of Sunol. The black dot is where we started, the black line is the route we took, and the circles are the main locations we were at.

According to the map, we hiked about a mile to the camp.

Along the way, Jaren and I found a huge ravine. Good thing we didn't lose any scouts!

Now, Sunol is largely populated in cows, and when life brings you cows, the cows give you something as well (and it's mostly something you don't want)!

Anyway, after a while, we got to camp. And it was the same camp as last time. Seriously, the creepy old barn was still there!

There's also a house that's built into the side of the hill (notice the chimney coming out of the ground).

I think we even took a picture of it last time!

This Camp Out:

Last Camp Out:

So then we played football, and some Uno for a while.

Then we made fajitas for dinner (which is what we did last time)!

We couldn't make a fire because we could accidently burn down all the hills, Alec made a "fire" out of a lantern and some cello paper.

Since this Camp Out was a Stake Camp Out, meaning that the other troops from the other wards came, we all had a meeting around Alec's wonderful bonfire.

Then, Alec, Jeremy, Dallin, Rick, Jaren, Teddy, and I slept out on a tarp underneath the stars (Brandon slept with his dad in their tent). Wow, the only times we haven't slept under the stars was our first trip to Sunol and Scout Camp! Anyway, I tried to get a picture of the stars, but it didn't work out too well.

I did get a picture of this an electricity tower with blinking red lights!

Okay, maybe it is kinda hard too see. Maybe if I get a close up shot. Now can you see it?

So, yeah, we really didn't go to bed until about 10:30, or 11:00. I fell asleep before everyone, and I woke up a little bit after everybody fell asleep, and I was surprised that Jeremy wasn't yelling "I WILL EAT YOU!" anymore!

In the morning (today), I was the first one up. I wanted to get some pictures of the first light of day, so I did.

Oh yeah, and all throughout this trip, several planes flew over us. It makes sense since we're only about 30 miles from the Oakland Airport and the San Francisco Airport! I even saw one fly over and disappear in the mist!

After I woke up, Teddy woke up, then Jaren, then Rick, and then Dallin. Jeremy and Alec kept on sleeping when we were all supposed to be up and ready. So, we tried to get them out of their sleeping bags.

So, when they finally got up, we had a devotional meeting around the campfire (which was still a raging bonfire from last night)!

After our meeting, we made Sunrise Stew for breakfast. In case if you forgot, Sunrise Stew is hash browns miked with eggs and bacon and cheese. Put it in a frying pan, and what do you have? Pure Goodness!

While we were waiting for it to cook, we played some more football.

When the food was ready, we swooped in and ate all that we could!

After cleaning up our breakfast, we went back down the Hayfield Road, and then branched off onto the Indian Joe Creek Trail.

We hiked down until we got to the Cave Rocks. We went there on our last trip to Sunol, and a lot of fun there, so we came back on this trip!

We did find this hidden cave. It was pretty cool because it kept on going and we couldn't find the end of it, but we couldn't go all the way inside it because we only brought one flashlight, and it wasn't that bright enough. Oh well, maybe another time!

Here's what it looked like inside the cave.

After we discovered the cave, we played an epic game of Hide-and-Go-Seek! So, Dallin was it, and I hid in the main cave inside the mountain thingy. I crawled inside a smaller cave in the main cave. I took a picture of one of the air holes up above me.

It was a pretty good hiding spot, because Dallin came into the main cave, and I was only 3 feet away from him and he didn't see me!

The next round was awesome! I was it, and I found Teddy in less than a minute. Then Jaren came out of his hiding spot from the first round, because Dallin didn't find him. So, he helped me and Teddy. We tried to look for Brandon, but when we found him hiding in between a narrow crack between two rocks (which was kind of cool, because the crack was as wide as the width of a sticky note), he ran off and hid somewhere. So we went on a wild goose chase, until we had him cornered, so then he started to help us. Then, Jaren found Alec, and Alec said he would give us hints to where Dallin, Jeremy, and Rick were hiding; the only guys left.

Then, when Teddy, Jaren, and I were searching the main cave, we saw a cave that went straight down. I was brave enough to go down into the pitch-black cave. I looked around, and then I saw a pair of shoes. I thought somebody had just left their shoes in the cave, but when I looked above the shoes, I saw a body and Dallin's face. Dallin roared "RAUGH!!" and scared my pants off! I screamed as loud as I could!

So, so far on my side, I had Teddy, Jaren, Brandon, Alec, and Dallin. Only two more guys left. We looked all over for them, but we had to go, so we quit the game. Jeremy and Rick came out of their hiding spots, which were the complete opposite of what Alec told us. We figured out Alec was a spy for Rick and Jeremy! So then we left the Cave Rocks.

On the way back to camp, we found a tarantula (it was tarantula mating season)!

Back at camp, we learned a game called Covety. It was pretty fun.

Then we played Sharks and Minnows, but that wasn't too fun. So then we had some tuna and crackers for lunch.

And Dallin entertained us by reading out loud the fun facts and riddles on the back of the oatmeal packets.

After lunch, Jaren, Brandon, and I looked through the small holes on the barn. You could actually see inside the barn!

Then Brandon was able to fit through a hole the size of one of the pictures on this blog! He could actually get inside the barn!

This one kid from another ward let us have his big bag of cotton candy. Obviously, we didn't take a whole bunch!

So, then we packed up and hiked down the Hayfield Road down to the parking lot.

Then we all went home. When we dropped off Dallin at his house, we saw the little ghosties hanging up outside his house. He told us his little sister is scared of the little ghosties. I thought they were kind of cute!

So that's pretty much our whole camp out. Yup.