The Road to Eagle

When Tanner turned 11 last year he officially advanced from Cub Scouts and began his journey to Eagle with the Boy Scouts of America.  And let me tell you, this boy is an enthusiastic and eager scout.  Sadly, not many of the other boys in his troop feel the same way and the leaders have a hard time getting excited when they can't even get the boys to come.  However, Tanner really does want his Eagle, so Zac and I finally sat down with him at the beginning of Summer and mapped out a path to get that done.  Scouting has become a whole family affair and we are all having a good time getting some of these requirements done.  A couple of weeks ago, we decided to plan a family 5-mile hike, which was the last thing he needed to fulfill his 2nd class rank.  The weather was beautiful, we found a babysitter for the youngest three, and then we hit the Pocatello Creek Trail system.  We chose a trail that was 3 miles up and 3 miles back and since he only needed a 5 mile hike, we decided we could turn around at 2.5 miles and head back... HOWEVER, when we got to that point we all felt like it wouldn't seem right to not just go to the end of the hike, so all three kids agreed to go the EXTRA MILE to feel the sense of accomplishment from finishing the hike.

View of Pocatello, the Holt Arena is in the distance

We had 15 bridges to cross.  They were all numbered, which made for easy landmarks as we found our way along the map.  They also provided great opportunities to stop, rest, and dip our hats in the cold water.

The end of the trail!

The most awesome part was when we were jogging back down the trail on the way back to our truck and my foot caught a tree root and I rolled down the trail gloriously.  The kids were in shock to see me lying there on the trail freaking out a little and I was trying to hop up and brush off like it was no big deal, I do this all the time... but DANG, that kind of hurt.  But well worth the wonderful day we had together as a family.  We honestly love scouting.