Scout Camp and Dominoes
Thursday night I went up to Scout Camp to help out the leaders of our troop and visit the boys. We were having a really great time until we found out some tragic news. Gabe, one of the boys in the troop was there and having a really good time. He had almost earned ten merit badges and was getting along well with everybody. His father is a doctor in Rexburg and is an avid outdoorsman and is involved in everything from skiing to scubadiving to gliding. Thursday afternoon Gabe's Father was flying his glider plane in Driggs, as he came in for a landing he crashed and died.
Our Bishop and Gabe's Mother came up to break the news to Gabe. We took the boys the other direction to the lake in order to give Gabe some privacy. Afterwards Gabe came down to the lake and was in fairly decent spirits (I assume he wasn't able to process everything). He was planning on staying the night and wanted to tell the boys himself. After a couple of hours however, he decided he needed to go home. After he and one of the leaders left we broke the news to the other boys in the troop. It was difficult and painful and strange and spiritual. The boys had mixed reactions, but their love and concern for Gabe was apparent.
That night we sat around the fire in silence for a while. The silence was finally broken as some of us shared our thoughts. We finally went to bed pretty late. The next morning the mood in camp had shifted. There was still a bit of sadness, but the boys were back to throwing things and telling funny (if not somewhat inappropriate) jokes and stories. I left mid-morning and it was an experience I'll always remember.
On a lighter note: That night Jon and Kristy came over to play basketball and dominoes with Susan and me. I won every game of horse, but I got beaten badly at dominoes. Here's a robot we made out of dominoes after the game.
DOMINOBOT2005
Our Bishop and Gabe's Mother came up to break the news to Gabe. We took the boys the other direction to the lake in order to give Gabe some privacy. Afterwards Gabe came down to the lake and was in fairly decent spirits (I assume he wasn't able to process everything). He was planning on staying the night and wanted to tell the boys himself. After a couple of hours however, he decided he needed to go home. After he and one of the leaders left we broke the news to the other boys in the troop. It was difficult and painful and strange and spiritual. The boys had mixed reactions, but their love and concern for Gabe was apparent.
That night we sat around the fire in silence for a while. The silence was finally broken as some of us shared our thoughts. We finally went to bed pretty late. The next morning the mood in camp had shifted. There was still a bit of sadness, but the boys were back to throwing things and telling funny (if not somewhat inappropriate) jokes and stories. I left mid-morning and it was an experience I'll always remember.
On a lighter note: That night Jon and Kristy came over to play basketball and dominoes with Susan and me. I won every game of horse, but I got beaten badly at dominoes. Here's a robot we made out of dominoes after the game.
DOMINOBOT2005
3 Comments:
sorry to hear about gabe's father. i suppose, at least, he died doing something he loved.
and i'm glad the kids handled it well and didn't waste much time getting back to the important things in life, like laughing and learning dirty jokes.
We let you win at 'horse'
You needed the ego boost. :)
you let me win at horse? I wish you guys would start trying. all of the winning is getting old.
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