Last Night we had the opportunity to go to Scout Night with the Idaho National Guard. The Armory is here in Blackfoot just a few miles from our house.

Seargent Beasmears from the US Army briefed us on the nights activities while the cubs were instructed in the room behind him.

Colby thought it was weird that instead of saying yes or no when they were asked a question, they had to say hoooawe!

This machine may look like a tank, but we were informed that it is a giant GUN that can shoot over mountains. It's called the Paladin Howitzer and the person shooting the gun usually never sees the actual target they are aiming for because of the distance the shell can travel.

This picture shows one of the shells that the gun takes. Each shell weighs 100 pounds. One of our cubs tried to pick it up with NO LUCK. I think they told us that the gun can hold 40 rounds and when fired it can destroy an area that is 50 meters in diameter.

As you can see the boys were absolutely fascinated.

Here's Colby getting ready to go inside the great big gun machine!

We were told that the machine holds 4 soldiers at a time. I think that translated into about 10 cubs haha! They didn't want to get out.

After we saw the Howitzer the boys got to go through a giant blow up obstacle course. I think Colby liked this the best and wished that he could have done it again again.

Here's Colby on his turn through the course--He was really fast!

This is the part a lot of the boys had trouble with but Colby pulled himself right up.

And the finish! Good Job Colby--you're in the army now!

Colby thinks we should get one of these for our backyard!

After the obstacle course we got to sample a bunch of different MRE's. It was an interesting experience! They actually aren't too bad, but I think it would be hard to eat them for any extended period of time.

Our group got Chili, Mexican Style Corn, Saltines that were giant, Blackberry Jam, Chocolate Milk drink mix and 2 Tootsie Rolls. As you can see by his face, Colby was not impressed by the chili. It was cold though--I think that's why. The MRE comes with a thing (I don't know what it's called :) to heat the stuff up, but we didn't use it.

Just before we had to go, we went and got a few pictures by these huge guns. Colby had a great time and was sad we had to leave. We missed the Night Vision Goggle station which was a real bummer! Colby is really enjoying the scouting program, and I am glad that there are so many fun activities we can do to keep him excited.