Scout or Die!!!

We moved to Minnesota back in July of 2006. Since that time, I have served in the Elder's quorum presidency. I have enjoyed the calling and have been completely satisfied. The bishop must have figured that I was not being utilized enough. So a couple weeks ago, I was called as 2nd counselor in the young men's presidency and also as ward Scoutmaster. Note: Our ward is very small and requires most members to handle multiple callings. For the past few weeks, I have been coordinating a camping trip. On top of working about 60 hours a week at work, this has been a time consuming endeavor. I thought being the Elder's quorum presidency was time consuming. Little did I know that being a scoutmaster and working in the Young Men's presidency takes ten times more time. For example, this past week I had to help the Young Men on Tuesday (harvest potatoes), Wednesday (Mutual), Thursday (buy camp supplies), Friday (go on Campout), Saturday (Campout cont'd). Needless to say, I had quite the busy week. I am enjoying working with the 12-13 year old deacons in our ward. I have about 5 active deacons that I am over. As a young man growing up in the church, scouting helped keep me interested and was an invaluable program that helped me grow spiritually and mentally. I hope that I can help share my enthusiasm for the gospel and scouting with these boys. On Friday, we went to Taylor Falls. It is a beautiful state park about 45 miles north of St. Paul. We had 6 boys, myself, and the bishop attend the campout. We had a great time hiking, eating, cooking, and playing. I look forward to working with these boys in the future. Here are some pics from the campout. Here are the boys: (If for some reason, you want to see more pics, go to: http://sharpekid81.fotki.com/taylor-falls-/ )

Actually had a stick bug on our tent
Beautiful Camp site

Austin enjoying just one of too many Smores
Christian flexing his peace sign
Justin shoting out "peace"
This is Victor eating leftover tinfoil dinner and smores
Ryan just finishing the last of our pancake breakfast


Had a tough time getting Emanual out of his bag

What is that bump under the rug?

Random story...the other night I cam home from the grocery store and came through the front door in the dark. I tried to shut the door behind me, but for some reason the door would not shut. I could not figure out what was jamming the door. I looked down at the rug and assumed it was the rug that was catching in the door. So I pulled the rub back a bit, but no use, the door wouldn't quite shut. Finally, I pulled the rug up because there seemd to be a bump in the rug. Well guess what I saw...a mouse?...nope. At this point I turned on the light to see what was under the rug. Here is a picture of what I saw:

The frog looked dead. I thought I had killed it. So I went to the kitchen to get something to clean up the frog. When I came, I noticed the frog was twitching a little bit. I started toward the frog and he began to play dead and looked like this:

Interesting I thought, so I sat quietly and watched the frog come back to life. He was playing dead the whole time. I was so fascinated by this frog that I took a bunch of pictures and decided to name him Larry. Unfortunately, Emily came home about 15 minutes later and was less than thrilled with Harry. Needless to say, Harry was released into the wild. I'll always cherish my half hour with my pet frog Larry. UPDATE: Larry came back two nights ago by our door. I think he will be our outside pet.

Labor Day Camping

It's so hard to stay up with blogging. I was promoted this year to Sr. Consultant within our firm, which is great and all!! However, I have been paying for it with my time. Hence, the delay in blogging our Labor Day fun!! We had such a memorable Labor day Weekend. We went camping with our good friends the Roses and another couple -- the Laws. We drove north of the Twin Cities about 100 miles to St. Croix state park. We had a wonderful time eating smores, canoeing, swimming in the river, and playing Bocce.

Our campground was beautiful...Here is sun in the morning

Bocce competition was fierce. Guys vs. Girls. Girls went up 11-3. However, the men fought back to take the win 15-13. It was epic!

Here is the crew...couples from left to right (Morgan & Nate Law, Thomas & Kristin Rose, John & Emily Sharpe)

Site of our fun #79


The St Croix River at dusk...would have been even more beautful if a speedboat did not disrupt my glassy water.


div>Here is our serious campfire picture. We are a tough bunch, as seen here.

The guys decided race/swim across the St. Croix. Note: I won!!!!



































Here is Em navigating our Canoe. If anybody wants to test their marriage...go canoeing! :)

The State Fair continues....

Here are some pics from the State Fair last week.

This fair is crazy about 1.7 million people tour the fair during the 10 day event.