Michael's Eagle

Michael earned his Eagle award just in the nick of time—on his 18th birthday! And we finally had his court of honor last Sunday.

We did not exactly live up to the scout motto of "Be Prepared."
1. Saturday night we realized that we hadn't bought a second mentor pin—Michael wanted to recognize two of his leaders. The award comes with one mentor pin for him to give, but we needed to buy a second one. Fortunately (?), the second leader called and apologized because something came up and he wouldn't be able to make it Sunday night. So at least we have a little extra time to get his pin.
2. We were printing programs and baking cookies just one hour before the actual court.
3. And then, we forgot to buy Michael's sash to sew all his merit badges onto. So we sneaked over to Melanie's house (she was on vacation) and stole her son Thomas' sash with his merit badges sewn on—for looks. We still need to get one for Michael. When Michael received his award, Ken Johnson mentioned that he had counted the merit badges Michael had on his sash; there were 27—eight more than he needed to get the Eagle award. Good job, Thomas! And good job, Michael too, since he actually earned a few more than were on the sash (which we returned to it's rightful place after the Eagle court).

The court of honor was very nice. Mostly family attended, but there were a few people from the ward too. Michael received an award from the Sons of the Mormon Battalion and got a cool neckerchief slide in the shape of an animal skull (cow? buffalo?). And I felt very proud of him when he received his award, and as he presented his mentor awards, too. Michael is a great guy!

(Unfortunately, we took our camera, but didn't take any pictures. Ah, well.)