Arlen Ward dot com

Last year at this time I ended a blog post with this:

I wish each of you health and happiness for you and your families as we start off in 2011, and when we look back on it a year from now I hope we will all see it as time well spent.

Time well spent? I can say, looking back on 2011, I got to spend a lot of time on things I love. Family, Scouting, and travel. What a year!

• We started the year off by getting a new puppy! A two month old Rottweiler named Toby.



• I gave the Scout Sunday sermon at the church I grew up in.
• I was a course participant in Wood Badge course W5-61-11-1



• Toby got bigger.
• Traveled to San Francisco at the beginning of the Summer
• Watched our kids start piano lessons, and take to it like fish to water.
• Toby got bigger.
• I was a camp councilor for our regions’s Junior Camp for 3rd through 5th graders.
• Took my son to Resident Camp in Longs Peak Council. I really enjoyed just being a Scout’s dad instead of the Cubmaster!
• Our family went down to the Philmont Training Center to take a Cubmaster training course.



• I started my second year as Cubmaster for Pack 223, with a great group of boys and volunteers.
• Toby got even bigger.
• I got a new camera, which should result in more photos being shared here as well as on Google+.
• We went back to San Francisco for Thanksgiving, having a wonderful time with my sister and her family.



• At work I got a brand new lab in a brand new R&D building, all ready for fantastic things in the next year!
• Toby got bigger still.
• I finished my Wood Badge ticket in December with a workshop on the physics of the Pinewood Derby.



• Spent Christmas here in Colorado, seeing family and friends for the holidays.

Not to be outdone, ’12 is going to be another year packed with activities.

• Unpacking all the stuff we moved to the fancy new lab
• Travel to Israel with my wife, mother-in-law, and some friends to see the Holy Land.
• I am going to be the Director (in Training) of Junior Camp for our Regional Churches.
• Continue to put on the best Cub Scout program I possibly can for the families of Pack 223.
• Head back to Philmont for the Philmont Leadership Challenge. A week in the backcountry of New Mexico extending the skills I learned in Wood Badge.
• Hopefully the end of 2012 also finds me working closely with the next Cubmaster of our Pack, because my tenure will be up by that coming summer.
• One thing is for sure: the dog will continue to grow.