Big shoes to fill...

The Virginia group after our hike in Shenandoah National Park. Just minutes after this shot we were able to view two bears.

Enjoying a well-earned treat.

It's half-way between the Virginia Mountains trip ending and the start of our two weeks in New England. This group pictured above, 23 boys, was our largest ever and I must say…their behavior was nothing short of impressive. Boys earn treats when they get a sincere compliment given to us by a complete stranger. I've had trips where this never happened, trips where it happened one or twice, and trips where it happened several times throughout the program. But the boys above set new MTA records. For starters, they got six or seven compliments the very first day. That has never happened. All total, I think they must have picked up 15-18 compliments throughout the week. And if that's not impressive enough…here's another first. On two occasions, managers followed us out of their businesses to tell us what a great group we had. We were so proud of these boys and I think they were proud of themselves. 

Don't think that this number of boys can't be noisy. They can make a tremendous amount of noise, especially in an indoor pool or in some restaurants. But they are also good about toning it down when asked. They were great at saying "please & thank you," and they were just good!

The New England trip boys have big shoes to fill. I will present them this challenge on our first gathering at the airport. Check our blog and photo pages to see how often you see them enjoying a tasty treat. We leave on Sunday.

Click to check out photos from the Virginia trip and this is the same link for the upcoming new photos.

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