What started as a father's way to stymie his twin sons' request for a dog culminated in 121 Boy Scout Merit Badges for each of them.

On Sunday night, Matthew and Nathan Anderson achieved the rank of Eagle Scout at a Court of Honor and were awarded their Dog Care merit badge by their father Eric Anderson.

Eric Anderson had told his sons, "You've got to get every Merit Badge in existence first," before they could get a dog. They said OK and did exactly that.

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Utah Attorney General Mark Shutleff both spoke at the Court of Honor. Chaffetz became emotional as he presented Nathan and Matthew with a flag that had flown over the capitol building in Washington, D.C. He said, "No doubt, you will make us proud."

Representative Chaffetz said to the audience, "I speak all the time and never get this emotional."

Shurtleff, a lifelong Scout, added his congratulations and compared Nathan and Matthew to the young boy to whom King Arthur speaks near the end of the musical "Camelot." Shurtleff used the analogy because young men like the Anderson brothers were "the hope of the future."

Eric Anderson said that when his sons were just 12, they were entering the Scout program and asked him for a dog. He did not want a dog. He told Nathan and Matthew if they earned all 121 Merit Badges available to Scouts, and made dog care their final badge, he would get them a dog. His sons, avid outdoorsmen, took him up on the offer and worked their way through the badges for six years.

Their mother, Kathleen Anderson, related the trials of raising sons who believed pockets were for holding insects and small animals. She said that after Eric became a Scoutmaster, Nathan and Matthew longed to be old enough to be Scouts. She said her sons began identifying insects, birds and plants from their father's copy of the "Boy Scout Handbook" when they were too young to enter Scouting. She held up the tattered book to demonstrate their enthusiasm.

The Andersons' home is on a bluff overlooking the Spanish Fork river bottoms, and that natural area became Nathan's and Matthew's place to explore. They were never interested in television or electronic games because they were having real-life adventures, their mother said.

Karen Frost, senior Scout executive, added her congratulations and told the Anderson brothers, "You have learned more than some adults well ever learn." Frost also congratulated the Andersons' parents, calling them "amazing," and lauded their involvement in their sons' Scouting activities.

Nathan and Matthew, according to their father, are much more at home in the outdoors than speaking in public. Matthew admitted, "This is a little out of our comfort zone." Nathan asked everyone in attendance that had helped them attain their goals to stand. To the large group of standing adults, he said, "Thanks, we didn't do it alone. Thanks."

In attendance at the Court of Honor was one of the red-tailed hawks the Andersons fly as falconers. Each of the boys has a red-tailed hawk. The most difficult to achieve badge was not falconry, but bugling. Matthew and Nathan, who both play stringed instruments, struggled with getting recognizable renditions out of the bugle.