I have a Daisy troop full of mostly avid campers. I, their never-fearless leader, am not an avid camper. I am an avid hotel-goer, yes. Camping? In the woods? Not so much.
It's not that I've never been. We camped plenty of times as kids. But I'm talking bare-bones, no equipement, short overnight-in-the-backyard camping, with sleeping bags and a tent. If there was more - and I'm sure there was more - I don't remember it. And I never learned anything from it. Other than that, while the air smelled great and it was nice waking up next to a lake, it was often cold and often wet. And I hated that part of it. So when my Daisies wanted to go on the "Alice in Wonderland"-themed encampment with our whole Service Unit, I was hesitant, to say the least. I did my Girl Scout camping requirement, Outdoor 1 class, and I got CPR- and First Aid-certified. I enlisted parental help. I went with three parents who are Scout-camping veterans, and who have everything possibly necessary for comfortable camping. So, this past weekend, we went. The first night, we got there a little late, but it didn't matter much since we were entirely on our own. I had instructed the six Daisies coming with me and ML, the other Daisy parent serving as chaperone, to bring an easy brown-bag dinner for that night, to eat on the way up. It's an hourlong drive to camp. I knew the way, but I didn't drive, because I needed to leave Penelope (the van) home for the menfolk. Anyway. I had camnesia that night, so no pictures just yet. It was sprinkling when we arrived, which threw a wrench in the plans to make banana boats over a fire for the girls' dessert. Ah, but in the kitchen/bathroom building, we found a working microwave. Say what you will, but we used it, and it came in handy. Basically, for banana boats, you slice a banana in half lengthwise, fill it with chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows, cook, and serve. The girls LOVED it. Each one of them ate their whole banana gooey mess, and several of them asked for more. Stupidly, I had only brought enough bananas for one each, but perhaps smartly so, because it was bedtime and they were already wired. So I handed off three of my Daisies to ML in one tent, and MD (another Daisy parent, but one who was serving along with MN, Chloë's Junior troop leader, as their chaperone) and I took the other three, including Sophia, to a tent way in the back. The farthest tent from the bathroom, which was not a good thing at 0200 when I very nearly peed my pants getting there. Twice. I hated that first night. HATED it. I kept texting Rob to come pick me up and take me home. I knew he wouldn't, and I really wouldn't have gone, but I was almost in tears. It was freezing, and raining, and I was lonely without him, and did I mention it was cold?! I was just miserable but determined to make the best of it. The girls in both tents stayed awake until almost 2300, to the other parents' dismay (I expected it), so it was pretty fun rousing them on Saturday morning for breakfast. Flag-up was at 0900, so we needed to get them dressed, breakfast cooked and served, and dishes washed and put away before then. Breakfast was boiled eggs in a bag, which turned out quite yummy, muffins, fruit, and I guess that's it. The eggs were cool. I'll be making those again. I brought bags for making them myself, but I bought storage Ziplocs instead of the required freezer ones. Note to self. I appointed two of my Daisies to carry our homemade flag to the flag ceremony. Ours was made on a large piece of construction paper, with each Daisy coloring her contribution to the flag. I thought it was okay. And then we arrived at the field and surveyed the other troops' flags, which were... wow! Awesome. Large. Durable. Lasting. Impressive. Everything ours was not. Heh. I didn't know they were supposed to be... great. So I filed away my notes about that into the ol' brain, for a project for next year. Hopefully we'll be able to make a nice, large banner suitable for not only our camp and other activity flags, but also for table-dressing for cookie sales. The sponsoring troop - also Juniors, Chloë's age, who were running the encampment in memory of their recently departed leader and in pursuit of their bronze award - did the colors, and we all recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Sophia always puts the wrong hand over her heart. I wonder if all Lefties struggle with that at first. After the flag was hoisted, we looked at our schedules and got started with our various activities. The Daisy troop said good-bye to Chloë and her troop, and went to our first destination. ML went to our campsite to get my camera then, so here come the photos! Our first stop was in the main building for a crown-making craft. The Daisies had a good time coloring the crowns and selecting stickers to adorn them. They also received beaded necklaces and small bottles of bubbles for blowing later. We were finished early, so we had a photo-op with all the crowned Daisy princesses. Of course, I can't show you all my girls, so I cropped them to show only Sophia's face. Kinda boring and lame, but I don't want to get in Teh Trubble, you know. Sophia posing with her troopmates. It was cold untl mid-afternoon, so they kept their coats on everywhere we went. That blue slicker made it easy for me to edit all the pictures with her in them! I just think her face looks so pretty in this picture, so I'm including it. After the crowns activity, we were due to be in the field. We were still quite early, so the girls just sat around and rested for a few minutes until it was time to change places. The next activity, in the field, were the egg races. Sophia's troop all got split up onto different teams, which made taking pictures of each girl quite a challenge! I was running all over the place. Here's Soph before the first race, listening to the instructions. She was pretty cute running her races. Her team never won, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Sophia was being overly careful, which slowed her down. She was so serious about the games!
After a couple of races with no end in sight, Sophia decided she'd had enough. No more. So she stood near me while I photographed the other girls, and she built a nest. She told me, "I'm making a bird nest for a bird who's too tired to make one herself." Isn't that the sweetest thing?! She worked on it for a good 20 minutes, at least. Very conscientious about building her nest. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't think pine cones usually lined a nest... A couple of the other girls gave up the games, too, so I photo'ed each one of them in these trees. My Daisies like having their pictures taken. Their last morning activity was croquet. They had to push eggs with a spoon, through giant overturned playing cards, from a Daisy to a Brownie. They all did well and had a good time with the course. Each one exclaimed, "I did it!" at the end. I have some cute shots of the other girls, but alas... (I'll have to come back and finish this post later. I had it all typed up, but somewhere along the way, it got eaten. Argh!!! Stay tuned for Part 2.)
Yeah! Into the bucket.
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