September 6, 2008

Today was girl scout camp day. I have to admit I had been really dreading it. I just really did not like girl scouts at all when I was a kid and I HATED the whole camp thing. It's not like summer camp type thing. It's going with your troop and spending a night or two in a lodge at one of the girl scout camp sites. I just never enjoyed that.

They actually had it planned for overnight on Friday night, all day Saturday and overnight Saturday night. Michaela and I left in the morning on Saturday. I could not handle being there over night for two nights. Maybe it makes a me a horrible person, but that's just too much noise for that period of time for me.

Anyway, Michaela and I got up and got our things loaded into the van and left the house around 7:45 pm. Michael and Caleb had already left. Michael took Caleb to work with him. Michaela and I both were tired, but it was time to get moving, especially since we had a few stops to make first.

We stopped at Circle K for drinks and snacks. Then, we went to McDonald's and got some breakfast. After that we went to the grocery store so I could get myself a bagel for breakfast the next morning. I did not want the donuts I knew they'd have for the kids. I ended up getting a couple more drinks for us because I found one of our favorites there: FUSE.

Then, I realized I needed gas so we stopped at a gas station on the way out of town. I filled up the gas tank and Michaela went to the restroom. Then, finally an hour after we'd left the house we left town. We had to go down to Grey Summit, which is a little over an hour away.

We had to drive past Six Flags to get there. I tried to bribe Michaela on the way down. I told her we'd go to Six Flags if she wanted and skip Girl Scout camp. She was not going for it, though. I seriously would have spent the money on both of us going to miss out on this, but she wanted to go to camp so we went.

The road leading down to the camp was really scary. It's a very narrow road that is surrounded by woods and it is VERY windy. I would hate to drive that road in the winter time when there is snow on the ground. There were hunting signs on the trees too.

I did not get to read exactly what they said, but I started to get nervous. The road was longer than I expected and I was beginning to have visions of us pulling up into a gravel yard in front of a hunting shack with big hunting bubbas that were dressed in camouflage and had guns in their hands.

But, we made to to the camp. We parked behind the lodge that our troop was sharing with the younger troop from our school. Then, we unloaded our stuff. After that I had to take the van down to the parking lot. We were lucky, though our lodge was closer to the parking lot than the others.

First we went to make t-shirts. The girls were allowed to use permanent markers and beads on their shirts. The beads were used to decorate the sleeves. They were to cut the sleeves into strips and tie the beads onto the strips. It was a cute idea and they enjoyed it.

After that we went for a hike. It was a nice hike, but a lot of it was up hill. I really need to get out and walk and do hills more. The girls really enjoyed it.

Next, we walked to another lodge and got a snack. They were serving pudding in ice cream cones. I thought that was a cool idea. It tasted good too.

Then, we went and made lays. These were Oriental Trading crafts. They were made from cording, colored straws and flowers. It was fun for them. They turned out pretty good, too.

When we finished with that it was time for lunch. One of the older troops made tacos and taco salad for everyone. There was also watermelon. YUM!!!

After that we went to learn how to hula dance. No, I did not hula dance. I was too busy taking pictures. They really got into it though. I don't think I've seen that whole group that focused on one thing at the same time ever. It was fun to watch them.

Next, we went to the lake so the girls could go out in the canoes. I was a little nervous. Michaela had never been in a canoe before and she and Anikca wanted to go out without an adult. So, we let them. They did GREAT!!!! I was really impressed by how well they did and very proud. One of the girls in another canoe dropped her paddle because there was a spider on it. Her partner was not happy about having to do all the work to get back to shore. It was kind of funny, actually.

Then, we hung out in the lodge for a little while. That was loud. The girls of course were rowdy and just being silly like girls are. They were not being bad or anything like that, just being girls. But, that is loud enough by itself.

After that we went outside for a while. The girls went down to where they have soccer goals, hopscotch and tether ball courts set up. They played out there for a long time. Of course we had plenty of little girl drama, but that's part of being around girls. Nothing was out of the ordinary, though.

Finally, we went to eat supper. The older girls again made the meal. We had hot dogs, chips, pasta salad and friut cocktail. It was a good supper for camp. The hotdogs tasted good, but then again I was pretty hungry for some reason. And, of course all the girls were happy with hot dogs.

After supper there was another hike, but it was shorter this time. The girls didn't seem to want to walk as far with it starting to get dark. But, we mainly just had free time until the bonfire/luau.

When the sun went down we went down to where they have the bonfires for the luau. First we had the flag ceremony to take down the flag. Then, they tried to get everyone singing, but not many people seemed like they wanted to sing. They passed out the swaps during this time, too.

We were supposed to play games and have s'mores while we were down there, but it started raining. So we all went back to our lodges. We were lucky, we were the ones that got to stay in the lodge with the outdoor fireplace with grill grate on it. So, we had s'mores at our lodge. They were tasty!

About an hour and half later it was finally time for lights out. The girls settled down pretty well. I think everyone was tired. I did not sleep all that great. It's hard to sleep in a big room with a lot of people. People tend to make noises when they're sleeping and knowing that most of those people were kids, I felt obligated to listen to the noises to make sure they were not noises that indicated a problem.

It rained pretty hard during the night, too. But, it was also cool enough that we could have the windows open and still be comfortable during the night. It was not a horrible experience, but still not something I want to do very often. However, I will do it as often as necessary to let my daughter know that her interests are important to me, too.