Girls go camping

Today was our first night camping with the tiniest of Girl Scouts, our Daisies. I've had everything ready to go for a couple of days, and put the final touches on last night. Poor Bennett, wants to go camping so bad. He keeps seeing all the equipment and crying, "me go!!!". I worked in Morgan's class this morning and my friend Lara kept Bennett for me. The anxiety and excitement was starting to grow by the time school was over and I was rushing to pick up Bennett and get home. I wanted to get the kids fed and Morgan napping ASAP since we were to meet at Kristin's house at 3:30. One of the other Daisy moms was picking me up at 3, so I knew I had little time to waste.

We were ready, waiting at the curb at 3 with all our gear, even if Morgan was a little grumpy from being woken from her nap too soon. We all met at Kristin's house and waited a little bit for the one last mom and Daisy to show up and then we were off to Camporee! We were warned that the road to the camp grounds is very windy and they made no exaggerations on this matter. I was relieved that I had remembered to give Morgan her dramamine and had her wearing her anti-motion sickness wristbands. The girls got really excited as we drove into the camp grounds and the scout characteristics hung over our heads, from the trees. Now that the girls could read, it was fun for them to find them and read them. Loyalty. Cheerful. Obedience.

We pulled up to the first stop and were greeted by a woman dressed up like a pirate, getting our troop checked in and getting us the important information we needed. We parked and loaded up a wagon with gears, the girls with their gear and headed up this hill that we'd come to know and love over the next two days as we hiked up and down it to get to and from all the activities. The camp sites rested at the top of the hill and we were given what had to have been the world's smallest campsite. We had two 7 person tents to pitch in an area that *might* comfortably house one. No time to worry, we set the girls up with their dinners we had brought and got to work setting up the tents. One of the nicest things I found about the whole weekend were the older girls who had organized the whole event. They literally had 2 or 3 girls available to us the minute we got there to help us pitch our tent, take the girls to the bathroom, or do whatever we needed help with. It was so nice!

We managed to get the tents pitched, our gear trekked up hill, and everyone bundled up for campfire just in time. We hiked back down the hill to where they were attempting to light the camp fire. The girls hung out and waited for the fun to start, but were also incredibly tired and incredibly cold! Pretty soon, the staff girls (older Girl Scouts running the trip) came up and started teaching the girls songs. The girls were loving it (especially loving playing with their flashlights), but their age really showed when they all climbed into their mothers laps, one by one, wanting to warm up and whispering how tired they were. We decided it was time to get back to camp, so we hiked back up the hill, got the girls bundled up in hats and gloves and sleeping bags with blankets so sleep out there in the freezing cold. Once they were settled, Kristin stayed in the tent with them while the other moms went into the other tent to sleep. The girls were out within fifteen minutes! Amazing little campers! :)