At the end of June, our Girl Scout troop went on it's yearly camping trip. This time instead of going to a council organized camp event, we decided to go on our own as a troop to Camp Guyasuta. It's a campground owned by the Boy Scouts that's less than ten minutes from our house. So weren't being particularly adventurous for our maiden voyage. Nonetheless, it took months of planning, paperwork and packing to make it happen, and my co-leader and I had to attend an all day outdoor training in order to meet Girl Scout's requirements for camping.
Finally, the weekend arrived. The forecast? Heavy rain and thunderstorms. This was quite a downer since the majority of the activities that we had planned, like campfire cooking, archery, swimming and geocaching, were outdoor activities.
Like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scout motto is, "Be prepared." Our troop motto for that weekend became, "Make the best of it." Well, we did more than make the best of it - we made a heck of a good time! With the exception of swimming, (Because there really was a torrential downpour most of the day Saturday) we actually got to do everything that we had planned. In fact, we had so much fun, Lauren said that she didn't want to leave!
When we arrived on Friday, the weather was still clear, so we were able to start with some campfire fun. First we made these awesome sit-a-cans:
A sit-a-can is basically a bucket with a lid that acts as both storage for your camping gear and your seat at the campfire. Speaking of campfires, since it rained most of the weekend, we were only able to make one campfire, and that was due to the tenacity of my co-leader who would not give up on getting our fire started even though we were dealing with very damp wood. Thanks to her efforts, we all got to enjoy campfire cones.
We woke up Saturday morning to lots and lots of rain. Thankfully, we rented a lodge with electricity, indoor bathrooms and a full kitchen. Not so lucky were the Boy Scouts that were tent camping on the grounds across from our lodge. I just noticed that you can see them sitting outside the window in this picture - lol.
So since swimming was out of the question, we did a craft - no-sew bandana pillows.
They came out awesome, and the girls loved them.
While we are on the topic of awesomeness, I have to take the time to brag about our girls. What you see in this photo is what makes me so happy and proud to be part of Girl Scouts. Everyone is included. Everyone is having fun. When the girls had down time, they would just breakout in a spontaneous game whether it was cards, hand clapping or just being goofy. As volunteers, we do all this work and planning to come up with fun things for them to do together, but leave them to their own devices and magic happens.
After a busy morning, it was time for our archery session. Big props to the Boy Scouts for having an indoor as well as an outdoor archery range!
By the time the afternoon rolled around, it actually cleared up enough for us to head out and do some geocaching.
The wellies that I had purchased for this trip were a very, very good investment.
After slipping and sliding through the muddy trails, the girls found a cache!
We signed the log and exchanged one of the pins that we made for a mini magic trick kit.
Here's girls posing in at the outdoor chapel.
When I asked them to make silly faces, they were happy to oblige. There should be a badge for that!
And that wraps up another successful year of scouting. Here's to many more!
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