Girl Scout Camp

Kayli decided that she wanted to sign up for Girl Scouts again this year. One of the first activities on the calendar was an overnight campout a couple of hours from here with no parents except the two girl scout leaders.
I really wanted Kayli to be able to participate in this, as she has never had the opportunity to actually "camp out" or cook on a camp fire, or do any of the other stuff that goes with camping. I was concerned, though, that because she has so many allergies, both food and environment, that she would really be vulnerable out there. First, this child has been diagnosed with unkown environmental allergies that result in random hives and swelling. Just last week, I got a call from the school nurse asking me to come up to the office to take a look at Kayli who was standing in her office with half of her face broken out in one big patch of welt-like hives, Kayli said she had been playing in the grass at recess. (It's not as if we have tall grasses on the playground, it is short cut weed-grass combo on the edges of the playground) I took one look at her and told the nurse I was going to give her both a Benadryl and a Zyrtec this time, based on my experience treating hives of this magnitude. An hour later, at dismissal, her face had returned to normal. Other times, the nurse will call me because Kayli's eyes are swollen and itchy. It is at these times that I pull out my antihistamine eye drops for "the cure". This symptom is usually the result of being exposed to cats. So, I can only guess that maybe she encountered the cat dander on someone's clothing, or by sitting on the carpet at school. The eyedrops usually do the trick, but sometimes I have to follow-up with Benadryl, if the symptoms persist. Kayli has been at her cousin's house, with two cats, and started with eye itching, then swelling, then, if we stay too long, we have ended up in the doctor's office for a breathing treatment for wheezing the next day! So, that's the environmental allergies. Now, let's move on to food. We have discovered in the last year, a miracle cure for her years-long digestive woes...eliminating gluten and dairy from her diet. Two MAJOR food groups! Neither one of us were happy about this HUGE change in our life, although we were amazed at the immediate results for her tummy! There was no denying that this was the answer for the time being.
So, as I talked with the Girl Scout leader about all these things, I suggested that maybe I should make things easy on them and offer to go camping with the girls. Even though parents were not going on this particular outing, the leader said she was happy to take me up on my offer, as Kayli's allergies were a bit daunting.
I seriously LOVE the outdoors, especially when Fall weather arrives. I have been camping a number of times over the years, and although it's all part of the whole experience, I do not love sleeping outside with all the creepy crawly spiders and such. This particular campout was being called "glamping" (glamourous camping) because we would be sleeping in treehouse cabins (still open to the elements keeping the cold out with canvas flaps over the screens) and there was a small building nearby that housed two flushing toilets, 3 sinks, and two showers (mainly cold water came through these showers until the last night we were there) We would be driving to camp Friday night, and coming back home in the late afternoon on Sunday. I was committed to this event, and began to look forward to this exciting weekend, bonding with nature, and my child, and 14 other nine-year old girls! Girl Scout Camp here we come...

Kayli and Taylor carried their own backpacks while helping me and another adult pull these wagons with some gear and other assorted campsite necessities...

it was a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the campground...

the girls were told to bring only what they could carry a long distance, and across rough terrain, like a large backpack, but several girls did not heed this advice. Seriously, does this look like something a 9 year old could carry a long distance over rough terrain???

anyway, onward we go...

everyone got settled in their cabins, gathered for a picture...

then we met at the firepit to build a campfire and make S'Mores!

the girls were so excited to be here, and were laughing and running around, playing glow stick tag, and other fun games...

then, everyone was sent off to their cabins, to get jammies on, go to the bathroom (which was very similar to the ones you find in a public park only with two showers added). All the girls brushed their teeth, etc. and were back in their cabins ready to be tucked in and "lights off" by 10:00 (ish). The cabin assignments were made by having all the girls randomly choose name sticks out of a cup at the last Girl Scout meeting. That was a great way to mix things up! There were 4 girls to a cabin. When I went to check on Kayli's cabin, she was helping one of her "bunk-mates" fix her bedding, and she announced "Mom, I just met Rebekah, and she's really nice!" so Rebekah laughs and says "Yeah, and I just met Kayli and she's really nice too!" Too funny! It got very cold overnight, in the 30s! Everyone went to bed in layers. I did not have enough layers as I was still cold! (Sidenote: I forgot to mention that one of the girls that rode in my car decided to toss her water bottle into the back somewhere along the way, and it landed right in the middle of Kayli's bedroll, saturating her sheets and blanket with water, Grrr! Luckily, one of the leaders had an extra sleeping bag that Kayli used along with a feather stuffed throw that I had tossed in the car at the last minute, whew! The next morning, the girls came straight to the campfire to warm their toes while eating muffins and fruit for breakfast...

as the sun rose higher in the sky, we could see it was going to be a beautiful day!!!

Today was the big day of team building activities. The girls were starting to come to life as the sun started to warm them up!

more trust exercises...

this "spider web activity" was very challenging for this group, as they had to work together to get every girl through the web without touching it and without using the same opening twice. Everyone wanted to "jump in head first" without thinking it through.

it was hilarious to hear them yelling out orders "put Kayli through" and haphazardly trying to pick her up and pass her through, assuming someone would catch her on the other side.

Other girls were put through in the same fashion but they had to keep starting over each time they touched the rope with a body. They started to realize they needed a plan..

they got better and better...it's so hard to work together when everyone wants to be in charge! Now, it was time for a lunch break, which was a limited period of time, therefore, pizza was delivered to this site. The amazing thing about this pizza was that the leaders ordered a personal pizza for Kayli that was gluten free, and it came from an old familiar restaurant that I used to go to many times when I lived in Nebraska, and it apparently was the most amazing pizza ever, because I have seriously NEVER seen Kayli eat this much in one sitting!!!

 too bad we don't have this restaurant where we live! Now, with lunch behind us, it was time to get the gear on for this afternoon's "high ropes" activities, woohoo!
Helmets, check. Harness, check.

Let's go girls...

First up, a very challenging rock wall!

Kayli, on the left, used alot of energy to get as high as she did. I was very proud, watching her persevere. Some of the girls got to the top step of the ladder and changed their minds, begging to be let down. This rock wall was much harder than everyone thought at first glance. All the girls were being held by a safety harness, but that didn't seem to assure most of them. Most girls climbed about half to 3/4ths of the way up, like Kayli did. Two of the girls, who are both gymnastic pros, made it to the top. Everyone cheered and congratulated each other no matter how far they climbed, which was great to see!

Next up, the zip line. Go Kayli!!!

Kayli LOVED the zip line through the trees!

Once again, the girls cheered each other on, as each girl leaped off the platform and sailed through the trees, smiling and waving as they went by! (No, not everyone was "game" for this experience, and if you didn't want to try it, you didn't have to)

The last big, crazy activity of the day was this double swing that was powered by a pulley system.

Two girls were strapped into the sling seats. Then, the group of girls would start to pull the rope one direction while the swing lifted higher and higher, in the opposite direction, until the girls in the swings yelled "stop". It was at this point that one of the two girls in the swings would reach behind them and pull the "rip cord" to release the swing, and it would fly down like some sort of theme park ride!

The girls had to pair up for the swings by agreement of who wanted to go high, higher, and highest. Kayli's partner agreed she wanted to go really high, but as they began to be lifted, they didn't get too high before she yelled "stop" so Kayli didn't get to go as high as she wanted. (She only told me that later but in the moment she was totally a good friend and agreed it was just right)

silly girl...

Kayli and her partner, Kristen...

here are the leaders, Miss Susan with her daughter Taylor, and Miss Holly collecting firewood with one of the campers, Amelia.

 what a great day this was for everyone. It was now time to head back to camp and begin preparations for the evening meal! The girls were instructed to collect wood for the fire, on the way back to camp. Kayli found some kindling, as well as a nice "walking stick" that she was thrilled with!

Back at camp,everyone was assigned a job such as food preparation, fire starter, clean-up crew, etc.

 I was assigned to help the clean-up crew, which meant directing these girls through the process of collecting water in metal buckets to be placed on the fire to heat up for later washing of dishes. They were doing so well until Rebekah tried to place a heavy bucket of water into the wagon that Madelyn was holding while standing on the other side, and the entire bucket spilled onto Madelyn's legs! She was such a good sport about it, and it took a lot of self control for me not to burst out laughing!

the girls were making a meal called "Shepherd's Pie" which was a base of ground beef, another layer of mixed veggies, topped with a layer of mashed potatoes.

Kayli and Taylor were on mashed potato patrol...

the meal turned out to be delicious!!! Ok, there were more than several little girls who complained about the veggies, but somehow they all managed to eat around the ones they didn't like!

later, after all the dishes were clean and hanging in the dunk bags...

the girls started pulling out the ingredients for banana boats, dessert. These girls, for the most part, did a nice job of working together to make things happen in the campground. As we moved into the second night of this weekend, we had a few girls that cried with homesickness, and I can't say I blamed them, after all , they are only 9 years old. The leaders of this troop are so kind, compassionate, and patient...seriously waaay more patient than I was feeling with some of the whiners and slackers, ha ha! I have to admit, that this was a really good opportunity for me to see that my daughter is way more self-sufficient and responsible than I thought she was!

Tonight I decided that another layer of clothing was called for. As there had not been any hot water in the showers up to this point, someone discovered that tonight the showers were spraying hot water, and the girls were lined up to get their turn at a warm shower! Call me crazy but I chose to bypass this late night chaos waiting in line for a shower and instead slipped an extra pair of foot warmers into my socks and immediately experienced a slice of heaven, as I drifted off to sleep for the night. Good night!
The next morning, we met at the campfire with a whole lot of tired, cranky little girls, who had to build a fire in order to have breakfast, and you could clearly see that the lack of instant breakfast, paired with the expectation of everyone having to help, was taking it's toll on some, more than others! Again, a very interesting observation. Breakfast was a type of egg burrito, which again, I thought, was quite delicious!

I decided it was time to get at least one picture of me...

Kayli, Gillian, and Alyana were the cabin clean-up crew, responsible for sweeping out all the cabins, and hauling out all the loose articles of clothing left behind!

I just kept walking around with my camera, snapping pictures, trying to capture the incredible Fall colors, but just couldn't do justice to the beauty that surrounded us here, paired with the cool, but sunny weather we were experiencing today!
As we headed out, with all our gear, at the end of this fabulous weekend, our leader discovered that the parent who was coming to help transport girls home, had been given incorrect directions and ended up driving about 45 minutes past the camp. We needed to entertain the girls until she could get here. As I mentioned before, there were some girls that were ready to keep having fun, and there were some girls that were "tired of having fun" haha. First, we tried a large group activity, like this lining up on the log and taking a picture...

then, a small group of girls agreed to go on a mini-hike to inspiration point. Literally, it took us all of 5 minutes to get there...

here are the girls that were "game for" the mini-hike to inspiration point...

the mom that drove too far was such a good sport about it. She said that at least it was a beautiful day and she got a chance to see some things she had never seen before, like downtown Omaha!
This has been quite an adventurous weekend and the girls were ready to head home. Good-bye Camp Catron...