Our family has been camping pretty much non-stop this month. Well, not that much but it feels like it!
Campout #1
Earlier this month Christian and Troy went on a two day campout for the 11-year old scouts in Coulee Dam. Christian is 11 years old and Troy is one of the leaders (that - and being Christian's dad) and they had a great time. They hiked, explored, carved stuff, ate, laughed - all that good boy bonding stuff.
Campout #2
Last week Christian had the opportunity to attend the regular Boy Scout campout at Ensign Ranch near Cle Elem with the 12-18 year old boys in the current ward we go to church with. He attended from Monday through Thursday and Troy joined the troop up at camp Tuesday night through Thursday. They worked on merit badge stuff, played cards, went rock climbing (even Christian who is afraid of heights!), hiked, ate (Christian had roasted banana boats for the first time) and had a wonderful time.
Campout #3
Troy and Christian returned from that campout Thursday afternoon. Two hours later our entire family was packed up and ready to head out again. We drove to a
campout with Boy Scouts from our former church ward in northern Idaho Thursday and Friday nights. On Friday we joined the Boy Scouts for a 50 mile bicycle ride. Our girls and I only rode about 16 miles on the
famous Hiawatha trail. The girls were towed by Troy in a bike trailer. After that part of the bicycle adventure, the girls and I drove to Coeur d'Alene for shopping while Christian and Troy and the scouts continued on another trail for an additional 35 miles. Unfortunately, we lost our small digi camera somewhere along the way which had the most photos so we don't have that many pics from our other camera, but there are a few I will share.




Saturday we went to Silverwood amusement and water park - the school has a reading program where the kids can earn a free ticket and Anna and Christian both did so we only needed to purchase three. It's a fun park - kind of reminds me of Lagoon in Utah. Sunday we recuperated and went to church.
Campout #4
Very early Monday morning this week I headed off to a campout with the Young Women group from church also at Ensign Ranch. I'm no longer one of the YW leaders but was asked to go to camp to help out since there was a need for an additional leader and asked to plan and lead games during the four hour activity rotation on Tuesday. (It wasn't too difficult to plan - I had to plan an hour's worth of games to repeat four times with each different age level).
I returned from camping earlier today. I have never felt so exhausted after returning from a campout in my life. The last two years I have gone as a leader for the whole week and loved it. This year I just went from early Monday morning until today. One of my good friends is the main leader this year and I was just filling in for her co-leader that couldn't make it after all.
Even though I didn't have much prep work or worry (since I was just assisting), the dynamics of this year's group really made for a different and often frustrating time. Out of our 12 girls, seven are only 12-13 years old and attending for the first time. Of those seven there were quite a few that were very challenging. We had issues with gossip, lack of respect for others and leaders, mean spiritedness, not listening, not cheerfully helping, whining, some inappropriate behavior, super late nights of noise, etc.
Girls Camp is supposed to be inspiring, spiritual, friendship forming, and lots of fun. Although we did have fun these last few days (cause it's almost impossible to NOT have fun at girls camp! at least I think so!), I felt disappointed and sad for those girls that are negatively impacting not only their own experience but that of the entire group.
My friend and I had several talks with the girls as a group and one-on-one to try and change some attitudes and I hope that after I left things will improve. It's my friend's first time as camp leader and that alone is challenging.
On the upside, I loved being in the beautiful outdoors, had a great time visiting with other leaders that I know (including my awesome sister-in-law that is a leader for another ward), eating yummy camp food (I adore dutch oven cooking even if it is finicky!), looking at the stars, laughing and singing the silliest songs, spending time with some great girls, and feeling the spirit of Ensign Ranch.
But I'm not denying that I'm glad to be home. I'm okay with a little bit of drama from my 4 and 6 year old girls sometimes. Not so okay with it from a big group of pre-teens and teenagers! And no photos of this week. Forgot the camera and would have been too tired anyway to take pics, lol.
Now - off to my cushy pillow-top bed, my mosquito-free home, and my cute kids and wonderful hubby. Maybe even a bit of ice cream.