Camping Fun

Truth be told, this may be the only area my parents failed.  Note to other humans: mandatory requirement for a childhood= camping.  I am just a parent volunteer with the Pathfinder club through the kids school.  Usually the awkward one flashing a camera a million times an hour.  But for this trip I was also Kitchen help.
We headed to the Peaks of Otter about 3:30pm on Friday the 9th.We got there a pinch before 5 and started setting up the tents.  The boys had one, girls had one, male leaders had one and poor Mrs. Courtney and I were stuck having to sleep in the camper.  Tough life.

It took all of 5 minutes to catch the first critter, have the first drops of blood and for every boy to have a walking stick.
Mr. Lance helping the girls with the rainfly.  The kids piled the gear into Mrs. Melanie's truck.

After camp was set up, the rules were gone over, the kids got to eat their brown-bag supper.  By then the temps dropped drastically.  Just as we started our evening devotional, taught by Mr. Lance the storm began, thunder, crazy winds and plenty of rain.  It was a good lesson though about allowing God's light shine through you, complete with a glow bracelet visual aide for each kid.

Morning started extra bright and early at 6am when the boys were wide awake and loud, or at least some of them which awakened all the others.  It was chilly and foggy, and convincing the boys to keep it quiet til 7 was basically a lost cause.

We started the morning with a hike to the lake to hopefully rid them of some energy.  We found a critter at the lake too.  The kids were fascinated by him.

How we spotted our friend

Then our friend came quite close right near the edge

After visiting our friend at the lake, and a few posed pictures, it was time to head back for breakfast.  We went simple with cereal, muffins, yogurt and fruit.

After we ate we had a tent inspection courtesy of Mr. Gary and Mr. Lance.  The girls won.  Which isn't a huge shock.  Then add to the fact we had almost double the boys and it was a no-brainer.

Then it was time for Sabbath Church. This was combined with our usual church family for Outdoor Church.  Although it was frigid and rainy, we had a great turn out of about 100!  After Mr. Spencer taught on "Being Childish" (as a good thing ;-) ) we shared a picnic potluck.

After church and lunch we headed back to camp to our first campfire!  The kids of course instantly loved it!  Although some were too busy playing to sit around a fire.  We had emergency relief arrive when we got a shipment of gloves and hot hands body warmers for that evening.  Some church members even loaned out their jackets so we had extra layers as we didn't forecast such cold temps and so much rain!

Next Mr. Gary taught us some knife safety/camping basics tips.  Then all the kids had to find them selves a roasting stick and carve the tip to be pointy.

Their first task with their roasting stick was baking them selves a biscuit over the fire.  This took more patience than some usually like to use, but the most patient ones ended up with the best biscuits and best of all everyone had fun.

Then it was time to go letter boxing.  Mr. Eli stayed back to watch over our fire.  

Our first stop was the Nature Center where the Park Ranger taught us about sugar and technology being all around us in nature.

Then we continued to follow the clues Mrs. Courtney gave us to find the letter box.  And although we found all the spots mentioned in the clues, there was no letter box to be found.  And no my picture taking skills aren't this bad, but yes the fog was this bad.

We hiked back to camp and it was time to start supper.  While the adults started the cooking the kids played, until it was time for them to roast their hotdogs with their roasting sticks they had carved earlier.

By then it was time for the kids favorite: Smores!!

While the adult ladies cleaned up supper and washed dishes, Mr. Gary told scary stories around the campfire and Mr. Eli helped supervise.  Some of the girls opted out of scary stories for a game of go fish in the girls tent.  And that adequately prepared them for bed, I'm sure.  And since they didn't wake up with a bang at 6am I feel safe in saying Old Man Hook (from the scary store) ensured proper behavior... or else...

About 7 we got up and ready for our day.  This was our fun breakfast day.  Check this five star camping meal out!  OMELETS IN A BAG!!!  Add two eggs to zip lock, scramble them, add your toppings, rezip bag getting it as air tight as able, boil about 10 minutes and tada!  We also had (chocolate chip) pancakes, fruit, yogurt, juice and milk.

Then it was time to finish up our camping trip, tear down camp, pack up and hit the road.

Then we were leaving camp, headed back to the school/church

Back at the church we unpacked the trailer and Mrs. Melanie's truck.  Then we had to re-set-up all the tents and canopies and tarps we had use to dry them out.  Luckily by this point it was plenty hot for the job so it didn't take as long as we were afraid it would.

On the way home we stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream cone to cool off with.  It was really a perfect camping trip.  All the small mishaps from the camp site being out of fire wood, to under packing for the unexpected weather, to the missing letter box are really what creates the memories.  Not everything can go as planned.  It is how you react to the new plan that counts!  Everyone left a little more tired, but a lot more happy and full of exciting camp memories.  And then the adult volunteer leaders also got the pleasure of taking home a head cold too ;-)