This weekend, Luza and I attended her first Girl Scout camp. Four girls from our Brownie troop, plus another 250 girls from the Avon Service Unit (there are something like 400 Girl Scouts in Avon), for two and a half days at a YMCA camp in Pennsylvania.
There were relatively unsuccessful pie iron pies (we blamed the rain, not the cook).
Skeevy bunk beds and restless girls who totally weren't sleepy and were going to stay up all nighzzzzzzz
We learned (mostly accurate ... well, at least partly accurate) facts about Lake Erie, and got to see some of the wildlife that lives near the camp.
We took a hayride to the candy store up the road, then had to confiscate bags of candy when they proved to be too much of a distraction during the rest of the trip.
We played silly, pointless team-building games, often while blindfolded.
We learned exactly how much of a badass you have to be if you want to be Hawkeye.
We confirmed that Liza climbs rock walls just as fast as she climbs gym equipment, playgrounds, and any other vertical structure.
Swings? Even more fun when you get to play on them and your friends don't because they're off horseback riding. Also? All those years I trained on the tire swing at the old house in Maryland mean I am vicious-good at pushing other people in new and vomit-inducing ways.
Giant slide that goes all the way down the side of a hill? Check.
High surf + lots of book-sized rocks = really cool clicking sounds when they tumble in the waves + Girl Scouts who attempt to carry home their weight in stones.
Yep, we enjoyed nature (and almost stepped on a squirrel).
The girls even got into the swing if helping set and clear our table each day, with a minimum of whining.
We goofed off in the cabin we shared with 30 other girls...
...and had enough time on Sunday after the chapel service to practice our archery skills.
There were some missteps, and some things we could have handled better, but overall, the weekend rocked! Thank you, Sybil and Diane, for getting our troop involved in this, and thanks to the Service Unit volunteers who organize this every year. And many, many thanks go to the staff at Camp Fitch, who were unfailingly helpful, enthusiastic, and encouraging. We had a great time, and we can't wait to come back next year!
