Friday, July 18, 2008

12-Year-Old Bliss

Have I mentioned that I'm Nikki's Girl Scout leader? Well, I am. By default, really. If I hadn't taken over the troop 18 months ago, it would have dissolved. But I'm not really qualified or GOOD at being a leader, so sometimes I wonder what the girls think.

Last night, we had our SECOND back yard camp out. I mention that it's our SECOND because I really thought we'd just do one (which we did, last year), and then we'd move on to places, well, not on our property. So I mentioned to the girls that I am now OUTDOOR CERTIFIED and we can camp wherever we want, but they wanted another campout in my back yard. So that's what we did.

Because we didn't have time to have a planning meeting between the girls' camps and vacations, and because I felt like it was time for them to push themselves a little, I called my good friend Richard and told him we were ready for another hike. After joining us for dinner al fresco, he took us on a BEAUTIFUL hike by moonlight. We got back around 10:00, made s'mores in my wonderful neighbor's fire pit (THANKS, TAMI!), and the girls finally pooped out around midnight. This morning, we cooked on the camp stove on the deck (french toast, bagels, bacon) and tie died shirts. Breakfast was great, but the shirts started out beautiful and then faded when we washed them. I'll be researching tie-dying tips before our next meeting (and if you have any, please post them!).

Before the girls left, I asked them do do a "Plus-Delta," where they talk about what they liked and what they would change about their experience.

Pluses: s'mores, hiking, playing "dare or dare" (a modified version of truth or dare), cooking on the camp stove, setting up the tent

Deltas: not getting up at 2:00 am so they could jump on the trampoline in their underwear (???)

In my self-centered brain, I really though that whether or not they had fun had something to do with me. Clearly, that's not the case. So I guess they're not ready to fire me yet. Yeah! :)

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