Sunday, March 18, 2018

Weekend at Camp Indian Echo in Hudson Florida.

It was quite a weekend! The girls did great and had a wonderful time. I'm a little biased but I think I have the best girls in my troop and am blessed that their parents allow me to be in their lives. 
We stopped at Publix (local grocery chain) and had each girl order her sub for dinner. Some had never done that (girls aged 7-9)! I thanked the young lady making their subs for being so patient and she was just so pleasant. Love that. Then we headed to check in at camp and had some food at the pavilion area near our sleeping quarters. There were 10 of us so we did 5 in each tee pee. 2 adults and 3 girls each. Lets just say that opening at the bottom was a wee bit chilly as it got down to 39 degrees on Friday night and 55 on Saturday. Next time I will bring quilts so everyone is warm... but there was NO room in the vehicle with 4 girls and 2 adults and our gear.

Tee pee!

View of pond from tee pee
 This was gorgeous in the morning with it all fogged in and the sun starting to hit it. 

View of tee pee from the pavilion and fire pit area.
Lots of my pictures are of the girls and I don't share those on public media but... here is one of my daughter Emily learning to shoot a bow and arrow with our instructor! 


She even hit the target twice. A first for the three brownies (grade 2+3). The Daisy's (grade K+1) have to wait since our instructor was only trained for brownie and up age levels. We had a time slot of 1.5 hours each for STEM activities, archery and outdoor games, lunch, cupcake decorating and free time to play around our area, then team building where we tied them together with handkerchiefs and the 6 of them had to do a scavenger hunt around the camp to find things and get photo's of them with the object. The were very happy to go back to the buddy system after being tied together. =). 

Then swaps, dinner and of course we need to end with a campfire, songs and smores. The girls were wound up and were playing around between the tee pees for a couple of hours before we settled them down a little after 10. It was up early to pack, load the car - good thing I love puzzles!, and clean our area for inspection by the ranger  at 7:30 who gave the girls a thumbs up on doing their kapers to clean up. Closing ceremony and I remembered to get my form signed for travel before we headed out. The girls are going to Disney on Ice next weekend in Tampa and the travel papers are for build a bear in Gainesville next month (outside of our immediate travel area but closer to us than Tampa!) so the girls can make girl scout smores bears. This was their choices to spend their money from cookie sales on - they will also get re registered for next year and I am looking into a skating party, lots of badges, end of year party and if $ left we'll plan to go ride horses in the fall. 
We splurged and stopped at McDonalds for breakfast this morning and one last time to chat and have the girls together before the two vehicles headed home to return them to their parents. Our car had a side trip - as there looked like a slow down 10 miles from out exit.... so we took the alternate route that just happened to take us by the Wildwood Girl Scout camp we normally go to which has a little store. I was able to pick up the 13 Yoga fun badges I needed (we did a yoga lesson the Monday before  break) and Emily saw an archery patch so we got 3 of them for the girls that got to shoot this weekend. I also got book 2+3 of a mouse mystery book I sent around this year with our penny the pig so they have something to read to her next year!.

After a shower (boy did that feel good!), unloading of the car and a 2 hour nap I felt human again. A quick trip to my co-leaders to grab a few things of mine I popped into her vehicle (you know, things never go back into the container they started in!), and a clean of the borrowed vehicle from Papa Andy (Big thanks to my FIL) I was done for the day. Greg picked up Chinese for dinner and everyone is now showered and in bed. An exhausting weekend but so worth it to see these girls grow more confident, learn some new skills and make some awesome memories together.





5 comments:

QUILTING IS BLISSFUL, DI said...

Ohh--I do have to say that you tired me out reading all about your adventures--how lucky those little girls are to have you and other adults who take the time to be with them and are teaching them things and giving them such wonderful memories!! Thanks--
oh--just a thought here--do you have the girls working on some sort of diary/scrapbook/journal of all their adventures--cause when they turn 70 they might want to pull them out and relive those good times!!!!!
enjoy, di

SusanfromKentucky said...

I'll bet it was cold in those teepees, being as they were on a deck. Wonder why they don't have them on the ground, instead? You are making such wonderful memories for these young ladies. Wish I could have had such fun! My dad died when I was eight and my mom had to go back to work. When I wanted to join the Girl Scouts with a friend, as always, it was "no". They had done everything with my sister who was eleven years older and wanted nothing more to do with it. I envy your kids!

Deb A said...

I'm guessing the tee pee's are raised since there is a pond nearby and we are in Florida - hopefully gaters don't climb? Sorry you were not able to experience this as a child... but troops love volunteers to help out. I know I am going to be working on sewing with them in the next week or two. Deciding on a pillowcase or bandana.... I found some girl scout fabrics - a bit pricy but we'll see what we can do and they did earn a good amount of $ from cookie sales this year =).

Angie said...

Sounds like a fun time was had - what a great experience! I did Cub Scouts with my boys when they were little, but our adventures were not nearly as exciting.

Moneik said...

Sounds like a great time! I'm the Cloverbuds leader for our 4-H program and I know how much planning and preparation goes into doing these events, but great memories for the kids.