YWs Campout

Several years ago the church changed the youth program by declaring that activities were to be "youth led."  Anyone who has ever tried to have a child clean their own room (or do any chore themselves) knows that this is a thousand times more work than just doing it yourself.  And having a youth led program is exactly the same.  But for the same reason that it's a good idea to make your kid actually do chores, I'm seeing that it's also a good idea for the kids to take charge of their activities.  Even if it's WAY harder for me.

So.  Literally the day after I got home from YWs Camp, I got an email from McKinley, one of my class presidents, suggesting that we plan a campout at First Landing State Park on the beach.  I can't say no to someone being enthusiastic and taking initiative like that, so I agreed to look into it.  But before I could, marching band season started for both Kendra and McKinley, which kept them busy every weekend until halfway through November.  And there was no point in going camping without the girl who most wanted to go!  So now we were planning a campout for the middle of November, which is not usually the ideal time for such things.

Meanwhile, the YM were talking about going camping, too, so I figured we could go the same weekend, and be near each other, but not actually together.  Or in other words-- I could rely on Craig for some help, but keep the boys and girls separate.  But apparently I never properly explained this plan, because Craig's counselor decided the young men would go camping at a place called the Devil's Marble Yard.  And I decided we needed a bunkhouse if we weren't going to freeze and the best one I could find that was still open that late in the season was at Holliday Lake State Park.  So we were going to completely different locations on the same night, which meant I was planning a campout all on my own without Craig's help.  And the advisor I'd had who was super good at all this stuff moved to Alabama, so I couldn't get her help, either!

So this was all very scary and stressful for me.

But-- working with my people (who helped SO MUCH) we managed to pull it off and it went GREAT.  I'm so happy that it went well and so relieved to have it done with!  

When we arrived, around 6:30pm on Friday night, it was pitch black and we couldn't find the bunkhouse!  Not the best start.  But eventually I was pointed in the right direction, and when I got there Anita had a lovely fire going!  Once we'd unloaded our stuff, I sent Kendra and McKinley to watch for the rest of our party so not everyone would be lost, at least.  Then the girls put together brownies and apple cobbler in Dutch ovens, nestled them into the coals, and ran off to the playground to play in the dark.  They made a whole slide show telling some story about a girl being murdered and it was HILARIOUS.  And they just got to run around being goofs together, which makes me so happy!

Kendra and Ember in front of a giant frog slide

Lydia, Ember, McKinley

Lydia, McKinley, Ember, Marianne, Julia, Kendra

We had the stuff that makes your fire glow different colors!

The apple cobbler turned out PERFECT.  The brownies were a bit burned on top, but that part was easy to scrape off and they were good underneath it!  We had a couple of the girls' dads staying in a tent nearby, so we invited them over for dessert, which they seemed to appreciate.  Then the girls headed for "bed" (in reality, staying up late giggling and talking about their crushes and braiding each other's hair) while the grown ups stood around the fire talking until way too late.  There was a full moon.  We were pretty sure we could see glimpses of the lake through the trees.  It was chilly, but not freezing.  It was really great, to be honest.

I slept terribly.  Sleeping bags make me claustrophobic, the bed was terribly hard, and I was slightly afraid of falling off that top bunk and really hurting myself.  But it wasn't cold and I usually don't sleep much when I'm camping, so all in all it wasn't bad.  And I managed to not have to get up in the night to use the bathroom (which would have been a big pain between the bunk beds and the bathrooms being a bit down the road!), so that was as much success as I needed.

I got up around 6 or 7 (I think?) and Anita was already getting a fire going.  We thought someone was bringing a cook stove and griddle, but we somehow ended up with no griddle, so we decided to cook breakfast in the Dutch ovens over the fire: sausage, hashbrowns, and eggs, and they turned out beautifully.  That was all Anita and Johanna-- I could have made a mess of those in the best of circumstances!  So breakfast was great and as soon as that was done the girls decided to make s'mores, since they hadn't the night before.  I love it.  That's what camping is all about!  S'mores for second breakfast!!!

Me, Anita, Missy, Johanna

Marianne trying to make the best of the hole in her water bottle

S'more time!  (Behind them is a screened in picnic area and a shower house!  But why would you have showers and no toilets???)

There's our bunk house behind them!  Hard to believe that could sleep up to 14 people!

And you can see the lake back there!  What a lovely location!

Once everyone had had their fill of s'mores, we decided we ought to do a little hiking.  There were trails along the lake, so off we went!  By now it had warmed up to the 60s and it was just a lovely day.  We saw a few large turtles in the lake, and right as we got back to camp, a bald eagle was circling over our campsite.  

We probably hiked around three miles?  Not very far, but at least enough to feel like you'd moved!  Once we got back to our campsite, I taught the girls how to make amazing foil dinners (I'm not being funny-- I actually make really good foil dinners!  And this time, I got even smarter and just used hashbrowns rather than chopping up and peeling a billion potatoes for it-- we ate so many hashbrowns this weekend!!), and then Nat Sellers, one of the dads, watched over all the foil packets and kept them turning in the fire so they all got cooked evenly.  They were delicious, even if they did make for a very heavy late lunch.  

Once everyone had had their fill (and a few more s'mores) we packed up and headed home!  We got back to our house right around 5pm, so it was just about 24 hours of the great outdoors.

How cute are these girls?

So I did it!  I made a campout happen.  I never could have done it without my peeps.

Craig's campout also went well-- that can probably be my next post.