Another fun weekend with the girls and the AHG troop, this time visiting Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville. I am always curious to see if we will be able to get the van doors shut when we pack for these campouts. The girls each have their own tent now, and Magan still needs the large 10 man tent, but she has slimmed down to a cot, away from the queen size air mattress. We arrived around 5PM after a super long wait for Jacks chicken, and began setting up all our stuff, which takes quite a while.
One of the new girls in the troop helped me tie the flagpole knots, and she gets the prize for tying the best knot ever. It held up very well through the entire weekend. Ruby was super proud of all the room in her tent. It was a fun night for smores around the campfire, and apparently the girls really liked them, as there were none for the following night after dinner. We realized and remembered from the last campout here how far away the bathroom was from the campsite, but Magan loaded all the girls up in our van and they drove down to it on this night. Davis sent us a picture of some chicken he grilled on the new grill.
The next morning put us in a bad place, because we were too far away from any fast food, so I had to actually cook breakfast for the girls. But I had forgotten to bring the grits that they all wanted, so we were left with breakfast bars, and some freeze dried eggs, sausage, and potatoes. This is a fine breakfast for me, but not so much for the girls. Ruby reminded me that the only freeze dried meal she likes is the biscuits and gravy one. Oh well, we survived. It was also an exciting morning when I looked on Life 360 to make sure Davis had gotten up to go with his mentor, Eric Kolb, turkey hunting. Davis was very excited about this, and had recently taken all the tests and gotten his hunting license. But I was surprised when I saw him still at the house...then I realized quickly that he had just never waken up. Eric had left me a voicemail that he knocked and rang door bell multiple times at 4AM, but Davis can sleep thru anything. Magan went into crazy woman mode (she would call it concerned mother mode, but she would be wrong), and panicked tht something was wrong with Davis. I agreed completely that something was wrong with him, but knew that it was because he can't set an alarm across the room to force himself to wake up. But Magan called Dewann Francis, who went over, went in the house, and scared Davis to death when she went in his room. Well, at least he was awake, and embarrassed that he missed his hunting trip. He sent pictures of catching turtles and fish later in the day, so I guess he still had fun with the house all to himself.
After breakfast, we left camp to visit the Space Center, and that has its own blog, so enough for that. When we returned, the Explorers and PiPas got busy with their badge requirements, but since I had the Tenderhearts and we only had 4 girls, I let them play, while I took a nap. All of the girls were earning the "Living in Space" badge requirements. Belle and the PiPas had a fun time being spun around and simulating shooting a rocket off from Earth to land on a certain area. Ruby and the Explorers were building some test experiments in a small area to simulate the tight working spaces. The tenderhearts and I worked on a drawing for our space crew, then we read a book about Mae Jemison, and finally had a "Stomp Rocket" competition shooting rockets up into the trees and trying to catch them. One funny story was as I was reading the book about a little girl that was told she could be anything when she grew up, I asked all the girls what they wanted to be...teacher, mommy were good answers, but when I came to Diana, she looked at me with big eyes and said with no hesitation "A Unicorn".
It was great that Marcus, Emily and the girls were able to drive up and join us at the campsite. The girls both liked playing with the Stomp Rockets also. All of the girls also got together to perform a skit for Mrs. Magan that Shaley had written. And since Belle Douglas was not there (she got sick the first night, and they left in the middle of the night with puke in the tent), Ruby took over the role of Mrs. Magan. It was awesome...the skit showed how Mrs. Magan loves to sit in her chair and sleep with lots of blankets...it picked on her (and probably me) for always having Jacks in the morning and ChickFilA for dinner...hilariously had Anabelle Lewis dragging a super heavy bag of bathroom "essentials" for the nightly shower...showed her curling everyones hair that wanted it done...and lastly, had Ruby as Magan, with a large towel wrapped on her head lay down on her Queen size mattress. "Good Night Girls" Ruby said laying on the bed..."Good night Mrs. Magan" all the girls replied to end the skit titled "Camping, Mrs. Magan Style". Of course Magan loved it, and since this was the 5th and final year of her being the troop leader, the girls loved that she loved it.
That evening we had our normal skits and songs. Hadassah was the MC of the event, and did a great job. Our tenderhearts brought back the Squirrel patrol, the PiPas did not have a skit, and the Explorers did a funny one about a guy that killed everyone for a movie, but the cameraman did not have any film in the camera...you just had to be there. I brought out the Hey Joe song, which I think Ruby is now ready to lead by herself. And we ended the evening with a flag retirement ceremony lead by Anabelle. I told Magan that I often request things from our kids with the same manner that I ask others...it is with a hesitancy and slight plea for help...but it is not required with her or any of them. As soon as I asked, she quickly said "Yes, no problem" and started asking me about what she needed to prepare for...truly a blessing. And she did an amazing job. She spoke up well, and kept the perfect pace for a respectful ceremony. We retired three flags that night. And thankfully, she came and stood next to me to lead the Star Spangled Banner, as she has much better pitch.
The next morning began with some grits! The marshalls had went to Walmart, and I asked her to pick some up for me. So all the girls were happy with a cup full of grits. After breakfast, Hadassah led a very emotional devotion, that really impacted many as it was true reflection of the darkness that is all around in schools. But through a little tears, I think everyone there was encouraged to stand up to the darkness, and shine our lights a little brighter in the world. We then finished the campout with the paper plate awards. I did get one to Diana about being the best unicorn at the campout (she actually wore unicorn pajamas that Sunday morning). Belle got the paper plate award for "Best Moma head massager" and "Master of the Flag Retirement Ceremony". Ruby got the award for "Best Director of Phenomenal Filmography" (she was the director in the Explorer skit). After the breakdown of camp, we went and visited the Japanese Garden at the state park...and even recreated some pictures from our last AHG campout here.
And our weekend came to an end with a visit to La Finka mexican restuarant with Marcus and Emily. I ordered the special, then was surprised when they delivered three plates for the special. Haha, marcus then said that he wanted the special too. It was a fun ending to another great AHG campout. There is always some craziness with how these things get planned, and drama abounds often with the planning, but it always works out, and it was perfect weather for the weekend. Even tho Mrs. Princess did not have enough blankets on the first night.
Oh...and some random memories...that will just need to be remembered...tree spider with Mr. Jimmy, Ruby behind tent, alka selzer rocket duds, concentrated pudding with the tenderhearts was nasty, and hahaha...I guess I will go back to Magan's first night in the tent. She was really cold, and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. So she put on 6 shirts, and with her eye mask, and ear buds, had to worm her way around the tent before going to bed. The second night, she put hot hands all over and inside her clothes to stay warm. I'll let her share the location of the hot hands that help a good night sleep.
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