Girl Scout Camporee

About a month ago we had our Girl Scout Camporee. With all the changes in Girl Scouting lately our Service unit had to spend or hand over the money in our account so they decided to spend it on the girls on a really cool Camporee!

We went to the Irvine Ranch Outdoor Education Center. Oh my gosh was this place cool! I never knew this place existed! I've been to the Irvine park before but this is a whole separate place and its HUGE!! We had three girls from our troop. I really wished more of our girls were able to come as it was an AWESOME trip! We set up our tent and got our area all set up and then the girls were able to play with old friends and make new friends. We brought dinner with us so we didn't have to cook then we went on a L-O-N-G hike. We weren't really supposed to but we kinda got lost trying to find the auditorium where the campfire and songs were at at. Then we went back to camp and settled in for a restful night sleep- HA! Right! Kaitlyn was up and crazy, nothing really new there! After the girls crashed Michele and I stayed up chatting and Pricella and I were texting. Yes texting at a campout... even tho we were only like 4 tents away! It was pretty funny!
Next morning we had to get up early (YAWN!) and be dressed and fed and ready to go. The girls were excited about the day so they did great! Since our girls were little we did some crafts; we made recycled musical instruments, photo art with photo paper and seashells and even a solar box oven! I remember doing a box oven when I was a Brownie so that was pretty cool to show the girls how they actually work and you CAN cook a pizza with just a box, aluminum foil and saran wrap! They were very impressed that they made the box and then were able to cook in it, and they ate the yummy pizza's too! I just love being a leader! (well, sometimes!) I love the special memories I am building with Kaitlyn. I have so many fond memories of my mom in scouting. My mom is long passed but I have all these great Girl Scout memories with me and I get to relive those when alos having the experiences with my daughter and other really awesome girls!
And able to hang out great friends like Michelle.

After lunch our girls were able to do archery. I was so excited about this! What an experience for a 6 year old to do real archery! Real bow and arrows! The girls were excited but kinda nervous to try it Here they are showing off their arm guards. The girls all did great and had a lot of fun with it!


There were alot of other things going on around the park. The older girls were able to do alot of fun things that out younger girls were not able to do.

BUT... Michelle and I decided we HAD to do the ZIP-LINE!!! We just couldn't resist! So off we went to do the zip-line. The girls were great for waiting patiently for us and we literally jumped off a cliff! Once you get all strapped in they tell you to go. So you really do just run and jump off a cliff! OMG! It was SO much fun!! Kinda scary but really fun too!
Then we went back to break down camp. We finished breaking down camp and loaded up the cars. Michelle needed to leave and Kaitlyn and I went on to the pool. They had a really nice pool facility with a long water slide. That finished off out exciting weekend. We all had a great time!!