It's that time again! I took my troop camping - 8th year in a row!
You guys know me. Every year, I take these girls to the local girl scout camp for three days and two nights of dirt, bugs and outdoor fun. This year, I happened to take 10, 13 year olds and 1, 14 year old. Nothing says peace and quiet like newly minted teenagers. My co-leaders couldn't go. But this tradition means a lot to the girls. Besides, I've missed my sister's wedding and 25th high school reunion to keep it going so I wasn't about to start blowing it off now.
Many of you might think that sounds a bit insane, and I assure you...it is. Sure, the girls wanted to do A LOT more cooking than normal, and sure, they were hyper giggly and obnoxious, but I was going to do it anyway.
Friday night was alright. We all slept in the lodge's loft. Well, I'm using the word "slept" as a euphemism for "didn't sleep at all." But you get the idea. In hindsight, it might've been a bad idea to have them all bring an item of junk food for the first night. But eventually, the sugar crash kicked in and all was well.
Saturday we hiked out to the lake for some canoeing. It was a gorgeous day and I think the girls didn't see me sleeping standing up on the pier. The sky turned kinda dark though, so we put everything away and raced back to camp - uphill the whole way. It started to downpour when we were about 100 yards from the lodge. Everyone made it but me and the kid who'd just had a hip replacement. She outran me.
You'd think the rain would've bummed them out - but after a feast of tacos and quesadillas, they ran right out into the rain and played. I had 11 soaking wet girls, laughing and muddy all borrowing MY towel for some reason.
The rain stopped and Mr. Assassin showed up so we went to the pool to practice rescuing each other in canoes. You've never lived until you've tried to tell teenagers how to haul their friends into a canoe.
Me: "Grab her under her arms and pull her up..."
Girl: "Ewww! Touch her armpits? No way!"
Me: "You can't pull her in by holding her pinkys like that. You need to grab her and haul her over the side of the canoe."
Girl: "I am NOT touching her like that."
Me: "So, the alternative is that she drowns..."
Girl: "I'd rather drown than have someone grabbing me inappropriately!"
And so it went.We swam in the rain, did archery in the rain and roasted hot dogs and s'mores in the rain. That night, I was heading up to the loft and the girls squealed at me to go back downstairs.
Me: "What? Why?"
Girls: (in creepy, Children-of-the-corn like unison) "We're talking about girl stuff!"
Me: "I'm a girl."
Girls : "No! It's like, almost a woman stuff!"
Me: "I'm a woman."
Girls: "EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"
It rained all night but the next morning was gorgeous. So we hit the zip line. We bridged the 14 year old into Senior Scouts with candles and by sending her first. The girls begged me to stay another night, but I must admit - the idea made me want to kill them all. I politely declined.
That was Labor Day Weekend. And I'm still exhausted.
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4 comments:
You are a brave soul. I had two teenagers in my house for 3 1/2 days babysitting my 9 yo while I went to work over the summer. I couldn't get over how much food they ate, what complete and total slobs they were, and how they slept the day away only to stay up half the night texting or Facebooking.
As for the camping part. My idea of camping is a 5-star hotel with "resort and spa" at the end of the name.
I'm laughing, because my mom used to say that "roughing it" was a hotel without a pool. I love the resort and spa thingy too! Wish I was there right now!
Leslie, I've said it before on this blog - you make me long for my Girl Scout days. Our senior troop loved to camp and went every opportunity we could manage. Even after we graduated and went to to college and jobs, we still got together as often as possible. One of my less sane GS buddies and I started a Brownie troop (even though we didn't have kids) and took them camping every year, too. Your description of your weekend was pretty much like one of ours, only with more high-pitched squealing, no playing in the rain (the little ones were afraid of lightning), and the same amount of junk food. Good times.
You should get a Purple Heart for not letting them drown, which is what I would have done. Teenagers. Egads.
But I remember when I was 15 that I thought 30 was ANCIENT. Anything beyond that was a CRONE.
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