Better Late Than Never

I FINALLY FINISHED IT! 

"It" being the photo album from our trip to France in 2008. Yes. 2008!!!!
If you want to see it, you can take a gander here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/tlcbull/FpV91o

Camporee 2018 was Literally Smoking!

Yahoo! I made it through Camporee 2018. The theme was the Amazing Girl Race and I was fortunately able to help on the committee. Even though it was very tiring, I LOVED every second of it! Since I was a volunteer, and helping to run the camp, I was not able to travel with my troop, but they still came and had a great time. I was also able to see my niece and SIL as they participated with their own troop.
In order to get things ready for 800 campers, I went to the camp on Wednesday to help with preparations.We sorted T-shirts, sorted program supplies for each activity, prepared activities for the race portion, practiced our campfire skits and songs, and helped to prepare 1000 S'mores!
In order to serve that many people, we prepared the S'mores and wrapped them in foil, then put them on trays to go into the oven. The industrial size of it all meant we could cook 20 trays with 40 S'mores per tray or 800 S'mores at one time!  Then when it was time to give them out, we just passed them down the line and BOOM campfire deliciousness!

Thursday morning came early and we helped to settle all of the campers into their designated sections of the meadow. We helped to unload cars and I was assigned to help direct traffic as we got everyone to where they needed to be. 

Later in the afternoon, we opened camp with a flag ceremony. We had some of the Girl Scouts of Utah Executive Officers present the colors by riding in on the Trefoil horses. They rode up to the breezeway, then gave the color guard the flag. It was a bit different from back in the day when we used to be able to ride straight up to the flag pole and present the colors directly from horseback, but it was still pretty cool.

Then it was time for SWAPS!

Friday, we mostly conducted different learning workshops. I taught fire building. I don't have any photos of that yet, but I hope to get some soon. We also had a rockin' dance party.

Saturday morning was our Amazing Girl Race. Girls had to go to stations for G=go-getter, I=innovator R=risk taker L=Leader where they had to complete some real life style scenarios having to do with each category. For example in the innovator section they had to figure out how to pitch a tent that had lost a tent pole. 

Before we knew it, it was time to go home. Check out for Troops was on Saturday between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. We did our best to help load cars and get troops out of camp as soon as we could. I had been helping to sort program supplies from 3-4 ish, but we finished early and headed up to the meadow to help load cars. Around 4:30 we got an Emergency alert over the radio to get everyone out of the meadow and down to the parking lot ASAP! So we left the cars we were loading, dropped everything, and headed down the hill. Once we got the lot, we could see the flames on the hillside near the camp.

 We loaded kids into as many cars as we could find, trying to keep troops together and send them down the mountain. Unfortunately only a few of them made it out before the fire department stopped all traffic because the fire trucks were blocking the very narrow road. So they turned the cars around and sent them back up to camp. We tried to receive them as happily as we could, and gave them water bottles, fresh fruits, gold fish crackers etc. Camp staff began singing songs, and we brought out games and tried to keep everyone happy while the Administrators tried to figure out what was going on. We were told that we may have to shelter in place for another night, so camp staff threw together a meal of hot dog bun pizza from left over kitchen supplies. 

Eventually a fire official came up to camp to tell us they were working on getting us a "window of opportunity" and he advised us to load our cars, assign seat assignments, and be as ready to go as we can. Then he would send some one up to escort us out. We all had to leave together and we would have to leave quickly. So we cleaned up camp, loaded our cars, and waited for the signal. Finally around 9:30 p.m. we were told to load up and we headed out.

 It was like a parade! Fire fighting trucks lined the road as we came through, and waved to us as we high-fived them and thanked them through the windows of our cars.

 I pulled into my driveway at 12:30 am. exhausted but ever so grateful for those who worked so hard.

Troop 2033 Yearbook

I love being a Girl Scout Leader. I love watching teeny tiny little girls who try so hard not to cry at their first meeting grow and develop so they are leading the show by the end of the year. I love seeing the teenagers be able to do things that their peers don't usually do, like count back change, apply proper first aid, and sing hundreds of silly songs. Everyone knows I also love taking pictures, so taking pictures of my Girl Scouts seems like a logical thing for me to do. I also love making photo albums. I have made one each year that I have been the leader of this Troop. If you love these things, too, you can visit our newest yearbook by clicking here:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/tlcbull/51qVju