Friday

The kids did not have Camp Edventure today because of their all-day field trip last Friday, so it was nice to get the chance to sleep in this morning. However, I nearly freaked out when I woke up to Gage standing over my bed since he had spent the night with a friend last night! My plan was to be up before he and his friend came home this morning, but that didn't happen. I hopped right out of bed to discover that Emma was still sleeping too. I'm not sure if she's ever slept until 9:30am before! We were both exhausted after yesterday's adventure! (Well, I was anyway!)

I really did have a good time at Girl Scout Camp yesterday. I wasn't expecting to. It was going to be super hot and humid and I just hate being out in that kind of weather and I kept remembering how tired and spent I was after Gage's 3 afternoons of Cub Scout Day Camp. Doing one day is so much more tolerable than 3! In fact, the gal that I was unit leaders with had been there the 3 days and I could tell she was fried. She was moving in slow motion and just didn't have the energy to get the girls moving from one station to another. After supper, when it was time to clean-up, things just weren't happening. The Camp Director finally came down to our campsite to help us get things cleaned up and put away. I was doing what I could to get the girls to get their things rounded up and put into their bags and also trying to help get things put away, but it was all just happening in slow motion. The 2 PA's (program aides) that we had were quiet and timid and didn't really do much unless you told them to. They were as nice as they could be and did what they were asked without any problems, but they just didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. Seeing that, and experiencing it, makes me think that maybe it's a good thing to bring a fresh person in on the last day to help keep things moving. That is just ALOT of work to do 3 days in a row for 6 hours straight! Camping is a lot of work and cooking outdoors takes alot of planning and preparation. They had planned to have ham and cheese sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, ticks on a toilet seat and root beer floats for their supper last night. All of these things were pretty easy to do but they didn't necessarily think of how to do this the easiest way. They had the pie-irons (cast-iron sandwich makers that are used over a campfire) out to use and we only had 5 of them. When you're making 17 sandwiches, that isn't really a time-saving thing to do. After we had 5 of them on the grill, and after the other unit leader was denied her request for more pie-irons, I suggested we just wrap them in aluminum foil and put them over the campfire. It was like a light-bulb lit up in her head. LOL! That was much easier to do and MUCH easier to clean up. That scorched cheese is not the easiest thing to clean out of a pie-iron, especially when you have a limited supply of water. The ticks on a toilet seat were fun; however, not necessarily the best idea in 90+ degrees temperatures. To make ticks on a toilet seat, you must core an apple, then slice the apple into rings. You then spread peanut butter over the apple and top it with chocolate chips (ticks). They were very tasty, but quite a MESS to make. The peanut butter was melted, as were the chocolate chips. The girls had rubber spatulas that they were using to get the peanut butter out of the jar and trying to spread it onto the apple slices. They had peanut butter up to their elbows. Another thing that isn't much fun to clean up with a limited supply of water. The PA was putting the melted chocolate chips onto the apple slices with peanut butter and her hand was completely covered in chocolate after attempting to get them all out of the bag in their melted state. What a MESS! The girls ate very well; however. Thankfully the ice cream and root beer weren't brought out to the site until we were ready to make them. :-)

Emma did pretty well with me helping out yesterday. At first she was a little whiney and clingy because it was just so hot. After I showed her how to wet her bandana down and wrap it around her head, she seemed to tolerate the temperatures much better. She did try to get me to carry her bag around, which she wouldn't have done if I hadn't been there, so I did tell her that she was going to have to carry her own bag, as if I weren't there. She didn't necessarily like that, but she did do better after that. I was happy with the way the day played out. I was also ready at 8pm to go home. :-) I was quite impressed with the whole operation of the camp. Mandan Girl Scouts is ran by a different service unit, and I wonder if that's why things went so much better than the events we have attended here? It's something I will be paying more attention to in the future, for sure. I did post tons of pictures on facebook that I'm not going to take the time to do on here. It just takes so much time, and I can get them on Facebook 3 times faster.

Yesterday evening Gage had called me on the cell phone while I was at the Girl Scout Camp to tell me goodnight because he wasn't going to be home when I got there. He informed me that he was going to spend the night at his friend T.J.'s house. He was very excited about that. I think this was the first time he's spent the night away from home without having Scott, me or Emma with him. He attempted once quite awhile back with his friend Grant, but I ended up having to go get him around 11pm. He actually made it through the night without any problems. Well, as far as I know there weren't any problems. :-) He came home at 9:30 this morning and I think he was pretty proud that he had his first sleepover at a friend's house. T.J. stayed here with us this morning and then went back home after his Mom was done teaching at summer school. Last night Scott asked T.J.'s mom if he could go with them to Tuttle this evening to stay the night and he was thrilled to death to get to do that. So around 3:30 this afternoon Scott, Gage and Emma headed over to pick T.J. up and head over to Tuttle for the night. They had plans to meet a friend of Scott's and his 2 daughters for some adventures out on the prairie. Gage and T.J. have become pretty close friends this summer and we have enjoyed having him over. He's a great kid and I enjoy his family. His oldest sister will be a junior in high school in the fall and it has already been convenient to hire her as a "driving" babysitter. She took Gage to practice the other night when I went to Family Night at Girl Scout Camp and it worked out well. She is very active in hockey though, and I'm sure once hockey starts up, her babysitting time will be limited.

We went out to lunch today with our good friend, Jody Jennings, who is in town to perform a wedding for a friend of his. It was good visiting with him. Unfortunately Emily and the gang weren't able to come up with him. Maybe next time. We need to get to planning some type of vacation together in the future.

Scott and the kids left for Tuttle around 3:30 this afternoon. I decided to stay home and get some things done before we head to Iowa. I also didn't think it sounded like much fun staying somewhere where there was no air conditioner! It was a humid, hot day today. The kids and I were sweating and quite uncomfortable just walking a few blocks to China Garden for lunch. Anyway, I am home alone tonight and am anxious to get some more reading in on my new book "My Sister's Keeper" that Scott brought home for me yesterday. I've been seeing previews for this movie and want to see it, but everyone said it would be best to read the book first. Sometimes the movie sucks after reading the book and I don't want for that to happen, but I know the book is always better than the movie. I think I will end up enjoying both of them. I am enjoying the book already and will be through it in no time. Especially because I accidentally took a 2 hour nap after everyone left this afternoon......................I can't sleep at night after taking a nap, so I am quite sure I'll be awake all night reading. :-)