I survived.

Katie and I made it through another camping experience with her troop. We got there without incident. It was a little tougher finding the campground this year because we were driving in the dark. We still made it on time though.

Once we got there I pulled all the way into the campsite to unload our gear and then had to park at the front entrance because there are only two cars allowed at the site. From the time we got there until 12:30 a.m. the girls were on hyper overdrive. It didn't help that the girls had banana boats (which by the way are very good) and smores and some even had a hot dog or two at 9 p.m. I seriously wanted to smack one of the girls in our cabin. All she kept whining about was wanting to PAR TAY! Seriously? A 9 year old was saying this. The co-leader and I got to sleep at about 1:30 a.m. as were trying to get some of the girls to settle down. Surprisingly, Katie and the Co-troop leader's daughter fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. They were also the last ones to wake up the next morning. However, PAR TAY girl was awake on and off throughout the night. I remember waking up around 5:30 a.m. when the screen door was opened. The Co-Troop leader left to use the restroom. The PAR TAY girl wanted to go with her. Then the rest of the early morning that same girl just moved around a lot. She happened to be in the top bunk and my daughter was on the bottom. When everyone was up and going by 7 a.m. Katie mentioned to the girl that she had been very rude the previous night and she hopes that she will keep her rudeness in check for the rest of the day. I stifled a laugh but what Katie said seemed to work because this girl was polite the whole day.

It rained for some time so we kept the girls busy inside the mess hall with crafts. A mess hall with twelve active girls and four over tired adults was something else to witness. These girls transformed into polite, caring and even helpful little ladies. Once they got all the excitement out of their systems they were actually polite and well mannered girls. It became a joke among us adults that one of us must have put something calming into their drinks at breakfast early that morning.

I actually hated to leave early. Katie and I had to leave an hour earlier than the rest of them because I needed to get my son, Jeff, to work. Chris has been instructed by his company that the car in which he drives should be used for company business only. It's their way of cutting back on expenses. They can't afford to buy another car and this one has to last at least another year. I sure hope it does because it already has over 100,000 miles on it and it had extensive work done on it a few weeks ago.

So all in the entire camping trip was pleasant for the most part but, I am happy we have another year to go before the next one.

 

For those of you who would be interested in making banana boats, here is the recipe:

 

Banana

Chocolate – preferably Hershey's milk chocolate bars

Small marshmallows

 

Peel back on part of the banana's skin

With a knife cut a section down along the banana where you peeled the skin

With a spoon peel out the banana where you just cut

Arrange chocolate pieces and small marshmallows

Replace the skin and wrap the banana in tin foil

Put the banana inside the camp fire but not directly into it.

Leave it there for approximately 15 minutes

Take it out of the camp fire and let sit for 5 minutes. Take the tin foil off and enjoy

I am sure you could do it in the grill as well. I am not sure if it would work in the microwave (excluding the tin foil of course)

Kat*** It may even work on the G-Broil George Forman grill. Let me know if you decide to try it.