Fort Wilderness Camping with the Girl Scouts - Easter Sunday

After all the little girl scouts had gone to sleep, two of the leaders hid Easter eggs all over our campsites for the girls to find in the morning.

So early Easter morning the girls woke up to a colorful array of eggs scattered throughout the sites.  And in the trees.

That's right, the trees.

Evidently the squirrels of Fort Wilderness thought they should be part of the egg hunt, too.  And they got an early start.  Eggs were open, had holes chewed in them, and were falling from the treetops.  It was hilarious.  The girls had fun finding the eggs and then ate a cereal and fruit breakfast while we got to the business of breaking down camp.

Check out was at 11 but it took us a little longer to get everything packed up.  Luckily no one came by and yelled at us to get out.  We managed to pack up the trailer and get it attached to the Suburban on the first try and we all gave high fives to each other in glee.

We seriously were so freaking proud of ourselves.

We had promised the girls we'd let them shop in the gift shop before we left so two leaders took the girls to shop while one of the leaders and I took our cars loaded with gear off the site to the parking lot. Once all the girls had shopped and we were back at the parking lot we realized our girls were starving. So what did we do?

We put leftover spaghetti and meatballs into plastic cups and let them eat in the cars.  They got to forage into all the leftovers from the coolers and everyone was happy as we got on the road to go home.

It was about an hour into the drive when my co-leader and I in the van noticed that one of the lids on one of the bins on the trailer was flapping around a little.  Before it flew off and caused a ten car pileup on the Florida Turnpike, we pulled over and assessed the situation.  Some highway side securing solved the problem and we were back on our way.

Halfway home, I discovered that The Man and his family were holding the annual Easter egg hunt for Munchkin to arrive.  So I informed my fellow leaders that I'd be making a detour before we pulled into town to drop Munchkin off at the family party so that all the kids could get to hunting.

Munchkin happily skipped off to the hunt in her girl scout camping clothes and not a pretty Easter dress as would have been the norm... but I don't think anyone cared.

By 6:30 every girl had been delivered to their parents, the van had been unpacked, and I was driving home to an empty house.  After a hot shower I fell into bed, exhausted.  And that was the end of me.

Fort Wilderness Camping with the Girl Scouts - Day 2

Where was I?

Oh yes, we had just served the girls lava spaghetti from the front seat of the van.

By the time the movie was over, all eleven girls were pretty tired so we headed back to camp and everyone got ready for our first night of sleeping in tents.

The girls showered in the lovely showers that Disney provides.  Truly, the best showers I have ever seen at a campsite.

The other leaders and I hung out in our chairs and relaxed a bit while the girls giggled themselves to sleep and then we retired to our air mattresses.

I don't know about you, but I never have any luck with air mattresses. Last weekend was no exception.  I inflated my high quality, not cheap or crappy, Sealy air mattress fully and prepared for a comfortable night of sleep.  However, at some point I found half of my body touching the ground and the other half awkwardly raised in the air.  This always happens to me.  I have bad air mattress juju.

The morning came early on Saturday and we were determined to have a day full of fun for the girls. After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, we did the standard girl scout dunk bag method of cleaning dishes and the girls went off to play a wicked game of Disney dodge ball.

While the girls were playing dodge ball, my co-leader and I went to refill our propane tank and check out the beach area of the campground where it was rumored that the girls might enjoy a nice picnic lunch.  I mentioned before that Fort Wilderness isn't really car friendly, didn't I? Well this would be one of those times when having a golf cart would have been awfully handy.

We had the van, carrying a propane tank and all, and were trying to get close enough to scope out this little beach area.  But there is absolutely no place to park.  Now it was Saturday around 11, which also happens to be check-out time at Fort Wilderness.  So we drove to the nearest campsite loop and decided to park the van in an empty campsite and walk over to the beach area to check it out.  Check out just happened, right? So the chances of the new campsite tenant showing up right away was really slim, right?

You'd think.

As we were walking back to the van after leisurely discovering the perfect picnic spot, I heard a horn honking in the distance.  And then I realized it was coming from a HUGE MOTOR HOME parked right behind the van.

The van looked really itty bitty in comparison.  I think the van was shaking a little with fear.

We ran back to the van and apologized profusely to the people who desperately wanted to get their site set up and we hightailed it out of there.

Back at our site we loaded up sandwich stuff in soft coolers and all of us rode our bikes over to the picnic spot for sandwiches.

We ate and then the girls wanted to head over the the Triple Circle D ranch to look at the horses.  These are the same horses that pull the carts on Main Street in The Magic Kingdom and I was totally excited to go see them.  Of course, I pretended I was really only going to see them because the girls wanted to go, but secretly I was thrilled.

And that's when I fell in love.




All of the horses there are Percherons and they're ginormous.  And absolutely beautiful.  And they're all named manly names like John (seen above) and Jake and Dave.  And I wanted to take them all home.

After horses and lunch we all went over to the pool and got sunburned.  It was joyous.  We did apply sunscreen to each and every girl, but the Orlando sun is relentless and our little porcelain dolls fried like lobsters.  They had a fantastic time, though.

At 5 we hurried back to camp and made hot dogs and hamburgers for the girls.  They served them, just like good girl scouts should do, and we realized that we actually might be doing a good thing for these girls.  They served, cleaned up, and all ran efficiently.  It was fantastic.

After our cookout, we got ready to head over to the Chip & Dale sing along where the most exciting part of our trip occurred.  Before the sing along started, while the girls were getting all ooey gooey with smores over the campfire, one of the cast members came over and asked if our troop would be willing to introduce Chip & Dale.

And all the girls went "SQUEEEE!!!"

No really, that's the noise they made.

So after we cleaned the marshmallow stickiness off of their faces and the chocolate off of their little fingers, we all lined up with Chip & Dale and escorted them on to the stage.  Which was awesome.

The girls got a signed photo from Chip & Dale and hugs and kisses and it was fantastic.

After the sing along we took them back to the beach area to watch the Electrical Water Pageant and the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom.

It was really an awesome day.

And in the end, eleven little girl scouts fell fast asleep in their sleeping bags.

Fort Wilderness Camping with the Girl Scouts - Day 1

So to continue the nature-loving trend I'm having here on Domestic Spaz, it's time to talk a little about last weekend's camping trip.

It wasn't really intentional that we planned a weekend camping trip for the girl scouts on Easter weekend.  It was more of a "Hey! We need to book a camping trip! The girls don't have school that Friday, let's book one then!" and bam reservations were made.

It didn't really pose much of a problem for our troop, luckily, as out of sixteen girls, only three decided they couldn't make it.  In the end, two more dropped out due to health issues.  So Friday morning we gathered at my co-leader's house at the crack of dawn to begin our adventure.

We had gathered most of the girls gear the night before and put it in the topper on my van.  The Man packed that sucker like a game of duffel bag tetris and I warned everyone not to even think about opening it until we had arrived at Fort Wilderness.

The real challenge was packing up the open trailer we were using to bring up the tents and food and BIKES.  Luckily, my co-leader's husband was willing to pack it up nice and securely for the ride up.  Since we're smartypantses, we took pictures of the trailer in order to remember how to pack it up to come home. This would be the first of our genius moves of the weekend.

We got on the road a little late, but managed the 3 hour drive without incident.

The trailer and all of its contents remained secure and once we arrived on our campsite we managed to back it into place and unhook it from the Suburban that had pulled it up there.

Nevermind that we forgot temporarily to actually unlock it from the trailer hitch and managed to actually pick the back of the Suburban off the ground while attempting to unhook it.  And nevermind that the block we placed underneath the front of the trailer wasn't exactly level, causing the trailer to roll backward and KACHUNK on the ground. No one was injured and all was well. And we did it.

We quickly ate a sandwich lunch because we were all starving.  Then our first real challenge (aside from the trailer) was to set up camp.  We had three tents for the girls and one ginormous tent for the five leaders and two adjacent campsites to utilize.  So we decided to put all the girls on one site and then put the leaders on the site with the trailer and all of the cooking stuff.  This would be the second of our genius moves of the weekend.

The girls tents quickly started going up.  Until we got to the tent I had brought for the girls.  Now, the last person to use this tent was The Man's cousin when she took our kids and her kids camping with the boy scouts.  I was actually in Pittsburgh at the time, but evidently when the tent was returned it was a little disheveled.  The Man was dealing with an arm injury at the time, so I guess when he attempted to return the tent to its original condition, he forgot to make sure that the entire structure of tent poles and framing was put in the bag with the tent.

I had planned on setting up the tent at home before the trip just to make sure nothing like this happened... but time caught up with me (as it usually does) and it never happened.  So you can imagine my frustration when I realized that the tent I had brought for the girls wasn't going to happen.

Yeah.

Luckily, we had to make a run to Walmart for food just after setting up camp, so the troop could purchase another tent while we were there. Crisis averted.

While one of the leaders and I ventured off to Walmart, the other three leaders took the girls to the pool.  There is an awesome bus line that runs throughout Fort Wilderness that will get you pretty much wherever you need to go.  But the girls wanted to ride their bikes.  And when they had played all of the cards they could play to get us to agree to let them ride their bikes to the pool (that we weren't sure where it actually was), they played the final card.

"But it's EARTH DAY!"

And off on their bikes they all went.






After the pool and the trip to Walmart, we started dinner for the girls. The girls had planned the menu, so Friday's dinner was spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread.

Time was of the essence (as it always is), so we decided to make a big pot of spaghetti and drive the girls over to the movie (there's a movie under the stars every night at Fort Wilderness) and let them eat the spaghetti there.

So we drove them over (as close as we could drive them, a lot of Fort Wilderness is bike & golf cart accessible only) and set up an assembly line of plates and forks for them to get their spaghetti and walk over to the movie.

The pot was on the floor of the front passenger seat of my van and to serve it, we had the brilliant idea of me putting my hand in a big ziploc bag and grabbing a handful of spaghetti to put on their plate.  The idea was awesome.  Except for the fact that the spaghetti was like LAVA.

I served the first girl in this manner and my hand was immediately tingly like it was on fire.  But I had eleven girls to serve and there was a bit of a sense or urgency... so what did I do?

I persevered.

I stuck my hand into the burning lava spaghetti eleven times and served all eleven girls.  And then I cried as the feeling returned to my fingertips.  But all girls ate. Mission accomplished.

In the morning I discovered two meatballs on the floor of the van and three strands of spaghetti stuck to my dashboard.  But it was all good.

I can totally handle nature that hides in its protective shell until I get far, far away from it

I spent last weekend at Disney's Fort Wilderness with four grown women and eleven 9 and 10 year old girls. That's why I haven't been posting... because it has taken me a while to get my life back together. Camping with eleven girls takes a lot out of you. Go figure.

I'm still not completely back together. But then again I'm not sure I was together before we left.

I think I'll post about that soon, but for right now I'm going to post about Mr. Turtle.

Today while I was busily listing stuff on eBay, Munchkin came in to say "There's a TURTLE in the yard! A TURTLE!!!"

And I guess I watch too much TV because my first thought was:

But then I realized she was probably talking about the reptilian version.  And since we live in the backwoods of South Florida, turtles aren't really odd occurrences.

So I looked at her and said "Yeah, so?"

Because I'm an awesome mom.

So I guess that reaction wasn't enough for Munchkin. Because about 3 minutes later she came in to my office holding the turtle.

A good blogger would have immediately grabbed the camera. But I'm not a good blogger, because I screeched "OH MY GOSH! YOU BROUGHT IT IN THE HOUSE!!!"

And Munchkin turned and ran with the turtle.

Outside I allowed them to pose with Mr. Turtle, all the while reminding them that turtles are VERY SCARY and will reach their little necks out and BITE YOUR FINGERS OFF.



I'm all about giving my children complexes.  So they can grow up fearing nature instead of embracing it, just like their mother.

I hope Mr. Turtle figures out how to move his little turtle legs quickly because my children probably won't be leaving him alone until he figures out how to sneak out of the yard without them noticing.  Or he bites a finger off.  And that will make an excellent blog post, don't you think?

Not that I gave up anything for Lent anyway, but The Spaz will be celebrating the end of it with copious amounts of booze...

The next few days in Spazland are going to be a little nutty. I feel like I've been triple whammied by life.

Thursday is The Man's birthday.  While I'm not planning a giant celebration for him (sorry, Mr. Wonderful), I'd still like to make his day special. :) So I need to find some time to make the house somewhat enjoyable for him and bake him a birthday cake. No big deal, right? Unfortunately, I also have a girl scout meeting that night that is necessary for me to attend so the tribute to The Man will have to wait until after the meeting.

Why on earth would a girl scout meeting trump The Man's birthday? Well, because on Friday (Earth Day!) I'll be heading up to Disney's Fort Wilderness with thirteen 9 year old girls, their bikes, and 5 other grown women for a weekend camping extravaganza. So the meeting on Thursday is kind of an important one to touch base with the girls and their parents and to pack up the minivan.

Now, it's not as if I haven't known about this trip for EVER.  But I just wouldn't be me if I didn't leave all the pertinent little details to the last minute.

So between now and Thursday I have to somehow find the time to clean out the van and vacuum it so the girls aren't accosted with something foul that may be living in the 3rd row, get to the grocery store, do enough laundry to make sure everyone has clothes for camping and for the boys at home until I return (including Easter clothes), set up our tent to make sure it's not all screwy for some reason (and to make sure I know how to set up our tent), put a First Aid kit together for the troop, put the topper on the minivan, clean the house, buy all of the stuff we'll inevitably need for camping, buy Easter stuff, pack 200 colored eggs with candy and treats, get new tires on the van, bake a cake, host a girl scout meeting, and, oh yeah, actually get some work done.

I'm giggling a little. It's probably hysteria. 

Our check out time from Fort Wilderness is Sunday at 11:00 AM.  Easter Sunday. It was a bit of a screw up that we actually booked this camping trip for Easter weekend, but oddly enough, it hasn't caused too much of a disruption with the girl scout families. Out of the 16 girls in our troop, 13 are attending and the other three are not missing the trip due to the holiday.

So on a morning when I would usually be watching my babies wake up to colorful, chocolatey, jelly beany goodness, I'll be breaking down a camp site and loading girls into cars to head home.

And hopefully we'll be able to get to The Man's aunt's house by 2:00 for our annual Easter egg hunt.  I'm sending The Man and the boys with the previously stuffed eggs just in case we don't make it.

I think I'll be having a nice, stiff, Easter evening drink.

How do I love thee, electricity & hot showers?

So I'm back... and I survived... and I actually sort of kind of maybe had fun. I think I'd even do it again.

Shocking, I know.

It was with trepidation that I drove to Camp Welaka Saturday morning. I left my quiet house in the dewy morning, coffee in hand, Munchkin's pink canvas duffel bag slung across my shoulder, and my new 30 degree sleeping bag dangling from my arm.

I arrived at the camp around 8 AM, checked in, and walked my stuff straight into my assigned camp site. As I was walking to the site, one of the trainers stopped me on the way in. She was telling me which cabins I could choose from and then added that some of us would be sleeping in the unit house on mattresses on the ground and that the benefit to the unit house was that there were fans.

Guess where I chose to put my stuff.

After unloading all my stuff on the bench in the unit house, I ventured out to talk with one of the trainers and wait for the rest of the attendants to arrive.

When everyone arrived we all headed over to the main flagpole for an opening camp ceremony. Now, our council, the Palm Glades Council, has recently merged with the Broward County council. Recently, as in last month. So as with any merger, there are kinks that need to be ironed out. Evidently, the proper way to do a flag ceremony needs to be ironed out still. There were all kind of bickering between leaders from Broward and leaders from Palm Glades about such things as where did the horseshoe end and whether women were allowed to wear hats and if you were allowed to be carrying things in your hands. It was all very unprofessional and unsettling... not exactly a great way to open up camp.

But whatever... I was planning on making the best of this 28 hour session and hoped this bickering wouldn't continue throughout the weekend.

After the flag ceremony we headed back to the site where we settled in to learn knife safety, how to tie a few basic knots (square, clove hitch, and bowline), and how to select and make a good stick to roast food over the fire. Then it was time for lunch.

And here's my note on lunch. If you choose to roast a hot dog over an open flame, simply put your toasted weanie into a bun. Do not try to get fancy and wrap crescent roll around the dog in lieu of a bun. Crescent roll is a pain in the butt to cook over an open flame.

After lunch we took a 2 1/2 mile hiking tour of camp, including a walk on Welaka's cat walk. The cat walk (and forgive me, I did not get a picture) is a very narrow stretch of wooden boards that you can walk over the natural swamp land and through the thick mangrove trees. I do vaguely remember this from being a girl, but as an adult I'm more observant of nature and I was in awe of all of the little crabs walking along the trees right next to us and how dense the mangroves are in that area. It was spooky and beautiful and magical and I can't wait to take Munchkin to see it. :)

After our exhausting tour of camp was complete it was time to head back to our site and cook our foil packet dinner.

I was a little freaked by the amount of people who were in the fire circle at one time...

But dinner turned out great. We made sliced chicken with peppers and onions and potatoes and learned that putting a wet paper towel in between the pieces of foil would keep our chicken moist and a couple of ice cubes inside the packet would help steam the vegetables.

After dinner we, of course, had to have toasted marshmallows!

After our marshmallows we had a flag retiring ceremony at another fire circle and invited a couple of other sites along to watch. Before the flag retiring we sang typical girl scout songs and some groups performed a couple of skits and it was really just like traditional girl scout camp! So much fun. The flag retiring ceremony was very moving and sort of sad and beautiful. I'm so glad I got to see it, it really helps inspire respect for the flag and I hope to do it with our girl scouts one day.

Later, some of us opted to go on a night hike to the catwalk. I was a little apprehensive to go on the catwalk at night, but I wanted to experience as much as I could and the moon was very bright, so I went. We really didn't see too much, but it definitely got our adrenaline rushing to be out in the swamp at night! Definitely spookier than in the day!

When we got back to camp I was ready for bed. I headed into the unit house and found that there was NO mattress left for me! My stuff was still there, but there was no mattress. Super.

Luckily, there was one extra bed in one of the cabins with a couple of the wonderful women who had gone on the night hike. I could not thank them enough for their hospitality as they welcomed me into their cabin and I lugged all my stuff up the hill, in the dark, and to their little cabin.

As they went down to munch on cheese and crackers and then get ready for bed I set up my little bunk and changed into pajamas. Not easy to do by flashlight, let me tell you. When I stripped off my socks I was shocked. All my hiking had made my feet smell like something I had not smelled for 20 years. It was Camp Welaka foot, for sure. Horrified, I scrubbed them with baby wipes I was thankful I had remembered to bring and put on new, clean socks.

Once I was all clean and had ventured down to brush my teeth I slipped into my sleeping bag and settled in for a night of whacking mosquitoes and wondering what every noise I heard was.

In the morning I woke up early enough that my little group wasn't all awake yet. After changing I decided to take a short walk down to the lake where we had been for our flag retiring ceremony the night before.

I sat for about 10 minutes and reflecting on how peaceful and serene it all was, the birds flying around, the muffled sounds of people getting ready for the morning, and the stillness of the lake.

Finally I got up and walked over to take a picture of the fire circle from the night before.

I was sad to see this piece of one of the retired flags that someone had dropped and forgotten. Not knowing the protocol, I simply placed it in the center of the fire circle hoping that it would be retired properly during the next fire.

Soon it was time for breakfast. We had decided to cook cinnamon rolls in a box oven for breakfast. When it was first presented to me that you could actually make an oven out of a cardboard box and some aluminum foil I was intrigued. I guess I assumed that the foil protected the box from fire and that was how it didn't go up in flames. I was wrong.

Our box (which was unfortunately borrowed from another group since the group member that was responsible for creating our box - who also happened to be the only man in our group - didn't show up) went up in flames. We lit our coals, placed them inside the box, and waited for it to preheat. While waiting, we decided to quickly go into the unit house to get a drink.

By the time we grabbed a drink and went back to the fire circle, this is what we found.

We had to beg to get someone else to lend us their box oven so we could make our breakfast. Some running was involved. :)

And after much ribbing, and a little ruffling of feathers, and some comments about how you never leave a fire unattended and how we could have burned the whole forest down we finally got to eat our cinnamon rolls.

And they were really good, too.

(We were supposed to put the coals in after the flames had gone out and they had gone white... I know, seems like common sense now... duh.)

After breakfast and clean up and packing up and evaluating and saying our goodbyes, we all got to head out to the parking lot to drive back to civilization.

It's good to be home. :) All in all, I met some wonderful women and got some great ideas about things we can do with our troop. I have a completely renewed love for scouting (girl scouts, especially, of course) and really can't wait to take the girls camping. It was a great experience and it's going to be wonderful to watch these little girls grow into strong and confident young ladies.