Girl Scout Camp

Thank you to everyone who supported Sophie in her Girl Scout cookie sales earlier this year. There have been so many rewards. The first was that she got to attend a three day camp at Cloud Rim, a Girl Scout campground located in the mountains above Park City.

The second was that I got to attend a "Mother/Daughter" overnighter (also at Cloud Rim) with Sophie over the weekend.

It was a gorgeous place. We hiked, kayaked on the lake, crafted together in the lodge, and slept on bunkbeds in a rustic little cabin. Sophie was able to show me all of the places she had told me about from her previous camp experience, including "the biffy" -- as they like to call the bathroom. Several of her camp counselors were there too so it was fun for her to see them again.

I called ahead to find out the menu and since they were serving pasta the first night, I decided to swing by 1025 Eatery -- a fantastic new restaurant in Bountiful -- to pick up a gluten free meal. I got a mock pasta dish, ribbons of zucchini in the most flavorful sauce I've ever tasted. Yum! It was a real treat to be gluten free that night. The chef is such a fantastic food artist that I felt kind of guilty pulling out my gorgeous mound of food (it was lovely even after being rocked around in the cooler and re-heated in the microwave).

In my dream life, I was planning to take Sophie shopping for hours at the outlet malls on our way up to camp. In my real life we were hours behind schedule so we barely had time to pick up a t-shirt and hat at the Park City Wal-Mart and peek inside two outlet stores before it was time to head up to the mountains.

We wanted to hit the outlets on the way home, but there were two problems: 1) again the issue of time, and, 2) ewww - we had just been camping and hadn't showered, so we weren't exactly presentable for shopping.

Sophie was determined to stop at the Justice store (which we discovered is not actually an 'outlet' for Justice but, just a regular store). And, while we were finding a place to park, she scouted out the Harry and David's gourmet popcorn shop. Oh how that lovely popcorn was calling out both of our names! I looked at the popcorn and almost didn't buy any. But, at the last minute I picked out a combination of caramel, dark chocolate and milk chocolate popcorn (by the way, the chocolate popcorn is coated with caramel before it is dipped in chocolate - oohlala!). I almost died when I saw that there were 210 calories per 1/2 cup!!! Yikes. I knew we could polish off several cups on the long drive home. So, I made a rule that we had to wait at least five minutes between each bite so we could savor our tasty treat and keep from making ourselves sick. I also made a rule that we each had to tell a story before we could have more. It turned out to be a great bonding time of sharing stories with each other and when we arrived in Ogden, Sophie said, "That was the best long car ride ever." Awww. That was great to hear.

What a gift this weekend was to me. I can't believe how the years keep passing and somehow I hardly ever manage to make one on one time with my kids. The more and more I am involved in Girl Scouts, the more and more I love this program.

Hopefully cub scouts will be the same way because one of my greatest fears came true last month when I was called to serve as the cub scout Bear leader. I've had some time to get use to the idea, but, hello? Girl scouts every week and now cub scouts every week too. Zooweemama! That is a lot of scouts.

The good news is that Ian will be a Bear in a few months, so, it will be fun to be his leader for the coming year.