Summer Begins

Well, we had a running start to our summer. It has been a good fun week or so. On Saturday, June 11 we went to one of our favorite races out near Anacortes as the Tesoro refinery. That’s the one where they always give out trophies and a free hotdog lunch. The girls did the free 1/2 mile race, Mike ran the 5K and I ran my first 10K race. Mine was 6.2 miles with a steep hill in the middle. I made it back under my goal of 1 hour and 5 minutes…with a 10 minute 14 second per mile pace. That’s pretty good…especially with a hill! I even got a ribbon for 5th place in my age group.

 

That night we got to go to the Skagit Speedway for free. Janicki gave all the families tickets. We had a great time watching those little cars race around.

Then back at school there were just the count down to the last day activities. On Tuesday Kelby played her clarinet in the 5th/6th grade talent show. For weeks she practiced with a friend at school and when the time came, they played wonderfully. I was so proud of her for getting up there and doing it! She tried out and stayed motivated all on her own. She even called to remind her friend to bring her instrument on the days they practiced.

That same afternoon both Tegan and Kelby got awards for being on the Honor Roll. Kelby also got a Silver Presidential Academic Award…which requires recommendation from a teacher and principal. Very nice job!

Wednesday was the last day of school. Where did this year go?! I have to get a shot with each girl and her teacher on the last day.

My favorite end-of-the-year tradition is going out to Chinese food for lunch on the last day (it is always a half day). We even got to have Gramma along to celebrate.

Then, armed with their gift cards from Christmas, we headed up to Build-a-Bear.

On Thursday I took a few of my Girl Scouts to a special military retirement ceremony for another Girl Scout Leader. She had Girl Scouts in the ceremony posting all the state flags…a neat experience for them.

On Saturday I took a couple different Girl Scouts to the Berry Dairy Days parade. The girls got to walk in the parade with other Girl Scouts from around the county. Kelby got to carry the state flag.

After that, I took my own girls over to a park where “The Ride to Conquer Cancer” bicyclists were coming into town. They were riding from Canada down to Oregon and were staying the night in Mt. Vernon. We volunteered for a couple hours to put up tents…they needed over 1200 for the night. It was a great cause and the girls even learned how to put up tents almost on their own, though they tired pretty quickly.

Look at that sea of tents!

That evening we got to go to two BBQs. One was for the families of youth from our church. Kelby will be in middle school next year, so she is a “youth” now. We met the girl that will be the Cross Country team captain at their school next year. Hopefully that will help Kelby feel comfortable doing it next year. Then we went to visit family for cousin Naomi’s birthday party.

On Sunday for Father’s Day we went to the zoo. Mike took lots of great pictures there. It was a little chilly, but we had a nice time.

And that is pretty much just one week! Like I said…running start to the summer. Maybe we should slow down for a minute…no wait…another birthday coming up and Twilight Girl Scout camp! Busy, busy, busy!

Hugs,

Shawna

The End of the School Year

Well, the last two weeks went by in a blur. I was preoccupied with preparing for camp. Being the camp cook was a big responsibility. I had to do a lot of price checking and shopping, plotting and planning.  We had lots of meetings and last minute details to go over.

I went to Costco for dry stuff on Tuesday, down to Marysville for tons of stuff at Winco on Thursday… then to Costco for cold stuff on Friday morning. We had to keep a bunch of stuff on ice in coolers. Luckily, my co-leader Joan took me down to Winco and had a huge truck that she kept the dry stuff in and brought to camp.

Finally the weekend arrived. This is what my van looked like. I didn’t have any seats in there!

The weekend was more laid back than camp was last year. I liked that a lot about it. I didn’t get to be with my girls/troops much though because I was in the kitchen almost the whole weekend. On Friday night we got to take a walk and got a good picture.

This camp is right on the water…so beautiful. It was beautiful weather for us too!

On Friday night we had our opening announcements and then we had a dance party. That was a lot of fun!

We had a cabin with a bathroom, but we had to bring in mattresses to sleep on the floor. I was comfy on a couch.

On Saturday morning I made a dish called Catastrophe. We eat it while camping and it is my family’s favorite, so I made it for camp. It is sausage, hasbrowns, onions, peppers, and eggs all cooked together. It was a big hit (there were other options for those that weren’t interested in that.)

The girls got to be in teams and find activities to do together all day. They did crafts, beach activities, physical challenges, scout skills, and community service to earn little charms. They had a good time and I got to give out the charms. We made all the charms out of shrink plastic (one of the various things I was working on in the weeks previous.)

Here is our opening ceremony.

Some other wonderful leaders had my girls during the day. I didn’t even get to sleep with Anika’s troop. She did well without me though. I think it may have been good for my girls to have that time without me since I’m involved in everything they do, plus they didn’t seem to mind sharing me with everyone in the kitchen because they liked my food.

For lunch I made tacos/taco salad. We nearly ran out of taco meat, but nobody went hungry. We had spaghetti for dinner.  We had PLENTY of that! After dinner it was S’more time…and singing and skits around the campfire.

Here was me in my domain!

It was a crazy, busy weekend, but it was fun. I had way too much milk in the end. I had to give away 14 gallons of milk and a bunch of other stuff. I came in under my budget though, so I did good.  That was all a big lesson for me. I grew my “courage, confidence, and character” as much or more than the girls did!

Then we entered our last full week of school. On Tuesday I walked to the park with Kelby’s class. The sixth grade all went, but it was icky and rainy. We only stayed half the time, then came back and played games in their classroom. I taught the kids how to play Spoons. Kelby made me play chess with her.

On Wednesday Mike ended up having his guys over after work to play basketball and I made them all dinner.

On Thursday we had a potluck and ceremony for our Girl Scout troops at the park. I made this cute “bridge” for part of the ceremony. That is for girls to cross over if they move up to the next level in scouting.

The older girls did the flag ceremony.

Here is our combined troops.

That little event was fun and ran smoothly. Now we are pretty much done for the summer, but I’m taking the older troop camping over night toward the end of this month.

On Friday I walked again down to the park with Anika and the 1st grade class for their fieldtrip. It was a chilly day and I was fighting allergies, so I was exhausted. She had a great time though.

Now we have just three days of school left. I don’t know what I’ll do to entertain these girls this summer, but I plan to take it pretty easy at first. I’m sure it will fly by on us once again.

On Saturday I will be running a 10K race. I hope it goes well! I’m a little nervous.

Love you all!