Girls Camp '17

Last Monday Kars headed off to girls camp for a week. Because of schedule conflicts the past couple of years, she has only been able to go her first year with the Cheyenne group. This would technically be her 4th year, which means an extra overnight adventure. She left Monday morning to backpack with a group of about 20 girls. To say she was reluctant to go would be an understatement. She was all smiles and jokes during the preparation, but the morning of was a whole different animal.

I took her to meet up with the group at the church in Fort Collins early in the morning. Her resistance to the whole idea was excruciating! I have never been through the "peeling the crying kid off you" phase with Kars. She just never had a hard time separating. In fact, at times I wondered if she cared about being away from us at all:) I know she likes outdoor activities so it wasn't that. In her defense, she was being "forced" to spend 48 hours with strangers (she knew none of these girls) and then the rest of the week with girls she doesn't click with doing what she perceived as "church all the time".  It was a painful morning!! I heard from her camp leader during the week and she assured me she was doing fine ... not great but fine, which is all we could hope for ;)

The original plan was to backpack in the Snowy Range, but mid June was still too ... snowy! Instead they backpacked around the Pingree Park area in the Poudre Wilderness where Mark and I took a trip a couple of years ago. They didn't go as far as Emmaline Lake but stayed in the Cirque Meadows area (from what I can gather from Kars)

Kars is 6 in on left 

The remainder of the week she spent with hundreds of girls at Batel Ranch between here and Laramie. There was no shortage of activities that appeal to Kars ..... ..  canoeing, shooting, fishing, archery, ropes course and bracelet making (which she enjoyed:).  Much to my astonishment and her delight there was no campfire singing of cheesy girls camp songs. The best part was Star gazing.  One evening they were given the option of going on an outing to look at the stars. She told us she liked it because she didn't have to talk or listen to anyone. She could just lay there by herself .. and it was really cool of course. The worst part was the bugs. They were terrible... like worst ever!   

tent mates Jessica and Emily

 I had to track down these pictures from the backpacking trip from a leader. I have nothing from the week at camp. This girl doesn't do a good job of taking pics with anything but her phone (which they couldn't have) and her camp leader was disappointing in that regard too. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one who thinks to take tons of pictures ... ... 

She came home on Friday with smiles and funny stories {mainly about the awkward testimony meeting typical of Girls Camp;} But said she would never go again. She can't appreciate that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is sometimes really good for you. It's one of the hard parts of parenting ... making your kids do things they don't want to because you hope it will help them grow. Even if it's painful:)