Sylvia's Summer of Camps!

   Sylvia came home this weekend, after being gone 3 of the last four weeks.   Most recently she was as scout camp, held 4 hours north of us, by Rice Lake Wisconsin.   The week before that she was 2 hours west of us a church girls camp along the Mississippi River.

Here are some picture from her summer adventures. I'll let her type a bit explaining what she thought of the different camps. (Sylvia's voice is in italics.)

 Scout Bike camp from June:

     In the morning, it was very cold, but in the afternoons, it was really hot! 
     When we weren't biking, we worked on rank advancements (like chopping logs and starting fires). The bike ride itself was 25 miles up to Lake Michigan, and you could choose if you wanted to do another 25 miles back, or just ride in a car back. I chose to ride in a car because I didn't feel too good after 25 miles in about 85 degree weather. 
     It was very fun, though and Julia and I were in the front of the group for most of the first 25 miles.

Chopping wood for rank advancements.

More rank advancement stuff! Yay...

This is what
the campsite looked like.

Lining up for the big bike ride.

At the 25 mile finish line! FINALLY!

The nap on the grass after the long ride.

The view at the end of the ride. It was worth it. Not only for the view,
but also for the lunch of sandwiches, chips, and cookies.

Then Swamp Base in Louisiana at the start of July:

This was my first high adventure, when I'm only thirteen and only have been in the troop less than half a year! We canoed about 75 miles across the Atchafalaya swamp in Louisiana. 
     Our troop saw 71 alligators in total! This was my favorite trip out of all the scout camp outs I've been on. 
     I really got to know a few of the boys in the troop since I had mostly just socialized with the girls. It was really fun and rewarding when I got to the end.

Selfie with me and Mrs. Bailey before we got all sunburn and blistered.
Oh, the good 'ol days...

When we finished the five days of endless paddling.
We were all very exited to get on the bus with the AC!

This was taken at the island outpost. Gage, our tour guide, is
on the far left. After Swamp Base, I don't think I can stand to see another Cyprus tree
in my life! (that's a bald Cyprus behind us)

Then LDS girls camp, at Wyalusing State Park:

     This was WAY different than the scout camps. We got cabins, the food was cooked for us, the attitudes were also way different. In swamp base, we knew we were going to be miserable from the beginning, but for girl's camp, I guess that people thought it would be perfect weather and have AC in the cabins, but it was 80 plus degrees, and people were like "I'm dying! it's sooo hot!" and "No! I got a grass stain on my pants! The universe is gonna end! I've gotta go change!" I'm not even joking. 
     But I did make a lot of new friends (that weren't super complainy all the time), and had lots of fun. Plus, most of the time I was freezing because I had just come back from Swamp Base which was 110 degrees, so I really wasn't too hot. so many people thought I was weird for wearing a sweater. Now I know how Asher felt when he came back from Florida.

Then week long Scout Camp at Camp Phillips near Rice Lake WI:

     I had a lot of fun at summer camp. I took various merit badge classes. They were pretty fun. 
     Every morning we did a 'polar bear plunge' in the lake, which was supposed to be really cold, but really wasn't too bad. It sort of freaked me out that I couldn't see the bottom of the lake or anywhere near the bottom. I'm glad I didn't take the swimming or snorkeling merit badge class! I went to mostly classes that were required for becoming an eagle scout (Environmental Science, First Aid, Emergency Preparedness, Camping, and Cooking.)
     I rolled my ankle, though, but on the plus side, on the night that we had to do a bunch of sports (Gaga ball, kick ball, etc), I had an excuse to sit out with a friend who unfortunately "rolled her ankle, too". I had to have a bandage on it all week though, so that was one of the negative parts of summer camp, but the rest was really fun.

The Summer camp crew getting ready to go.

Around the campfire (which we really didn't do that much, cause we
were so busy all the time)

Along with these camping adventures,she has been busy attending her weekly scout meetings, and doing community service, like helping with the flag ceremony for Relay for Life.

The boys think that the girls in the troop are so weird for doing trust circles like this!

Learning to do thatching! How exiting!

Mr. Miller trying our ladder out after we were done with it.
It held up pretty well. I'm proud.

Relay for Life, we basically walked around a room with flags.
I can't believe I'm taller than most people in this picture!

I'm glad she has had a summer filled with amazing new experiences. I'm also glad to have her company again at home. She is fun buddy to have around.

Ephraim's 6th Birthday!

     Ephraim's birthday started out with us walking down to the bakery for a breakfast birthday donut.  He chose a cookie that had a butterfly ring on it instead.  When it's your birthday, you can have cookies for breakfast.
     Afterwards I decorated an ocean-themed cake, since he had been reading about fish and the ocean lately.

 After lunch we went to a friend's pool, and hosted his party from there. He invited three families of his friends. It was beautiful weather and the kids had a great time.

Ireland and Ephraim doing a double jump!

Straton doing a mega jump 30 feet high! (or so it seemed.)

Cannon chilling in the water.

Wells, enjoying an otter pop

Brittany trying to keep Wells happy during nap time!

Elizabeth holding Owen, while Issac watches the alligator-floaty frenzy.

Brooke keeping baby Mattie happy while Cannon looks debonair.

Singing Happy Birthday to Ephraim!

Blowing out the candles, with some help.

Otter Pops and chocolate cake break!

We saved a chunk of the cake for dinnertime, so we could have candles and presents with Sean after dinner. You can never blow out enough candles, or have too much cake, when you are six.

A new wii game from us was a hit.

As was the card that Grandpa and Grandpa McMullin sent.  Ephraim loves cards!

The next day he put together a lego kit one of his friends gave him, and wore his new birthday shirt, "Potter Cats" (which he thinks is hilarious).

Life is pretty good, when you are six, and already missing two teeth.

"Insect Hunter!"

    Ephraim has been fascinated lately with bugs.  We've checked out books at the library, dug out our old butterfly net, and watched several great youtube videos.  (In case you are interested, "Insect Hunter" videos can be viewed on line here .)

      From the Insect Hunter videos, we learned the flight habits of dragonflies.  They are often repeating a flight pattern, or "patrolling", or sitting on a grass stem "hawking" for food.  We also learned how to swoop upward from behind to catch a dragonfly in a net.

We went down to the river, and sure enough.. Ephraim caught his first dragonfly.

We also learned in the videos about checking under dead logs, so our next stop was the trail along the river, where Ephraim found a treasure trove of bugs in a dead log.

Next stop, a small creek that feeds into the river to search for water skippers.  He had a good time playing in the sand and cooling off as well.

He hunts for bugs constantly. I have to have a container in my backpack at all times, in case he finds one to bring home.  Here he is at the splash pad, but you don't see the splash pad, do you?  No, you see a child lured away into a grassy field by a bunch of Japanese beetles.

Eventually he got a couple of friends interested in helping him catch the beetles, then bringing them over to the splash pad to be drowned.

Sometimes he finds dead bugs in good shape.  This is the first bumble bee he has collected, out on our patio one morning, dead.

   Another thing we learned in the Insect Hunter videos, was how to pin an insect.  We ordered some insect pins, and Sean built a case with Styrofoam for mounting. Once you have a dead insect, they tend to curl in their legs, so you have to prop the legs in the most lifelike position possible for a few days, while they dry that way.

  I have a whole new level of respect now for insect and butterfly collections I've seen in museums. It is very detailed work!

   You know you have an insect hunger when you freezer is full of jars containing insects,  labeled with dates and locations.  Sometimes I use Tupperware containers.  The danger of that, is that if they don't get in the freezer right away, they just get put back with the other containers. So, when I opened one up to put a sandwich in it, I saw a dead grasshopper Ephraim had collected, that had not quit made it to the freezer.  That was a little shocking!

    Despite the dead bugs everywhere, I'm glad Ephraim has such a curious mind and drive to accomplish goals.  It makes the atmosphere for the whole family more lively. I'm looking forward to seeing if this little guy becomes a scientist.

Sylvia is home for a week in July!

   Sylvia was home for a week before she launched off to girls camp, and then scout camp.  What did we do?  First we picked up the kids' exhibits from the fair. Her beautiful beaded bracelt got a blue,  her bowl and 4 photos of Maya got reds.

Her epic picture of Clemenza (one of our chickens) got a blue, plus a yellow "award of merit" ribbon.

 Ephraim got all blues on his wooden stool, 4 photos of "chicken backs" and pottery bowl!

      Then we did some baking.   We had two more bakes to do from the season of the British Baking show we have been watching.  Episode 9 was themed "patisserie".  One of the contestants made "macarroons", which pop up quite often in this show, so we decided to tackle this odd looking cookie made from egg whites and ground almonds. 
      The recipe we used had them filled with a chocolate fudgy filling, which was delicious.  We learned that you need to have almonds very finely ground, and the powdered sugar finely sifted, or else you will constantly get globs clogging up your decorating tip as you squirt out the batter in circles. - We found out the hard way.   I'd do these again.

    The grand finale of the season, Episode 10, had the baker's making a "pithivier" for one of the challenges.  You have to make a rough puff pastry, then you fill it with a sweet or savory filling. We decided to try one of each. The dough was incredibly tough to roll out. I'm not sure exactly where we went wrong.. but a wrong turn indeed did happen. 

 They didn't look as puffy and flaky as they should when they came out. When we cut into them, you basically needed a sledgehammer.   The shell was so tough!
     All was not lost, the fillings were good (we used grilled brats and roasted potatoes in the savory pie, and a mix of eggs and almonds in the sweet pie - from this recipe).  We ended up scooping out the fillings, and tossing the shell in the garbage.  We are not pithivier fans!

    Along with baking, Sylvia had to do some meal cooking for her "cooking merit badge" pre-requisites at her upcoming scout camp.   She made a delicious sausage - hashbrown breakfast casserole in our new dutch oven for one of her meals. We will defiantly be using this recipe on future camping trips!

 She had lot of other pre-requisites for camp that were not as fun as cooking.  She wrote a couple of essays on environmental topics for her Environmental Science merit badge.  She went thought the house and did a safety check of each room, as well as helped put together a family evacuation duffel bag for her Emergency Preparedness merit badge.

 She gathered first aid supplies for a family and personal first aid kit for her "First Aid" merit badge class.

It was a busy week for Sylvia, but we managed to fit in a lot of computer gaming at night, as well as watching several episodes of "The Flash" on Netflix.  We will miss her while she is gone the next couple weeks.  More time to party with Ephraim!