This is our final camping event as Brownies! And what a blast we had!!! (Minus the two thunderstorms, of course!!) We took our Brownies girls to Ponca State Park in Ponca, Nebraska to do some overnight camping... in tents! Five adults and fifteen girls... equals one big party!!
Upon arriving to the State Park, we stopped at the Visitor Center to check in and get directions to our campsite. The girls had fun checking out all the cool history of the river and the area around the park. We even went down to a look-out spot and viewed the river and surrounding hills through the telescope! Pretty cool stuff! Rounded everyone back up into our cars and headed to the campsite next to set up. It was way down in the "boonies"... no cell phone reception unless you went to the top of the hill where the bathroom were located! Even then, it was somewhat spotty!!! The girls played in the playground next to our campsite while we set up the tents and got the fire going to cook our supper. Each girl got to cut her own potatoes and make a potato pouch to put in the fire, along with hot dogs on skewers. We also had watermelon and were looking forward to smores later around the campfire! After supper, we sat around the fire and sang songs, told stories, and listened to thunder rolling in! We decided to hurry up and do the smores before it started to rain... once we got everything out, the rain burst out from nowhere... an immediate downpour!!! All the girls went running for the tents and the adults tried to salvage what we could from the campsite! Needless to say, the smores were ruined from the rain! Luckily, we also had a huge bag of popcorn that we passed from tent to tent to share! Once this storm quickly passed, we decided to just stay in the tents and visit until "lights out" at midnight. We were woken up again about 1:30am with another thunderstorm, this one being louder and longer lasting than the first. Took about a half hour before it passed over and moved on...
Woke up early to start cleaning up the campsite from the storms the night before... everyone took shifts going up to the bathrooms getting dressed, etc. then we all gathered together for a breakfast of bagels, bananas, and granola bars. After breakfast, we took our tents down and packed them up. We then split the girls into two groups... one group went horse-back riding, while the other group painted birdhouses and did a nature scavenger hunt. After about an hour, the two groups traded so the second group of girls could go horseback riding and the first group got to do the crafts and the scavenger hunt. I think I speak for everyone in saying that the horseback riding was the highlight of their whole trip!!! We had some girls that were scared to get on the horses because they have never been on them before, but with a little coaxing, an excellent park/stable staff, and some VERY patient horses, everyone was begging to ride more!!
After all these activities, everyone had worked up an appetite, so we had a picnic lunch of cold meat sandwiches and chips. Next thing we knew, it was time to pack up and head back home! My how the time flew! We had so much fun! We definitely have to do it again sometime!!! Here are some pics of Brianna from the trip:
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