Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Ann won a scholarship!

On June 16th, we went to Carowinds for a day of celebration that Ann had sold at least 500 boxes of cookies.  This year, they decided to add scholarships to the cookie recognitions.  Each girl that sold at least 500 boxes of cookies was awarded one chance to earn a scholarship and they earned an entry for every 100 boxes after that they sold.

Matt, my dad, Ann and myself walked into the auditorium for the award ceremony.  Ann was hoping she would be top 10 in the council.  The CEO of the Girl Scouts award each girl their awards.  Then she explained the scholarships.  Sure enough, there were five bags on the table with little pieces of paper.  They called out the Daisies first.  The first girl was not there.  Then the CEO pulled the next piece of paper and said "this girl sold 1226 boxes of cookies" and Matt and I looked at each other very excitedly.  We knew it was here.  Ann then walked up on stage very shell shocked to what had happened.  She had just won a $500 scholarship!

You could see her face drop when the top 10 girls were announced and she was not one of them.  We figured she was top 15.

Afterwards, she gave me a very big hug and I told her that I was very proud of her.  She had worked so hard this year and learned so much.


Can you image how much interest that will accrue in 11 years?

Monday, June 18, 2012

Washington, DC Girl Scout style

This weekend, Ann and I set off for Washington, DC.  This is the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts and there was a huge sing a long planned on the National Mall.

We left at 7am Friday morning on a charter bus with 50 other girl scouts.  Ann and Sullivan, another girl in my troop were the youngest girls on the trip.  We traveled seven hours and we made it!  We then went around the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport which is near where we were staying.

The first thing we did Saturday morning was to explore the monuments around the mall.  With little legs, you can go get so far, so we only got to see the World War II monument and the Lincoln monument.


Along the way, we ran to lots of other Girl Scouts who were there for the Sing-A-Long as well.   One very interesting tradition of Girl Scouting is the SWAP.  Before a large Girl Scout event, you make little tiny crafts to swap with other Girl Scouts.  Ann and I made about 100 marshmallow sticks to swap with other girls.  This is a sample of what she got in return.  There are SWAPS from all over the country.  She enjoyed the swaping, but the Sing-A-Long was very hot, so we only stayed about 2 hours.


From there, we went paddling on the Potomac River.  It is a lot of work!  But Ann enjoyed the sights on a little boat.


We were able to visit several of the Smithsonians while we were there.  The American History Museum was one of Ann's favorites.  They even had a little exhibit about the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting.  I thought it could have been much larger though.



The cool thing about going on this trip was that we were with several other troops.  So, we had a group of older Girl Scouts from our service unit to hang out with us during the weekend.  They were awesome with the girls.




Before we left DC, we went to Arlington Cemetery.  This was the first time I was there, I could not get over how big it is.  All you could see was graves and it was quite a humbling experience.  We were able to see the  changing of the guard.  It was an experience every American should have.

And then we were back home again.  The girls had a good time and came home very tired.  It was a wonderful trip and I am very glad that we could be on it.

Our bus driver, Sam, was great.  He was a joy to be around and did whatever he could to make the trip an awesome experience.  He was saying good-bye to us in this picture.  I made the scarf we was were as a small token on my appreciate.
While Ann and I were gone, Mark competed in his first track meet and then all of them went off to Raven Knob for Cub Scout Resident Camp.  My husband is not a picture taker, so we don't have any pictures besides the ones that people have sent me.

How has your summer been?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Please hug your kids a little tighter tonight....

This weekend I was in Washington, DC ( I will post more about later) and I heard through Facebook news I never wanted ever to hear.  A four year old in my town lost her life.  She was playing at graveyard with a bunch of friends during VBS and a gravestone feel on her.  The mom is an acquaintance of mine as we knew each other in college and she was my nurse when I was pregnant with my youngest.

I can't imagine what the mom is going through right now.  She did what she could as a nurse as soon as this freak accident happened and then was escorted to the hospital as her daughter was area lifted not knowing what happened.  Her other daughter was hurt by the gravestone as well.   Today, they buried their little girl.  I was not able to attend the funeral being on the trip.  All I can do is pray and wait for information on how I can take them a meal.

So, please hug your kids a little closer tonight and send some comforting thoughts their way.  These gravestones have been through mountain winds, but randomly fell.

 I know I will when my boys come back from camp tomorrow.

For more information, see: http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/jun/12/wsmain01-family-friends-gather-for-funeral-of-girl-ar-2349639/

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Another Saturday, another trail

 Life has been busy, but it has been summer vacation here for two weeks now.  I need to catch up!

Last Saturday, we took off for the Rich Mountain.  There are two Rich Mountains where we live, but the one we were going to hike is part of Moses Cone Memorial Park, which is on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Even though the trail we took was a 7 mile loop from our car to the top and back, it was an easy 7 miles as they are only carriage roads.

It was a cool June day, with highs in the mid 60's and a good breeze going.  So, it was weird telling the kids to pack sweatshirts in June.  But it is Boone.

We love how the long trails really give the kids a chance to just hang out and talk.



We met some cows along the way.  There seem to be a lot of cows in Watauga County for some reason.  The cows did not seem to want our attention though.

 At the top, there was a nice place to sit and rest and each a snack.  We were hungry after hiking at this point for 2 miles, but our lunch packer only packed 7 apples, 1 orange and 3 grapefruit.  So, it was a small lunch between the 6 of us.


 Along the way, Matt had fun trying out my new camera with some more artistic pictures.  It is amazing what a camera can do when there are more manual settings.

 We were almost at the end when it seemed that we split into 2 groups.  The kids were anxious to find the car so that we could go back to Boone and find more food.  We were on the trail for 5 hours and they were hungry.
This trail was not one of the favorites as it was an easy trail and there was not much to see.  It was nice to check off another trail.  We are hoping to explore a lot of new trails this summer.

How long is the longest trail you have done with your kids?