Cooking Badges Earned.

I was sidetracked from my journey this weekend in order to honor Katy's journey. We went camping with Troop 184 to Jester Park, tent camping just to clarify. Andy met up with us Friday night to set up our tent and then left to get ready for his gourmet tailgate journey with Hannah and her friend Chloe and her Dad, Scott on Saturday.

The goal of our camp adventure was to earn food badges. And our Troup leader, Mary had it all planned out. Dinner was beef stew. The girls all chopped the vegetables in order to earn their badge. They learned about camp safety and enjoyed a fire filled with roasting marshmallows.  I was so amazed at how the stew turned out. So delicious, cooked in a cast iron skillet.

The night turned chilly and Katy ended up in my tent. We cuddled and enjoyed the cool night air.

Morning came and it was time to start with the breakfast assignment. Menu: Blueberry muffins, eggs, turkey bacon and orange juice. This was a bit more labor intense. First we sliced oranges in half and carved out the insides, leaving orange cups to be filled with batter mix and raw eggs. Each person wrapped up their egg and blueberry muffin and marked their name on them. The leftover orange mix was placed in baggies and the girls squeezed them to make juice. After sticking a straw into the bag, orange juice was served. Another amazing cooking experiment! I had backup chocolate muffins that I brought out to fill the tummies of kids who didn't quite think it was amazing. Coffee was brewed too. No detail was left undone.

The kids journaled and geared up for Geocaching. Another new thing we learned about. There's actually an app. you download and set your compass on your smart phone. It's a real world outdoor treasure hunt where you search for the hidden treasures, geocaches. There were 5 possible geocaches to search for in Jester Park. We picked one of the harder ones which didn't end up with a find. So we decided to make our own Geocache and will hide it and add it to the national list to search for. Another amazing new thing we learned this weekend.

 But before that, we made lunch. Pita pockets with deli meat and cheese and fresh veggies with a dill yogurt sauce. It's funny what you think your kids won't eat until you offer it while camping. A Pineapple upside down chocolate cake was also prepared and served. Wow. We were camping and eating semi-gourmet. Crazy impressed.

I will admit, it's been 10 years since I tent camped last. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Fresh. Outdoors. Free. One with nature. Happy is.