Camp Classen

Sunshine and I spent Friday, Saturday and the wee hours of Sunday at a Girl Scout camp in Oklahoma last week. The child was hilarious the whole entire time.

Incident #1
I was one of three organizers of this event. We had 300 people showing up, so we had to get to camp a few hours early to set up shop. That meant that Sunshine had to show up a few hours early. Wasting no time getting acclimated, she started talking to Brad, the YMCA Camp Director about her dragon toy and asking him what he liked best about dragons in general. During the conversation, she kept making the dragon toy soar over the Camp Store shelf, so that that poor Brad had to keep bending down to pick it up. He tried so hard to teach her how to aim it, but aim wasn't of concern to Sunshine. Blasting it off was her first and only goal. All the while, I'm begging her not to bother him and he keeps laughing it off. Sunshine laughed me off, too. Brad finally asked Steve, one of the cowboys, to take her outside to the sand games and teach her how to play. She skipped off happily, accompanied by the other organizer's 15 year old daughter. Sunshine saw nothing odd about playing sand pit dodge ball with a hardened old cowboy and a 15 year girl. I should mention that it rained the whole entire weekend, so this activity was right up her alley - messy.


Incident #2
People came up to me from the first moment we arrived and commented on how happy she was, but incredibly bizarre at the same time. Yes, that's my Sunshine. When she put her cap sideways during dance class, I heard things like, "Is she for real?" Yes, yes she is. When, it was pouring rain during horseback riding, she shouted, "This is the best day of my life!" The instructor said, "She's the most optimistic person I've ever met." Yes, that's what happens when things pass right over your head 99% of the time. No worries, my friends. And my favorite comment was from the boating instructor, "She's the kind of person I want on my boat if it sinks. I can just hear her, 'Oh, look! Water in the boat! How different! And now, we're sinking. Look, I can swim! Oh, I wonder if there are mermaids down here.' The rest of us would be freaking out and she would be floating around on her back taking in the scenery." Yes, that's most assuredly her.



Incident #3
On Saturday's horseback riding trip, Steve the Cowboy was her horse wrangler. He was trying to teach them different horsemanship points, so they could pass off a scouting badge. Sunshine just kept staring off at other girls riding,


or finding dirt to kick around.


Finally, Steve said, "Pinky! Eyes over here! We've got horses to learn about!" Pinky laughed and stopped kicking dirt...for about 15 seconds.


Incident #4
"Here's some great mud my mom hasn't seen yet. Let's play in it! It looks really messy!"
That's what I heard her say after I kicked her out of a mud puddle for the umpteenth time this weekend. After that, I just gave up.

Incident #5
On Friday night, the rest of our troop didn't show up until really late. So Sunshine was still hanging out with gals she didn't know...all of whom were quite older than her. I brought three videos from home for the girls to vote on, Camp Rock, Troop Camp Dad, and a Strawberry Shortcake camping movie. The idea was that the little Daisies would watch the Strawberry movie for the first shift at the movie theater. Then, they would go to bed and the older girls would watch another movie. It ended up that there were no Daisy troops checks in until really late, so we started the 8pm movie with just Sunshine and the older girls. I still let them vote on the film they wanted. First, I held up the Strawberry Shortcake movie, knowing they wouldn't vote for it. Sunshine, however did vote for it. When the herds of older girls started moaning, she stood up laughing and said, "Hey, come on guys. This is a great movie!" Then they all laughed with her. The child really doesn't care what people think about her. It's really cute how that still works for her.



Incident #6
At Archery, you could aim for targets or these foam animal targets. The animals were really crazy looking, so everyone just ignored them and aimed for targets. I trying to help Sunshine aim, because she had that possessed look she had when she was running down pedestrians at Safety Town. She still just couldn't get the hang of it. Finally, we let her do it on her own, the possessed look returned and she said, "I'm going to kill me that bear." No, joke. And she proceeded to aim for it and hit it. Apparently, she needed a more real target to excel. "Yes!" she said, "I really wanted to kill that bear!" When she left her window to pick up her arrows, she walked up to that bear and stabbed him, laughing hysterically. The child is insane. Completely crazy.


Incident #7
One of the badges they could earn was "Dancerize." (Don't laugh, Don. Boy Scouts has plenty of silly badges, too.) Her good friend, Jess taught the class, so Sunshine popped right in the front row.


After flipping her hat sideways, because that's obviously going to help her channel the rhythm she wasn't born with, she started following Jess's instructions.


And by that, I totally mean that she did whatever she wanted.


When everyone turned right, she turned left. When everyone swung their partners one way, she did it the other way.


She does her own thing, folks, and she always has fun.



Incident #8
Throughout the entire trip, Sunshine went her own way. Even though one of her very best friends went with us, she never partnered herself off with gals from our troop when we were at Service Unit-wide activities. Even when the big girls would start games and included everyone, Sunshine popped off and went after them without a care if anyone she knew was with her.


When the girls in our troop (an even number) all chose a troop friend to partner with, Sunshine chose the stranger next to her who was at the class without any troop friends.


When the kids had to line up with older girls to go roast marshmallows, Sunshine didn't get in the line with everyone else. Instead she hopped over to the other fireplace where Jess' was leading a line and talked to the teenagers and complete strangers while getting her smores stuff.



Instead of making the fancy flower brooches the other girls in our troop made (and I really, really wanted her to have), she made a lot of bracelets.


She was able to help retire a flag, which is something neither of us had seen before.


Good times were had.


Memories were made.


I learned a lot about Sunshine, which is always a good thing for a parent to do and we made it home safetly after a real-life near death experience and are better for it.


Thanks to Don and Dad for holding down the fort.