We finished up the Campfire year with a trip to the park to try outdoor cooking. This was really cool for me too because I'd always wanted to try cooking with a dutch oven. It turns out it's pretty easy. We made soup and bread in dutch ovens and everything was delicious! This is how the oven for the bread looked during cooking. It's down on the concrete pad because the bbq pit was full of ash and it was hard to find a stable surface. It really only takes that many briquettes to make this work (there are about 6 of them underneath too).
While we waited for the food to cook, Chloe organized a bird feeder making activity. These are fruit feeders.
The soup was delicious!
And look how yummy the bread came out.
The Grand Council Fire was a nice ceremony and we were lucky that it wasn't too cold and didn't rain too much. It was held outdoors at a private ranch that is beautifully landcaped. We did it there so we could have a real fire. Chloe particpated in the whole thing, but Ryan was feeling very shy and sat with me most of the time. Chloe had an official role as one of the drummers for the first part of the ceremony.
This is our group leading the whole council in a song.
As a torch bearer Chloe has done at least one special activity which requires more research and commitment. For her project she chose her interest in animals and did several activities to benefit animals. Here's Chloe passing a torch to a younger member of our group (this is a symbolic gesture meant to imply that in the future our friend, Tate, will become a torch bearer as well).
For Chloe's solo part of the ceremony she read along with these WoHeLo participants and lit some candles.
The final part of her ceremony was pretty cool, but I didn't have a good camera angle. She's in there and you can just see the tip of her sneakers peeking out on the left hand side.
Here's the final photo of the group.
One last thing! The next day was the Campfire Fun Run fundraiser. The kids and I participated. Mark was there too, though he wasn't an official participant. Ryan did 13 laps, I did 15 and Chloe did 16. Chloe was hoping for 20 and a gold medal , but was hampered by a bug coming on. She did very well though and had a good time.
