Girl Scout Family Campout

Left to Right:  Alena Braman, Caroline Shaha, Avery Hart, Emily Shaha, Sam Marolf, Evenlyn Denyer

We had such a great weekend at the Girl Scout Campout at Šobec, next to Bled.  Being out in nature with friends and family while somebody else has planned it all, what's not to love?

Our wonderful leaders Carrie Braman and Amanda Hart planned and organized everything.  So so grateful for all their hard work and dedication!

Hiking to the Sava River... Max Marolf, Ethan Hart, James Shaha

Girl Scouts has been a saving grace for my girls.  With the American school closing and then having to start over at an international school as the only Americans in their classes, combined with the pains of Covid restrictions this past year, GSA has been a haven for them. Every two weeks they can let down their guard, relax, and be themselves around other like-minded anglophones. This pictured group of Americans go to four different schools, but they all come together every two weeks for GSA. (I know you're thinking, "But there's boys in this picture!"  Siblings and parents were invited to the campout, but they don't attend the meetings.) 

For several months they had to meet on zoom, but the past couple months with restrictions lifted, they have been meeting in the spacious backyard of the ambassador's residence which is currently unoccupied. They've been having a blast. 

Group effort setting up the beast of a tent

It was a very cool and mild weekend, and constantly threatened rain.  The rain didn't come until Saturday night, and the girls got drenched in their fair-weather tent. Luckily for the parents, we were warm and dry in our "bungalows."  That's the secret to happy camping... kids in tents, parents in bungalows. 

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Saturday morning they rotated to different stations at the bungalows.  The Harts are teaching knot tying. 

 

The Bramans taught tie-dying

Kyle helped them make trail mix.  

Hi Kyle!

The Denyers led jar painting to make little lanterns

And the Shahas led rock painting.

That afternoon JB led us on a long hike.  We found frogs, tadpoles, cows, snails, and dead mice. 

Why hasn't somebody told me to burn those pants?  You have all failed me. 

Could anything be cuter???

 Cosette just ran around  the whole weekend like she was one of the scouts. 

The infamous Girl Scout fair-weather tent.

Euorpean campground rules are weird.  No open fires!  The grill was the extent of our outdoor fire.  

Someone even brought sparklers!

Another weird aspect of European campgrounds:  they come with fancy restaurants.  Saturday night we enjoyed a lovely dinner, and they had a wonderful outdoor playground just outside from where we were eating.  

Sunday morning, pancake breakfast and closing circle.  We had to leave before 9:00 to make it back in time for our first day back at church in 11 months!  We had to go because Ben was being called as branch president! Couldn't really skip out ;)

I think this weekend felt especially wonderful because we were able to participate in things we haven't been able to do for so long... gather with friends, eat at a restaurant, visit and socialize in person!  I grew up going to church camps and youth activities all the time.  I love the sense of community that I grew up with living in a small town, going to the same school and church with my friends and neighbors.  I have missed this aspect sooooo much in our military life.  So it was nice to have a taste of that this weekend.  There are six families participating in GSA this year... three will leave this summer!  And as far as we know, there are no new girls moving in this summer. Hopefully next year something can work out!

New Year's Eve 2020

We had to ring out the horrid year of 2020 in style!

Fireworks show at the castle cancelled, gathering not allowed.

But we made the best of it.

Homemade pizza and Ticket to Ride to keep us awake until midnight!

Their super cute aprons we got from a local seamstress at the market

So much cooler than buying on amazon!

Caroline's handiwork

It was the only way we could get ourselves to all stay up past midnight... a three hour long game of our newly acquired Ticket to Ride!  It was a lot of fun!  

And our payoff for staying up until midnight.  The official show was cancelled, but our neighbors didn't disappoint!

The next day we were allowed to leave our municipality just for New Year's Day. 

We drove to Bled where we met with our church friends, the Majc family.  We hadn't left our region or seen our friends in so long, it was such a great escape!  I just wish I had gotten a photo of everyone!  The Majc family includes Davor, Stanka, Miha, Matej, Manca, Matevž.

And no, I can't keep their names straight in case you were wondering.

The bells of the village welcoming us as we parked our car.  Such a cool place!

                                      

                           Because who needs a sled?  Davor created this luge for the kiddos

                                      

 

Em rocks it!

                                                                

                                                               As does James

                                                      And of course Benny Boy

Snowshoeing in Pokljuka

Ok, I know it's April and here I am posting these winter wonderland pictures, bear with me while I catch up!!

Over Christmas break, while the ski resorts were still closed, I organized (yes it was me of course!) a snow shoeing expedition for January 2.  We had been cooped in the house over the break and I wanted to do something out in nature and enjoy beautiful Slovenian winter... do I really have to explain myself??  

We went with the Harts, Chris and Amanda, because they are awesome and I can always count on them being game for whatever.   I simply googled snowshoeing trek Slovenia and lots of tour guides came up, but I was hard pressed to find anyone operating during the lockdown!!  Finally I found a guy.  He was great.  He directed us to go to Pokljuka Planina, above Lake Bled to meet him for the trek.  

The Harts brought their three kids over and we had Judith watch them for the day.  We left early, around 8:00 am on a RAINY morning.   

As we got above Bled, the rain quickly turned to snow and we found that the road up had not been plowed.  Snow was falling and the roads were pretty slick!  Chris was driving his Honda Pilot and we finally decided we would have to turn around because his vehicle wasn't having it!

We went back down to the bottom and pulled over and called our guide.  He was already up at our meeting point since he had spent the night.  He said he couldn't come down to meet us because his tiny car would never make it back up!  He couldn't understand why a plow hadn't come through yet, normally the roads would be fine. We sat there deliberating what to do, fearing that we might have to cancel our carefully organized day, when finally we spotted a trusty snowplow making its way up the mountain!  Yay!

Following the plow up the mountain, we would have never been able to make it without it!

Waiting for it to pour down the salt

Finally we made it to the top and met our guide!

I was simply amazed by the mounds of snow up on the planina.  It was sooooo beautiful.  There was a cross country track up there and lots of skiers utilizing it.  They were hardcore... above is a pic of them!

A little kid out cross-country skiing!

We snowshoed about 5 kms or so to a hut.  It was hard work but the scenery was unreal!!

The hut we hiked to... of course it was CLOSED!

But we were greeted by this sweet nativity set.  Can you find the crèche? 

Our guide pulled out his thermostat of hot tea which he ate with a bit of dark chocolate.  We Americans dug into our rotisserie chickens, pb&j sandwiches, and backpacks full of various food items.  We're gross.  

All in all it was a great day, physically challenging and in an amazing setting!