Days # 7 and 8: Camping Crafts!

Justin and I left on Monday, after a grueling test on his part and some grade a doddling on mine, to meet my parents, my aunt, and some family friends at El Capitan Canyon near Santa Barbara for some good ole' fashioned camping. We had a lot of fun and I took the opportunity to try out some camping pins!

The first, I pinned with this particular trip in mind and I was bursting to try it. There were 11 kids from 1 yr-16yrs on the trip and I figured if I bought 8 oranges that maybe some of them would want to try it. But on Tuesday night when I started getting the all the stuff together, without even getting around to asking, all 11...make that 10 (the one year old wasn't super interested) seemed to appear out of nowhere , as though they had apparated immediately upon smelling instant cake mix. They all had a fun time scooping out orange guts and waited anxiously for their cakes to finish cooking. I would say that this one was a success!

 Of course, they weren't super pretty but they tasted great and the kids loved them.

The next day, I worked on a "Sustainability" pin I have been hoping to try. I have pinned a ton of projects from the Boy Scouts Magazine, Boys Life website and this was the first time I tried to make one.

The Pizza-box Oven was a cinch to assemble, and Justin actually enjoyed helping me with this one. What I learned though, was that this solar oven takes A LONG TIME to cook anything in...an I am still not a hundred percent sure that the marshmallow I tried cooking wouldn't have cooked just as well sans foil/cardboard contraption.

I plan on making another one (Tip#1:  if you use your solar oven on the beach don't fall asleep and let it get soaked.) and trying it in Casa Grande, where there is sure to be plenty of sunlight and heat.