Every spring and all, the American Heritage Girls Troop has a family camping trip and this fall, it was held at Fairy Stone Campgrounds in Virginia. These trips are always a fun time of fellowship for everyone.
Everyone loves gathering around the campfire for worship and fun.
and smores, of course!
The campground was beautiful with lots of rolling hills, woods and water. There were streams and a lake nearby.
One afternoon, every got together to take a nature hike and explore, looking at and talking about the plants and animals in the area.
The buddy system is critical in a group like this. Even with all the adults along, it's easy for someone to get overlooked if they step off the path a little way. Fortunately, the girls found friends to pair up with very easily.
Ezra took a slip and caught his shorts on a branch. Fortunately, it was just the pants and not him that got hurt. And besides... a little air conditioning never hurt, right?
On our second day there, we went to a place to look for the "fairy stones" that give the campground its name. They are little basalt crystals that grow in the ground and are washed free by rain and streams. They gave us a sheet that told about the different shapes they come in and how to find them.
We managed to find bunches of them in the mud beside an area where rainwater runs off the mountain. we found pretty much every shape shown on the sheet. Every had a great time digging through the mud and rocks to find them.
