Mission: Bronze Award (in Seattle)

For those of you who wonder what happens with all the money Julia's Girl Scout troop earns from cookie sales, here's a post just for you.

The girls spent this year working on their bronze award.  (There's a silver followed by a gold that they will also earn.  Those of you with Boy Scouts, think of the gold award as being like an Eagle Scout Award.)  The girls decided to make kits for pediatric patients at Seattle Children's Hospital as part of the service aspect of the bronze award.  They collected donations from family, friends, school, local businesses, and spent some of their cookie sales funds to create over 70 bags for kids in the hospital.  The bags had blankets, craft items, games, small toys, videos, stuffed animals (we even made Build-A-Bear animals for an activity).  We loaded the bags, 6 Girl Scouts, and 4 parents into two vans and headed to Seattle the week after school got out at the end of June.  The girls got to deliver their bags to the hospital staff and volunteers who work with the pediatric patients.  Their donations were welcomed gladly.

We took a tour of the hospital.  The girls learned a lot about the kids who are recovering from or being treated for various illnesses at Seattle Children's Hospital.  A parent stopped by to visit with us and share his infant daughter's story with us. 

We stayed at the Seattle Sheraton.  It was a beautiful hotel.  Here is the difference between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts:  BOYS would have camped at some muddy campground in the rain.  GIRLS say in 4 star hotels with valet parking and indoor pools.

After the visit at the hospital we checked into out awesome hotel and then walked down to Pike's Market and the waterfront for lunch/dinner (our meal of the day).  It was pouring all day.  We were drenched, but the girls were having so much fun, they almost didn't notice.

This is the first time I have actually seen "fish throwing" at the market.  I have been several times, wanting to watch this......

Petting the lucky pig (and feeding it a quarter):

On the way to lunch/dinner....the girls decided to do some window shopping.  I'll let you figure out for yourself WHY this picture makes me laugh:

You will notice that only ONE of us had an umbrella for the torrential rain - the rest of us are TRUE Northwesterners....who uses umbrellas anyway???

Singin' in the rain:

After dinner on the waterfront, we explored "Ye Old Curiosity Shop" for longer than I care to talk about.  Then, we went back to the hotel for some late-night swimming.  And we topped the night off with Cheesecake Factory take-out desserts.

The next day, we rode the monorail from our hotel to the Space Needle for brunch.

Waiting for our table at SkyCity restaurant atop the Space Needle. 

(Elyn, Elyse, Eryn, Julia, Madeline, and Kelsey)

The mommies:

Enjoying the view, company, and food (well, some of us enjoyed our food more than others).  Miss Karen, the troop leader, held a ceremony after brunch and awarded all the girls their bronze awards.

Then, it was up to the observation deck for an outdoor view of the city of Seattle.  There was a Rock and Roll marathon going on below - it was fun to hear the live band from such a height above the stage.

This is the last time that the girls will be Juniors.  They decided to hold their Bridging Ceremony on the observation deck.  Technically, the observation deck is NOT a bridge; but, we decided that we could overlook that detail because it just sounded like a really cool place to have a ceremony.  It will be very memorable for the girls - "bridge" or not.  They each got their new vests (as they became Cadettes), pins, and other awards from the past year.

Julia is getting her 2011-12 membership pin on her new vest.  She then recited the Girl Scout oath and promise.

Troop 40085...now Cadettes.

It was a fun trip.  My only complaint was that I had only 4 hours of sleep the night before we left.  (thanks to a neighbor who left their dog outside while they worked the night shift) Then, I had to drive my car with the only mom who doesn't speak much English....it was hard to stay awake with no one to talk to.  Even if she was proficient with the language, she is just the sweetest, quietest, most reserved person I have ever met - there still wouldn't have been much conversation anyway. Then, of course, there was little sleep to be had while in Seattle with 6 girls, so the ride home (with said parent) wasn't any easier.  You would think with all the pouring rain and white-knuckle driving, that staying awake wouldn't be a challenge, but it really was.  I had to stop 3 times just to get out and move to wake myself up.  Overall, it was a great trip (even with the rain).  We are awaiting another year of Girls Scouts that will begin again in the fall.