It was such a blessing to our squad to have a squad-mate and her family open up their home to let us girls come, meet and start building relationships. Wednesday through Saturday, this family shared their home with us and we invaded their lives and space, big time! I arrived around midnight on Wednesday, after a 12 hour drive. There were 6 of us that night. The ladies had just finished setting up two tents in the garage and were tired, so I introduced myself and we went to bed. It was funny to hear people crunching around on their sleeping pads. For some this was their first use and they said they woke up each time it made noise as they moved.
This is what our sleeping arrangements looked like by Friday: tent foot prints (aka tarps) down and most people on their sleeping pads and sleeping bag liners or sleeping bags:
We spent time together talking, repacking packs (3 girls from TX drove up to GA and stopped for a 3 hour training session at REI, they were stoked to share their newly gained knowledge about packing,) making 42 tutus, flower garlands, ribbon accessories, learning some yoga poses and stretches, swimming, preparing, eating and cleaning up food, dying hair, painting nails, one woman started loving on us by giving foot massages with lavender essential oil, learning about, trying out and buying the Mantis chair (see pic) and getting to know one another.
Lunch time
Making Flower Garlands for Headbands and starting on our tutus. At Training Camp, we knew that one day we would have Squad Wars and we’d need to be covered in our squad color of red. We put our heads together to come up with ideas to get everyone as red as possible. We made red tutus for everyone, red ribbon on bobby pins to put in our hair, about 10 flower garlands and all had matching shirts. We arrived at training camp in red and then brought everything back out on Friday night for Squad Wars. I made and wore a tutu for the first time ever:
Tutu making round 2 – we decided to make tutu aprons once we counted and found that we still needed 20 more! We took half of the tulle off each of the tutus we’d made the day before and made new ones.
Rice and Shine it’s World Race time – sign made to welcome people at the airport.
We have some many diverse people on our squad. Thankful for those who were willing to share a bit of their yoga knowledge with us. Stretching is a necessity when you sleep on the ground!
This chair became famous at Pre-Game and Training Camp! Rachel, seated, brought this for herself and was so gracious to share with everyone. I think before camp started on Saturday, 12 people had bought one because of hers. It will be helpful, when we are sitting on the ground for 11 months. It only weighs 1.4 pounds, packs up small and it uber comfortable!
Roxi was loving on us, by giving foot massages with lavender essential oil. She promised a good night’s rest. It was early afternoon when she was massaging us. One lady went and slept for 4.5 hours after her massage!
Overall, the three days of pre-gaming that we 18 ladies were able to spend together was invaluable. People on our squad had Zoomed (a free video conferencing tool,) Facebooked, e-mailed and some had met up but this time of so many together, face to face was a true blessing. There were three squads at training camp, and our squad because of these tools, was so much more united from the beginning.
I was definitely wondering about the tutus and headbands – not exactly functional but now I get it! Glad you all had such a great start!
…now I want a foot massage.
That chair is really neat! Details please, if I ever need one in the future. 🙂
And I TOTALLY understand about needing to keep the packing weight down! 🙂
Such a great post! I never thought to make a whole post just for pre-game. Then again, I wasn’t there all week. I also haven’t had the time to fully process Training Camp enough for a blog post, so pregame definitely hasn’t come through yet either! haha I’m sad Kristen and I missed those foot massages. Sad Day 🙁 But SO glad we got to join this epic slumber party, even for one day! Thanks Tina for sharing!
http://shop.alitedesigns.com/mayfly-chair.html
When you sit down in the Mayfly Chair, the first thing you notice is how comfortable it is! This low riding, convertible chair is a perfect hybrid of our Monarch and Mantis chair. Its removable front foot can be used to give the chair stability like the Mantis, or removed to give it the hillside rocking functionality of the Monarch. When you are ready to go, the Mayfly collapses down into a much smaller package than standard outdoor chairs, and can easily fit into your backpack or tote. It only weighs 1.6 lbs, so it’s extremely easy to carry around. The Mayfly chair is perfect for hanging around bonfires on the beach, music festivals, or simply spending an afternoon in the outdoors.