Camp Gowonagain 2015 - A story by Chris

"How far I'll go"

From Disney's Moana

This is a little tale from before the blog started but we thought we should share it.

Camp Gowonagain is an event for any doll can take part in and have fun, organized by MyLittleMegara every year. A link to the first camp (first day)

The Camp started on Monday, July 6, 2015 and ended on FridayJuly 10, 2015

So Meritre decided a while ago that this Camp Gowonagain would be fun and asked us if we wanted to take part. All four of us – Arie, Rosie, Annis and I – were overjoyed. A real adventure out in the world! We had to fill a form which was a lot of fun but the question about our age was tricky. How old are we actually?

’At least 15 months old’ thought Arabella. ’But I’m not sure how long we’ve been at the store.’

’15 months? But that’s still a baby and we are not babies!’ argued Rosie.

’How old are the characters we are made after?’ asked Annis.

’Ariel is 26, Jasmine is 23, Rapunzel is 5 and Merida is 3’

’No you are totally wrong, Ariel’s 16, she mentions it herself in the film!’

’Jasmine is said to be 15, almost 16 and Rapunzel is celebrating her eighteenth birthday. Oh and Merida is also in the 16 years old group.’

‘But Rapunzel was created 5 years ago so she is 5!’

They discussed it for a while and were as noisy as possible for even Meritre noticed it and asked what we were quarelling about. When we explained, she thought for a little while and said that we all should give 18 as our age.

’It’s not that important you know. You go to that camp to have fun.’

I guess she was right about that. We started to prepare. Annis got a new dress since Meritre thought she can’t go camping in that ballgown she came in. Everyone packed their stuff and precisely on the 6^th July, we started. Meritre choose a nice, sunny spot for us. We let her decide where we shppuld camp since she knows the garden better than any of us.

 Arabella of course had to complain.

‘Do I have to carry those bags? They are so heavy!’

‘This is it, we are there’ I said, not really paing attention to what she was saying.

Rosemary came a bit closer.

‘It looks fine. I like it’ she commented.

Then Annis arrived, too, carrying a huge black backpack.

‘So this is it. We are going to find lots of flowersbecause it is not at all windy and quite sunny. Perfect for camping.’

Arabella had already thrown herself on the ground and stretching out her limbs.

‘The sunshine is so pleasant.’

Of course, I thought, Jasmine comes from a warm country so no wonder Arabella likes the sun. In my opinion, it was quite hot. Tired from the journey we all fall asleep quickly.

The plan for the next day was to do some crafts, anything we liked. 

Annis, practical as always, tried to make a little hut, where we would be protected from the sun. It kept falling apart so in the end we had no hideout. Arabella collected some flowers to make a flowercrown.

‘Arent they beautiful?’ she asked.

Rosemary found something else to protect her fom the sun.

‘Look, these flowers are like hats! I’ll get everybody one so they won’t get sunstruck!’ And with that, she was off to find more big, hatlike flowers. This seemed indeed a good idea if one planned to stay outside all day, like I did. I put on the flowerhat she gave me and started my adventures. Climbing trees, exploring the yard, watch the cats come and go, listen to the birds singing, it was quite an eventful day. I went back to the camp, expecting to find a nice dinner. But everybody was still busy with their own crafts, Rosemary dropped off to sleep with the hat on her face.

‘Looks like it’s my turn to craft something, preferably dinner. But I can only make an omlett.’

‘That’s fine with us. Let’s go find some eggs!’ Annis answered.

I was the lucky one to find some eggs first.

‘Now, we need a campfire.’

‘’Here is the wood I collected for the hut’ said Annis and broght all the wood she put aside. Then she went away to find more since she knew that inexperienced campers will need more firewood than necessary.

It wasn’t as easy as I had thought it would be but the four of us working together, we managed to cook a decent dinner.

‘Hmm, Chris you are a fine cook. You are hired for the whole week!’ said Rosie after we ate.

‘Fine, you’ll have omlett all week’ I gave back.

Nothing helps getting sleepy as a good meal and a cup of tee we prepared with a little help from Meritre. We all slept without stirring until next morning. Another fine day I thought and went off looking for adventures again. It was quite hot so I returned quite early. But what did I find! Everybody seemed to be sad and lonely.

Arabella found an arabian-looking pot and was staring at it.

‘What’s wrong, Arie?’

‘Huh? You are already back, Chris? It’s nothing just… I was thinking… you see, I found this vase today that reminded me of Agrabah from Aladdin. And I just thought that I’ll never, NEVER get to see it…’

That was indeed a sad thought.

‘Uhm… How about we bake some cookies?’

‘That’s very kind of you, but I would like to be alone just for a little longer.’

Well, I respected her wish and went off to find the others. Turned out they were kinda homesick too. Rosemary at least. Usually she is the one to make everybody smile but sometimes she remembers that friend of hers from the factory. She wanted to go back home and help Meritre look for that friend or at least write something down, she felt like she was going to burst if she can’t do something about it. Poor Rosie.

Annis was trying to comfort her and I left them, too. Annis was better at this then me. They’ll be all right. The best thing I could do to make all of us feel better is to bake some cupcakes or something similar.

And I was right, they all loved them!

‘What do you plan to do tomorrow?’ Arabella asked.

‘It’s likely it’ll be another hot day so… I’m not sure. I wish I could use the cool night hours.’

‘’That’s it!’ Annis squeaked ‘Let’s do that! How abut some star gazing tonight? Who’s coming?’

Everybody of course.

We spent a lovel night looking for shooting stars.

I spotted an especially bright star but that wasn’t actually a star but an aeroplane.

We had so much fun together exploring, talking things over and strengthening our friendship.

Then the last day came and we had to leave the camp. Arabella of course started again.

‘Do I have to carry thos heavy bags again?’she asked.

‘Mine is just as heavy as yours’ Annis said.

Rosemary didn’t say anything but she turned away rather quickly. But not quickly enough. I saw something shiny on her face. She was actually sad to go.

‘Don’t be sad, we’ll come again next year.’ She smiled.

‘And we will bring Pihilppa and Hazel, too?’

‘But of course!’

The four of us walked happily home.

I turned back before going and waved the place goodbye.

‘Goodbye, Camp Gowonagain! We’ll come back, I promise! And with new friends, too’

(Now I can add that we did keep our promise, we returned next year and brought along Phil and Hazel. But perhaps not like you imagined it. Look out for more of our camping adventures!)