Our First Day

Beginnings… don’t you just love them?

The expectations are high, there is a little nervousness about the unknown, our senses are keyed up to experience the day fully… this is a great way to live life!

Our first full day of classes will be a hot one, high of 92 degrees is forecasted… yikes! The good news is that humidity is low, so it won’t feel as hot. Oh yes— and this is camp! Camp is perfect in warm weather, we thrive in it and love it dearly. A cold day at camp is FAR less fun than a hot one… about half of our program is in the water (Lake Summit is amazing, our pool complex is amazing) some girls never even leave the water! This will be a day to celebrate the water activities, we will also get the “Mister” running on the road for a quick cool down between classes.

We began with Fried Ham/Fried Apples/Biscuits/Grits/Cereal/Fruit breakfast. The biscuits are home made from scratch (Gervais gets up at 5:00 AM to get them done in time). Most of our food is very simple and very good… because it is quite literally home made. Bread items are always the crowd pleasers (admit it; the scones are to die for), but everything is really great. Even the side items are remarkable! I dread the end of camp for the fact that I will no longer have the salad bar to graze upon at meal time!

Then comes Breakfast Club… once the tables are cleared (we sing songs while we clear the tables) the windows to the dish room close and I am given 5 minutes of spotlight. We are teaching the girls how to grow every day… this is how we have a GREAT DAY, we grow! Today and tomorrow we look at Social Growth: Today I encourage the girls to meet a new person every day… I encourage you to do the same thing. Just talking to someone you don’t know opens up doors of growth that you can not imagine. This is a wonderful thing to do. It is easy! It is fun.

Morning Assembly is run by my mother, who teaches her Bible Class on Angels. A part of the time is spent memorizing the 23rd Psalm (everyone will know it by the end of the session). Then we are off to classes.

I will get out and take pictures today, focusing on water activities I think… Waterpark, Swimming, Diving, Canoeing, Kayaking, and Sailing. I will get about 500 pictures, not all will be good but some will be great! Here is my suggestion on dealing with the massive amount of pictures we upload: keep up!

*Set your preferences to 48 thumbnails a page.
*Scan all images, not opening any but marking “favorites” as you go.
*Return to favorites and look at them more slowly…

In this way you can knock out about 1000 photo’s in 15 minutes (with high speed internet). If you keep up, it isn’t bad… get behind, just forget that day!

We know that it is a pain to “pay” for High Res downloads… we would make this free if we could, but it is not an option with our current software. We hope to be able to roll out a new service that allows you to “tag” faces next year and to offer high res downloads for free. Just so you know: we are not satisfied but we do work hard to give you good photographs!

I shoot with professional equipment (Nikon D3s, a variety of nice lenses), our counselors shoot with Nikon SLR digital camera’s with good lenses (mine cost 10 times more), and we hired a part time Professional Photographer (Julie Mallett Photography ) to come out from time to time and capture an “outsiders” perspective. We spend a lot of money on photography at camp, because we think it is worth it. You might get some of your favorite pictures of your girls in the next couple of weeks… if it happens, we will be so happy!

Tonight’s EP is the Tentalow Lip Synch… Tentalows 1-12 will get on the stage and do a little dance number to a song that they picked out. The magic of the stage is profound. The bright lights, the big sound system, the roar of the crowd… nervous jitters before the act, joyous relief after… smiles are everywhere evident. It is good medicine.

Thank you for checking in. We are doing great and making the most of every happy minute we have.

Email, write, pray!

Jimboy

PS As we let out of our EP tonight, the sky was amazing. Brilliant Pink turning to purple turning to dark blue… with a cressent moon low in the western sky. Fireflies rising from the grass into the surrounding pine trees… it was lovely. Girls in tight groups walking back to their cabins, sounds of laughter and joy. Love it!