June 4, 2024
5 AM Update: Internet issues resolved! Uploaded about 2,000 photos, looking forward to a great day! Thank you for your continued patience!
Most of us love the first day of a long-anticipated vacation. We awake a bit confused by the new setting but as soon as our thoughts clear we realize that we are finally where we have dreamed of being for a long time. We joyfully hop out of bed, eager to start the day. Everything just seems better that first day…and that is what camp feels like today: the start of a great vacation!
All of the details are coming together and make us anticipate the days to come. We love the food (fresh baked bread and spaghetti last night, ham and apples with homemade biscuits this morning, the salad bar is HUGE with a wide range of interesting choices). Each meal is a delight! We love the weather (even the light rain that fell while we were running around camp yesterday was delightfully refrehing). We love our new friends (we now know our cabinmates pretty well and are getting to know the girls who will sit at our table for the next week… everyone is so friendly!). And we love our activity schedules.
Today we will take our first TTS classes, tomorrow we will do the MWF schedule… this allows us to take up to 14 activities! Amazing!!! A lot of time we find we want to change our schedule in this first week (to get in a class with a friend or take an activity that really looked fun when we saw what actually happened in that class. By the end of the week we will be settled with the perfect schedule. So much fun.
If you had seen camp in action yesterday you would most likely notice how much delight the girls show while playing at camp. Campers and counselors spent all yesterday afternoon doing simple things like slip n’ sliding on a plastic sheet, playing ga-ga (Jimball) and tetherball, swinging on swings, rolling down the pagent court, stomping in puddles, dancing in the rain, and standing in the creek. Nothing sophisticated or fancy… just having fun! This is what we do at camp. Our entertainment is up to us! We talk, play, dance, sing… then walk to a new location and do the same thing all over again. Day after day… it never gets old.
A Hollywood show might cost millions of dollars to make but often can’t hold our attention for 5 minutes. At camp, we sit on the ground in front of an open air stage and watch silly skits put on by the counselors or our fellow campers. An hour feels like ten minutes as we cheer each and every act. The skits are not slick, but they are awesome! Such simple fun resonates with camper and counselor alike.
Nobody gets bored at camp. Why is something so simple so satisfying?
Because playing is fun… making friends is fun… being outside is fun. We play in the rain, delight in the breeze, bask in the hot sun, and “glisten” in the high humidity. Just playing outside, we find moments of delight and inspiration in the imperfect goodness of this world. Campers and counselors alike celebrate feel this way.
This is the magic of camp. A community of great people with great attitudes hanging out with each other. We LOVE the impact that good people have on each other. It is so good, and while some girls are already deeply in the groove and connected, others need a little time to adjust to their new circumstances.
Skies are partly cloudy which keeps the temperatures comfortable (perfect for active schedules). There is a chance of afternoon showers (we are in a very rainy part of the country and this means we always have a chance of afternoon showers).
Breakfast Ham & Apples with biscuits, cereal, big fruit oatmeal and yogurt bar. Breakfast Joke Cat Scan
Lunch: BLT’s (yes, we use homemade bread… still warm… thick bacon) and big salad bar.
Dinner: Poppyseed Chicken, roasted veggies, big salad bar.
EP will be the Tentalow Lip Syncs… the magic of the stage on these girls is amazing! They absolutely LOVE it.
Thank you for checking in!