In the last week of camp I tend to get more sentimental, take more pictures, give more hugs, sing more songs loudly, and give way more piggy-back rides.
We celebrated the last awkward Wolf Shirt Wednesday. Oh how I will miss this t-shirt. While wearing it this week Rach and I had to go on an adventure across the Richard G. Marsh lake. As we were passing the blobs I wolf-howled off towards the Lookout and Whitetail. Would you believe a pack of wolves howled back? It's true, they did.
Before clinics everyday we've been playing a new game. I gather up some really fun kids and I give them a question to go ask a random counselor. Then they come back and tell me what the counselors said. It's so fun for the random counselors to get asked, so fun for the kids to meet all of these counselors and run around, and so fun for me to hear the answers as these bright faces keep coming back.
"What clinic do you wish you could teach? What is your favorite memory from a night on? Who do you wish you could be partners with for a day?"
"What is your favorite chapel song? What word comes to mind when you think of Arielle? What will you miss most about camp? What's the first thing you'll do when you go home?"
We played 50s gold rush on Wednesday.
Sock-hop music blared through main field and everyone was doing the twist and the hand jive as they brought honkers and gold bricks to Mt. Wood.
My kids have gotten creative. They don't mess around with ga-ga or carpetball this week. They're all about the tire game. You roll a tire and then sit on it. Genius. We need to invest in more tires.
This week Arielle and I keep telling our girls to, "live in the moment." We're trying to not worry about what's coming next but to focus on just having fun right now. Having fun when Mags carries around my backpack and acts like me. Having fun when Kaiya runs around dancing and laughing her head off.
Having fun when Oksana, Olivia, Conor, and Kaya make mountains on the volleyball court.
Molly and I took our girls on a traveling dance party invasion. They each had a buddy and we danced like crazy at six different destinations- the girls loved it.
My favorite parts of invasions are the conversations we get the pairs of new friends to have. We give them questions to answer together and teach them to have intentional conversation. It's the coolest thing to watch.
This week Arielle and I are both working on the friendship bead. We want to make sure we are loving our friends well in the last few days we have all living the dream together. These people are such important influences in my life.
In all of the little moments of talking with kids on the steps or asking them questions on the way to the lake or giving them a hug before bed, we're doing big things.
I was so excited to go on my first real Lake Invasion of the summer.
This small Brave girl army was totally into it with their tennis shoes, swimsuits, and face paint.
We pirated a squirrel and torch from Teton (both were later returned), ate their apples, spit from the suspension bridge, ran screaming around a game of Dominican Chaos, and yelled the Women of the River cheer over the lake. Success.
Remember that whole thing about taking more pictures in the last week? Yep. I felt nostalgic at our last lake time.
And then came Friday. The last day of camp. Everyone agreed, even Scott Brosman, the whole day was just kind of surreal.
I'm so thankful for these women that I've counseled alongside for the past 9 weeks.
These women that have become some of my best friends in the entire world.
So thankful for kids like Abbey that love with a wide open love.
I'm so thankful that I've been so blessed to spend my summers at camp. When we say we're living the dream we mean it. Summers here are my dream of how life should be lived with this focus on faith and friendship and growth.
The Braves spent the afternoon playing Banana Death March. They destroyed a banana through a series of events and then smeared it on the counselor's head of their choice.
I was so happy to turn around and see Kendall show up at pop stop.
Everyone broke out their jeans and white v-necks for 50s night. Grace and Arielle- such angsty greasers.
Our girls were so excited about their outfits for the night.
I love counselors' creativity when it comes to theme nights... cold war?
I'm thankful that Grace got to spend another week at camp working Res. I'm glad that Kelly Eaton stopped in to visit.
We enjoyed the hypnotizing jellyfish yo-yo spinning skills of Thomas.
Closing campfire started off with T-E-C-U-M-S-E-H. i.e. S is for salad bar line on ham night, silly Braves and sentimental Pathfinders, Shoshone and Seminole, saturn and shallow end at the lake, sagamore creed, sloppy joes and smiley fries, smiles at the place where the stars shine bright.
I don't know how I got so darn lucky but it has been the biggest blessing to be Arielle's partner for the summer and specifically for the past three weeks. She makes me a better counselor, a better friend, and a better person.
It was the last time for unit cheers, hip-hop and show choir performances, Toast and O-A-Day-Lay, and the whole staff singing "Tecumseh."
Saturday morning we hugged our campers good-bye for the last time. Then when all the camper bunks were empty the counselors packed up all of their stuff too.
It has been a great summer.
Dare I say my favorite yet?
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