Late Monday night we had some surprises visitors. The girls of Seminole snuck into Choctaw to crash on our floor for the night and catch us off guard when we woke up in the morning. I remember doing this exact thing to my sister's cabin when she was a CILT counselor-- I love random, fun, creative things like this that create special memories for campers.
I declared Tuesday as "Wear As Many Colors As You Can" Day. Jamie and Sar were twins without planning it. Riley, one of my old campers, is here this week and I love seeing her smile every day this week.
I love having people from my home team around all the time. Molly is one of my best friends and one of the people I hang out with most back in Indy, she's always my sidekick for adventures. Mags knows me better than most people and is so good at consistently showing up in my life even when hours apart. Arielle has been like my sister my whole life and here at camp she is my rock most days and the person I laugh with and talk with and pray with.
Tuesday was our last day to shadow Day Camp for the summer. I got to watch more CILTs jump in with trail groups and try out this other side of camp.
I got to see counselors like Alli Kenney who are such professionals with these little kids and CILTs like Megan that jump right in to give it their all for the day.
This Day Camp staff is so strong, the best I've ever seen at Camp T. I wish I could come work a week with all of them. I hope that many of the second years will move over to Resident Camp next summer and that I'll get a chance to work with them.
I love the creativity and energy they bring; even just getting their kids to really believe they are ninjas.
One of my favorite parts of the whole day was watching Annie and Mags be counselors together. They are great friends but that doesn't detract or distract from what they do here. Actually I think that working together makes them counsel better because of how they feed off of each other's excitement and positive example.
These girls rock. I would want either of them as counselors for sure if I was seven years old.
I love that we treat transitions like an activity at camp. We're holding hands, we're asking questions, we're singing songs, we're running to the next spot. Everything is fun here.
On Day Camp days I'm hesitant to not step on the toes of Day Camp counselors or CILTs but during swim time it's easy to just find one of the hundred kids in the pool to play with. My favorite thing during these swim times is to find a beginning swimmer that's sitting on the edge and help them to get in the water and swim with me. Sometimes we get them practicing their stroke and getting their face in the water by the time the whistle blows to get out.
Peanut and Amy and so many others were doing an awesome job playing with all of the Day Camp kids.
By the end of the day our energy was spent but we had gained new friends. CILTs had made connections with the kids in their trail groups and Coll became best friends with Cameron, a boy she had met at the Black Hole.
That night the CILTs went on RFAJWD. Yep.
Oh, and Arielle is really strong.
There is something so special about the sky at camp-- the clouds over Main Field during the day, the sunsets over the horse pasture and the bright stars every night. I love this place.
Wednesday's outfit theme was a given. Hey Wolf Shirt Wednesday Hey.
Then the CILTs did the Sherpa Walk. They really did an awesome job of applying what they've learned about communication to this activity and I was impressed with how they worked together.
My voice is almost gone and the volume goes in waves, I tried to speak as little as possible all morning which was not to difficult since we were mostly observing. It's funny to see how some kids react to being blind-folded, many of them start dancing or spinning in place, others start singing camp songs, but it's always entertaining.
I've loved having Emily Dignan, in the wolf shirt, here for the past two weeks and am so thankful I finally got to be here counselor. I'm thrilled that Carolyn is here this week, she's been one of my favorite kids since back when we passed hair clip notes when she was eight. This week whenever I hear, "HI SARAH!" I know that she is close by.
I was in Lafayette on my night off about to come back to camp when the most glorious thing happened. It started to rain. I've never been happier to have it start down-pouring, hopefully some of the rain will make it to camp.
When I got back to camp I ended up going to a devotion with 28 of the Day Camp counselors that are working this week. It was initiated and led by a couple of the second-year staff. As I sat there in the circle with all of them I felt so proud of the people they've become and the culture of faith they've created and maintained. I love that this part of camp is so important to them and that they want to grow together and encourage one another to grow closer to God.
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